Skip to main content
  • Place orders quickly and easily
  • View orders and track your shipping status
  • Enjoy members-only rewards and discounts
  • Create and access a list of your products

PowerProtect Data Manager 19.15 Kubernetes User Guide

Additional VM Direct actions

The following tasks provide information about more actions to manage the VM Direct Engine.

For additional VM Direct actions such as enabling, disabling, redeploying, or deleting the VM Direct Engine, or changing the network configuration, use the Protection Engines window in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.

To throttle the capacity of a VM Direct Engine, use a command-line tool on PowerProtect Data Manager.

To obtain external VM Direct Engine credentials, see the procedure in the PowerProtect Data Manager Security Configuration Guide.

Disable a VM Direct Engine

You can disable an added VM Direct Engine that you do not currently require for virtual machine backup and recovery. To disable a VM Direct Engine:

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine that you want to disable from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. In the far right of the VM Direct Engines pane, click the three vertical dots.
  3. From the menu, select Disable.
NOTE: A disabled VM Direct Engine is not used for any new protection activities, and is not automatically updated during a PowerProtect Data Manager update.

Delete a VM Direct Engine

When you disable a VM Direct Engine, the Delete button is enabled. If you no longer require the VM Direct Engine, perform the following steps to delete the engine:

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine that you want to remove from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. In the far right of the VM Direct Engines pane, click the three vertical dots.
  3. From the menu, select Disable.
  4. Click Delete.

Enable a disabled VM Direct Engine

When you want to make a disabled VM Direct Engine available again for running new protection activities, perform the following steps to re-enable the VM Direct Engine.

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine that you want to re-enable from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. In the far right of the VM Direct Engines pane, click the three vertical dots.
  3. From the menu, select Enable.
NOTE:If a PowerProtect Data Manager version update occurred while the VM Direct Engine was disabled, a manual redeployment of the VM Direct Engine is also required.

Redeploy a VM Direct Engine

Redeployment of the VM Direct Engine is required in the following circumstances:

  • If you change the PowerProtect Data Manager hostname or IP.
  • If a PowerProtect Data Manager software update occurred while a VM Direct Engine was disabled.
  • If an automatic update of the VM Direct Engine did not occur due to network inaccessibility or an environment error.

The Redeploy option enables you to manually update the VM Direct Engine to the version currently in use with the PowerProtect Data Manager software. Perform the following steps to manually redeploy the VM Direct Engine.

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine that you want to redeploy from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. In the far right of the VM Direct Engines pane, click the three vertical dots.
  3. If the VM Direct Engine is not yet enabled, select Enable from the menu.
  4. When the VM Direct Engine is enabled, select Redeploy from the menu.

    The VM Direct Engine is redeployed with its previous configuration details.

Update the DNS or gateway during redeployment

Optionally, if you want to update the VM Direct Engine DNS or gateway during the VM Direct Engine redeployment, you can use one of the following commands:

  • To update both the gateway and DNS, run ./vproxymgmt redeploy -vproxy_id VM Direct Engine ID -updateDns DNS IP address -updateGateway Gateway IP4 address
  • To update the gateway only, run ./vproxymgmt redeploy -vproxy_id VM Direct Engine ID -updateGateway Gateway IP address
  • To update DNS only, run ./vproxymgmt redeploy -vproxy_id VM Direct Engine ID -updateDns DNS IP address

Edit the vCenter server for a VM Direct Engine configuration

If a VM Direct Engine configuration is unsuccessful, you can change the vCenter server selection.

Perform the following steps to change the vCenter server:

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. Click Edit. The Edit Protection Engine wizard displays.
  3. On the Protection Engine Configuration page, select a vCenter server from the list. Make sure that the selected vCenter is running the ESXi host for this VM Direct Engine.
  4. Click Next until you reach the Summary page.
  5. On the Summary page, verify the new selection, and then click Finish.

Edit the Capacity setting for a VM Direct Engine

After adding the VM Direct Engine, you can change the percentage of the protection engine capacity that will be used. For example, you might want to change the Capacity setting to a lower value to avoid network bandwidth issues.

Perform the following steps to change the maximum percentage of the VM Direct Engine that will be used:

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. Click Edit. The Edit Protection Engine wizard displays.
  3. On the Protection Engine Configuration page, type a maximum percentage value for Capacity.
  4. Click Next until you reach the Summary page.
  5. On the Summary page, verify the new value, and then click Finish.

Edit the network configuration for a VM Direct Engine

The PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator Guide provides more information about virtual networks.

For example, if VM Direct Engine deployment failed because of a virtual network configuration problem, you can update the configuration to add additional IP addresses to the static IP pool. You can also add the VM Direct Engine to a virtual network in the same VGT port group.

Perform the following steps to change the network configuration:

  1. On the Protection Engines window, select the VM Direct Engine from the table in the VM Direct Engines pane.
  2. Click Edit. The Edit Protection Engine wizard displays.
  3. Click Next to navigate to the Networks Configuration page.
  4. Virtual networks with a warning symbol (Caution) beside the network name require attention and review. For example, if you changed the network configuration, the configured traffic types may not support VM Direct Engines. Clear any interfaces which no longer apply to the VM Direct Engine.

    Select the row that corresponds to the virtual network with the configuration error, or the virtual network to which you want to add the VM Direct Engine.

  5. Type an available static IP address or IP address range in the Additional IP Addresses column.
  6. Click Next.
  7. On the Summary page, verify the network settings, and then click Finish.

To change other network configuration settings, delete the VM Direct Engine and then deploy a new VM Direct Engine.

Throttle the capacity of a VM Direct Engine

In performance-limited environments, you can use a command-line tool on PowerProtect Data Manager to reduce the maximum capacity of a VM Direct Engine.

  • The default value for VM Configured Capacity Units of an external VM Direct Engine is 80. The minimum value is 4.
  • A VM Direct Engine can backup one disk with 4 units of capacity at a time.

Perform these steps to throttle the capacity of a VM Direct Engine:

  1. Connect to the PowerProtect Data Manager console and change to the root user.
  2. Type: source /opt/emc/vmdirect/unit/vmdirect.env
  3. To view the list of every VM Direct Engine and its ID, type: /opt/emc/vmdirect/bin/vproxymgmt get -list
  4. To change the capacity of a VM Direct Engine, type (once per engine): /opt/emc/vmdirect/bin/vproxymgmt modify -vproxy_id [VProxy ID] -capacity [percentage]
  5. To verify the change in VM Configured Capacity Units, type: /opt/emc/vmdirect/bin/vproxymgmt get -list

Rate this content

Accurate
Useful
Easy to understand
Was this article helpful?
0/3000 characters
  Please provide ratings (1-5 stars).
  Please provide ratings (1-5 stars).
  Please provide ratings (1-5 stars).
  Please select whether the article was helpful or not.
  Comments cannot contain these special characters: <>()\