PowerProtect Data Manager 19.16 Virtual Machine User Guide

Add a VMware vCenter server as an asset source

Perform the following steps to add a vCenter server as an asset source in the PowerProtect Data Manager UI for virtual machine protection and Tanzu Kubernetes guest cluster protection.

1. From the left navigation pane, select Infrastructure > Asset Sources.
   The Asset Sources window appears.
2. Select the vCenter tab.
3. Click Add.
   The Add vCenter dialog displays.
4. Specify the source attributes:
   1. In the Name field, specify the vCenter server name.
   2. In the FQDN/IP field, specify the fully qualified domain name (FQDN) or the IP address.
      NOTE:For a vCenter server, it is recommended that you use the FQDN instead of the IP address.
   3. In the Port field, specify the port for communication if you are not using the default port, 443.
5. Under Host Credentials, choose an existing entry from the list to use for the vCenter user credentials. Alternatively, you can click Add Credentials from this list to add new credentials. Ensure that you specify the credentials for a user whose role is defined at the vCenter level as opposed to a lower-level container object in the vSphere object hierarchy.
   NOTE:The Verify User button is disabled until you verify the certificate in this step.
6. Optionally, to make a subset of the PowerProtect Data Manager UI functionality available within the vSphere Client, select vSphere Plugin.
   Available functionality includes:

   • The monitoring of active virtual machine or virtual machine disk (VMDK) protection policies, and
   • Restore options such as Restore to Original, Restore to New, and Instant Access.

   NOTE:You can unregister the vSphere plug-in at any time by clearing vSphere Plugin.
7. By default, the vCenter discovery occurs automatically after adding the vCenter server, and subsequent discoveries are incremental. If you want to schedule a full discovery at a certain time every day, move the Schedule Discovery slider to the right, and then specify a time.
8. If there is no hosting vCenter server and you want to make this vCenter server the PowerProtect Data Manager host, select Add as hosting vCenter. If a vCenter server has already been added as the hosting vCenter server, this option is disabled.
   The PowerProtect Data Manager Administrator Guide provides more information about adding a host vCenter server and specifying the PowerProtect Data Manager host.
9. If the vCenter server SSL certificate cannot be trusted automatically, a dialog box appears requesting certificate approval. Review the certificate, and then click Verify.
   Upon verification of the certificate, the Verify User button next to the Host Credentials becomes enabled.
10. Click Verify User to verify that this user has the minimum required vCenter user account privileges.
    • If the user has sufficient privileges, a message displays indicating that the check completed successfully, and no further action is required.
    • If the check determines that the user does not have all the required privileges, a dialog displays with the additional privileges that are required. Add the listed privileges to this user within the vSphere Client, or select another user from the Host Credentials list.
    • If a privilege check failure occurs because the vmdm service is unavailable or there is a network connectivity issue, an error message displays with information about how to resolve the issue. Fix the issue, and then retry Verify User.
11. Click Save.
    NOTE:Once you save after verifying a user, the Save button is greyed out.
    The vCenter server information that you entered now appears as an entry in a table on the Asset Sources window. Click next to the entry to view more details, such as the next scheduled discovery, the number of vCenter assets, and whether the vSphere Plugin is enabled.
    NOTE:Although PowerProtect Data Manager automatically synchronizes with the vCenter server under most circumstances, certain conditions might require you to initiate a manual discovery.
    After a discovery, PowerProtect Data Manager starts an incremental discovery in the background periodically to keep updating PowerProtect Data Manager with vCenter changes. You can always do an on-demand discovery.

    NOTE:When you add a host with existing virtual machines to PowerProtect Data Manager, or read a host with virtual machines that was removed from one vCenter and added to another, an incremental discovery does not discover these virtual machine assets. Wait for the next scheduled full discovery, or initiate a discovery within the PowerProtect Data Manager UI.
12. Optionally, you can set warning and failure thresholds for the available space on the datastore. Setting these thresholds enables you to check if enough storage space is available in the datastore to save the snapshot of the virtual machine during the backup process. The backup completes with a warning in the logs if the available free space in the datastore is less than or equal to the percentage indicated in the Datastore Free Space Warning Threshold. The backup fails if the available free space in the datastore is less than or equal to the percentage indicated in the Datastore Free Space Failure Threshold. To add Datastore Free Space Warning and Failure Thresholds:
    1. Click to the right of the search box to open the vCenter Settings dialog.
    2. Type a percentage value to indicate when a warning message should display due to low datastore free space.
    3. Type a percentage value to indicate when a virtual machine backup failure should occur due to low datastore free space.
    4. Click Save.
    NOTE:Datastore free space thresholds are disabled by default.
13. Select Infrastructure > Assets.
    The Assets window appears.
14. If not already selected, click the Virtual Machine tab.