Advanced Backup

You can use the Advanced Backup add-on product to take backups of your virtual machines. (These backups are also known as a snapshot.) In the event of data loss, you can use these snapshots to restore your virtual machine to a previous state. These snapshots will be stored with Armor, based on the retention configurations you create in the backup policy.

At a high level, to use Advanced Backup, you must:

• Create a backup policy

• (Optional) Download and install the Rubrik agent

  • To restore specific files or folders, you must download and install the agent.

• Assign a policy to a virtual machine or fileset configuration

Armor offers two types of backups:

Access the Advanced Backup screen

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

Overview

Overview

Self-service Advanced Backup usage reporting is available for each account within the Armor Management Portal (AMP). Displayed on the Overview tab, customers can leverage reporting for the following use cases:

1. Confirming the impact on total usage when editing their policies or adding/removing VM or Fileset Protection

2. Staying appraised of daily usage as a means for validating your configurations and invoicing (e.g. "Am I backing up the amount I expect?")

Open

The reports can be filtered and modified, allowing customers to:

• See an overview of your Advanced Backup usage, expressed as storage used across a period of time.

• Switch views between one of three pre-defined slices of time: 7, 14 or 30 days back from the current date. The default is to show the most-recent 30 days; to change this, click any of the time-span buttons at the top-right of the report area

• Filter the reports, in order to focus on any combination of specific virtual machines or protection types (Fileset and/or VM). The default is to show usage for all machines protects within the selected timespan (including machines that may not be currently under protection). To change your filter, click the "funnel" icon to open an aside, then select/deselect VMs as desired.

Add Advanced Backup for virtual machine restoration

You can use these instructions to create and store snapshots of your virtual machine.

To enable backup on your virtual machine, you must:

• Create a policy

• (Optional) Download and install the Rubrik agent

• Assign a policy to a virtual machine

Restore a virtual machine from a virtual machine snapshot

If your virtual machine is running in a corrupt state, or if you notice data loss, then you may choose to restore that virtual machine to one of your retained backups.

1. In the Armor Management Portal, in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. In VM Protection, locate and hover over the desired virtual machine.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Refresh Available Backups.
   
   

   • This action ensures that AMP lists the latest retained backup.

6. Hover over the desired virtual machine again, and then click the vertical ellipses.

7. Click Restore from Backup.

8. Locate the desired snapshot, and then click the corresponding vertical ellipses.

9. Click Restore

10. Click Restore again.

    • Once the restoration has started, you will not be able to rollback your virtual machine.

    • If you are not satisfied with the selected snapshot, you can select a different snapshot in a later step.

    • Once the restoration is complete, the Status column for the corresponding virtual machine will display Pending Commit.

      • During a Pending Commit status, the virtual machine will operate in a transitional storage environment. The virtual machine is fully operational; however, during this time, storage performance may not run in an optimal state.

11. Hover over the desired virtual machine, and then click the vertical ellipses.

12. Click Commit to Snapshot.

    • This action will cause your data to move from the transitional storage environment to the production storage environment where storage performance will return to the appropriate storage tier. At this point, the status will display as Restore Successful.

    • Storage performance will be impacted during this commit process, so you may want to perform this step at a time during periods of low anticipated traffic.

    • You can still make changes to your environment before and after you click Confirm Snapshots. Rubrik will create a separate file (or files) to accommodate any changes made during the final restoration process.

    • In the event that you do not commit, the virtual machine will be auto-committed after 72 hours.

    • If you want to select a different snapshot, from the vertical ellipses, select Choose Different Snapshot.

13. Click OK.

14. In the VM Protection section, review the Status column to view the status of your restoration.

    • Additionally, you can access the Restore Logs section to view the progression of a restoration.

Restore a fileset from a virtual machine snapshot

You can use these instructions to restore a fileset from a virtual machine snapshot.

1. In the Armor Management Portal, in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. In VM Protection, locate and hover over the desired virtual machine.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Register Rubrik Agent.

6. Review the Agent Status column to display Installed.

7. Click the vertical ellipses, and then select Refresh From Available Backups.

8. Click the vertical ellipses, and then select Restore From Backup.

9. Locate the desired snapshot, and then click the vertical ellipses

10. Click Browse.

11. Navigate to the specific file or folder to restore.

    • You can also navigate to a high-level folder.

12. Hover over, and then click the vertical ellipses.

13. Click Restore.

14. There are two types of restorations.

    • Option 1: Mark Overwrite Original to replace your existing files with the restored files.

    • Option 2: Mark Restore to Separate Folder to place the restored files in a separate location. This option will not replace your existing files. You can use this option to verify specific files before you remove the original files.

      • In Folder Name, enter a valid file path to place the restored files.

15. Click Restore.

16. To review the status of the restoration, in the top menu, click Restore Logs.

Add Advanced Backup for fileset restoration

You can use these instructions to retain snapshots of specific files, and not of your entire virtual machine.

Restore a fileset from a fileset snapshot

1. In the Armor Management Portal, in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. In Fileset Protection, locate and hover over the desired fileset.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Restore from Backup.

6. Locate and hover over the desired snapshot.

7. Click the vertical ellipses, and then click Browse.

8. Navigate to the specific file or folder to restore.

   • You can also navigate to a high-level folder.

9. Hover over, and then click the vertical ellipses.

10. Click Restore.

11. There are two types of restorations.

    • Option 1: Mark Overwrite Original to replace your existing files with the restored files.

    • Option 2: Mark Restore to Separate Folder to place the restored files in a separate location. This option will not replace your existing files. You can use this option to verify specific files before you remove the original files.

      • In Folder Name, enter a valid file path to place the restored files.

12. (Optional) Slide Continue on restore errors to avoid a possible interruption or cancelation of the restoration.

    • If you activate this option, then in the event a file cannot be restored, the system will continue to try to restore all other selected files.

    • If you do not activate this option, then in the event a file cannot be restored, the system will not attempt to restore additional files. Files that were previously restored will remain.

13. Click Restore.

14. To review the status of the restoration, in the top menu, click Restore Logs.

Edit an existing policy

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. Click Policies.

4. Locate and hover over the desired policy.

5. Click the vertical ellipses.

6. Click Edit.

7. Make your desired changes, and then click Update Policy.

Replace an existing policy for a virtual machine

You can use these instructions to replace one existing policy with another existing policy for a virtual machine.

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. In VM Protection, locate and hover over the desired virtual machine.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Assign New Policy.

6. Under Policy, select an existing policy to use.

7. Click Update Policy.

   • Policy changes will not affect existing backups unless the Retention rate is decreased. In this case, older snapshots will be removed in accordance with the updated policy. For example, if you lower the retention rate from 14 days to 10 days, then backups older than 10 days will be removed.

Delete a policy

You cannot delete a policy that is assigned to a virtual machine. As a result, you must first unassign a policy from a virtual machine.

Step 1: Unassign a policy

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. In VM Protection, locate and hover over the desired virtual machine.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Assign New Policy.

6. Under Policy, select an existing policy to use.

7. Click Update Policy.

Step 2: Delete an unassigned policy

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. Click Policies.

4. Locate and hover over the desired policy.

5. Click the vertical ellipses.

6. Click Delete.

7. Click OK.

Remove Advanced Backup from a virtual machine

You can use these instructions to remove the Advanced Backup add-on product from a virtual machine.

When you remove Advanced Backup:

• A snapshot will no longer be taken of the virtual machine.

• Snapshots of the virtual machine will no longer be available.

1. In the Armor Management Portal (AMP), in the left-side navigation, click Infrastructure.

2. Click Advanced Backup.

3. Locate and hover over the desired virtual machine.

4. Click the vertical ellipses.

5. Click Remove from Backup.

6. Click OK.

Related Documentation

Topics Discussed