Vmtagdatamover

Use the vmtagdatamover option to enable tagging support in the backup-archive client (data mover). When this option is enabled, the client manages backups of virtual machines in VMware inventory objects according to the data protection tags that are set by the IBM Spectrum Protect™ extension of the vSphere Web Client, or set with tools such as VMware vSphere PowerCLI Version 5.5 R2 or later.

VMware operations are available only if the client operates as a data mover for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware.

For more information about data protection tags, see Data protection tagging overview.

The data mover processes data protection tags when the vmtagdatamover option is set to yes. Ensure that the following requirements are met.

Requirements:

For the data mover:

VMware vCenter Server must be at Version 6.0 Update 1 or later.

Extra permissions are required for the account that is used for backup or restore operations. These new vCenter permissions are required to perform category and tagging operations. Ensure that the following user permissions are set on the root vCenter Server:

Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Assign or Unassign vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Create vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Create vSphere Tag Category
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Delete vSphere Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Delete vSphere Tag Category
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Modify UsedBy Field For Tag
Inventory Service > vSphere Tagging > Modify UsedBy Field For Category

For more information about setting vCenter permissions for backup and restore operations, see technote 7047438.

In order for the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI to function correctly with tagging support, ensure that the following requirements are met during the installation of the GUI:
- At least one data mover and the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI must be installed on the same server. This data mover node must be configured so that the vCenter server credentials are saved. You can save the credentials by running the configuration wizard to save the data mover node password, or by using the dsmc set password command in the data mover command line.
  If you use other data movers, running on virtual machines or physical machines as additional data movers, you can install them on other servers. For tagging support, all these data movers must also be configured with the vmtagdatamover=yes option. These additional data movers do not require the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI to be installed on the same server in order for them to work correctly as tag-based data movers.
- For Linux data movers, ensure that you specify the data mover installation directory and the Java™ shared library libjvm.so in the LD_LIBRARY_PATH environment variable. The path to libjvm.so is used for tagging support when you enable the vmtagdatamover option on the data mover. For instructions, see Setting up the data mover nodes in a vSphere environment.
- On Linux operating systems, the Data Protection for VMware vSphere GUI must be installed by using the default user name (tdpvmware).
- On Linux data mover nodes, the default password file (/etc/adsm/TSM.PWD) must be used.

Supported clients

Linux operating systems This option can be used with supported x86_64 Linux clients.

Windows operating systems This option can be used with supported Windows 64-bit clients.

Options file

Linux operating systems You can specify this option in the client system-options file (dsm.sys) or on the command line for the backup vm command. You can also include this option on the IBM Spectrum Protect server in a client option set. You cannot set this option in the Preferences Editor.

Windows operating systems You can specify this option in the client options file (dsm.opt) or on the command line for the backup vm command. You can also include this option on the IBM Spectrum Protect server in a client option set. You cannot set this option in the Preferences Editor.

Syntax


                   .-No--.   
>>-VMTAGDATamover--+-----+-------------------------------------><
                   '-Yes-'

Parameters

No

The client ignores any data protection settings or tags that are attributed to the VMware asset. This value is the default.

Yes

The client manages backups based on the data protection settings in the IBM Spectrum Protect extension or based on the tag values that are attributed to the VMware asset.

When tagging support is enabled, some client options might be affected by the data protection settings. For information about which options are affected, see Supported data protection tags.

The following examples show how client options can be affected by data protection tags:

When you use data protection settings or tags to control which VMware virtual machines are backed up, the tag values might overlap the domain.vmfull client option setting. While the domain.vmfull option defines what virtual machines the client protects, the Excluded and Included tags override what is defined by the domain.vmfull option.
For example, the following options file statement specifies what is backed up during full virtual machine backup operations:
```
DOMAIN.VMFULL VMHOSTCLUSTER=cluster01,cluster02;VM=Dept20*
```
If you use data protection settings or tags to exclude virtual machine Dept204, the Dept204 virtual machine is not backed up.
The retention policy setting in the IBM Spectrum Protect extension or the tag setting for the Management Class (IBM Spectrum Protect) category overrides the include.vm and vmmc client options, but does not override the vmctlmc option.

Tip: If you want to set up a data mover as the default data mover, see Vmtagdefaultdatamover.

Examples

Options file:: vmtagdat yes
Command line:: -vmtagdat=yes