Step 3: Specify VM/Disk Exclusion

Once you have chosen the VMs/Hosts for backup, you have the option to specify any VMs or disks that should be excluded from the backup process..

VM Exclusion

• If one or more ESXi hosts or vCenter Server is selected for the backup, then you can see the selected hosts are being displayed under the VM Exclusion page.
• Click on the list icon corresponding to the ESXi host and select the VMs you want to exclude from the backup.
• Excluding VMs is applicable only if the entire Hosts are selected for backup. It is not applicable if only VMs under Hosts are selected for backup

Disk Exclusion

• You can exclude a particular disk type being backed up either at the host level or VM level using the Disk Exclusion. Under the Disk Exclusion tab, you can find all the hosts & VMs selected for the backup.
• You can configure the global exclusion rules for the entire host or selected VMs by clicking on the edit icon. If you are configuring the disk exclusion for the entire ESXi, it will be applicable to all the VMs running inside that particular host.
• You can also specify the disk exclusion setting for the individual VMs in the host by clicking on the list icon and selecting the VMs to which you want to apply the disk exclusion setting individually and click on Add VMs for Disk Exclusion.
• Clicking on the edit icon corresponding to the Host or VM will display the following options.

Include All Disks for backup. No Disks should be excluded : No disks will be excluded from the backup. By default, this option is selected.

I nclude only System Disks for backup. Exclude others (Typically Disk 0:0) : This option will include only the OS Disks for backup and exclude others. Only the disk with the number 0:0 will be included regardless of the Disk type.

Exclude the following selected Disks from backup : This option will allow you to select the type of disk that has to be excluded from the backup schedule such as IDE, SATA, and SCSI.

Note: A VM Template can also be excluded and the VM/Disk Exclusion feature will work for the VM Template as it does for a normal virtual machine backup.

Steps to Identify the Disk type in VMware vCenter/ESXi host

1. Login Into Vcenter/ Esxi Host
2. Select the Virtual Machine whose hard disks information you want to view.
3. Then Select “ Edit Settings ” under “ Actions ” option.
4. You can see each Hard Disk with serial number under the “ Virtual Hardware ” tab.
5. Expand Hard Disk. You can see disk controller type (Like IDE, SCSI, SATA or NVMe) and its controller number with disk enumeration order (0:0) in “Virtual Device Node” option.