Create a direct mount Backup and DR Workflow

Direct mount Backup and DR Workflows are used when the application image involved does not contain sensitive data. This allows the Backup and DR Workflow to mount an application's data as a virtual application or as just application data without first having to define a LiveClone and then scrub the LiveClone. Direct mounts make application data and virtual applications available almost instantly.

A direct mount Backup and DR Workflow does the following:

Generates new—or updates—virtual applications from a single selected production image.
Defines a schedule for updating the virtual application with the latest production data. Scheduled Backup and DR Workflows can also be run on demand.
Mounts the data as a virtual application. A virtual application can be used and protected like any other application.
Backs up the mounted virtual application as a new application.

Note: Management console users, when assigned with Workflow Refresh rights but not with Backup and DR Workflow run or Backup and DR Workflow manage rights, can only refresh the existing virtual application and cannot run or edit, delete, or disable the Backup and DR Workflow.

Use these instructions to create a direct mount Backup and DR Workflow:

In the App Manager, select a managed application or consistency group.
Right-click and select Manage Workflows to open the Workflows Application Dashboard. Click Add Workflow and add basic configuration details like Name and Appliance where you want the Backup and DR Workflow to run.
Select Direct Mount for the Workflow Type.
Select either Scheduled or On Demand for the Schedule Type. If you select Scheduled, define a schedule to run the Backup and DR Workflow. The time selector uses a 24-hour clock. The scheduled time—next run time—reflects the time zone of the local appliance that runs the Backup and DR Workflow—which by default is set to UTC.
Scheduled Backup and DR Workflows can also be run on demand.
Configure the Direct Mount Settings section.
Select the latest snapshot image from the policy that produces the image to scrub for Source Image. If you selected On Demand, the user running the Backup and DR Workflow can select the source snapshot image at run time. You can also select the latest image from a specific snapshot policy, the latest StreamSnap image.
Enter an easily identifiable name in the Mount Label field.
Select one or more servers to mount the image from in the Host drop-down.
Optionally, enable the Map to All Cluster Nodes option. You can see this option when one or more target hosts are a cluster node or a cluster host.
You can see the following options only when one or more target hosts are VMware VMs:
1. For Mount Mode, select one of the following:
  - NFS: By default NFS mode is selected. Backup and DR presents the data as a VMDK in an NFS datastore mounted from the backup/recovery appliance.
  - vRDM (virtual raw device mapping): VMware snapshots treat mounted vRDMs as independent and are not included in snapshots. Because of this, by default, Backup and DR does not include vRDMs when protecting a mounted VM. Backup and DR does provide an option where you can mark vRDMs as dependent. Although rarely used, when this option is enabled, vRDMs are included in VMware snapshots. Backup templates can backup vRDMs marked as dependent. Note that this mount mode needs the ESXi host to have an iSCSI initiator, which by default is not enabled in Google Cloud VMware Engine.
  - pRDM (physical raw device mapping): For file-level restore operations, select this mode. Note that this mount mode needs the ESXi host to have an iSCSI initiator, which by default is not enabled in Google Cloud VMware Engine.
2. From Map to ESX Hosts, select one of the following options. You can see the Map to ESX Hosts option only if you have selected vRDM or pRDM in the Mount Mode field.
  - One: Select One if you want to map only to the ESX host currently running the target VM.
  - Two: Select Two if you want to map to two ESX hosts, but not all ESX hosts in the cluster. On selecting Two, you are given the option to choose the second host, or choose Auto-select. Auto-select chooses the second host based on logical pairs of ESX hosts and always selects the partner ESX host for the one currently running the target VM.
  - All: Select All if you want to map to all the ESX hosts present in the cluster. Note that selecting All may increase the duration for the job.
3. Enable the Mark Dependent option to mark mounted volumes as dependent to include them in VMware snapshots. This is rarely used when mounting to an existing VM.
In Mapping Options section, enter the location for the mounted drives for the Mount Location—for example, M:, D:\testdb1.
In the Scripts Options section, specify one pre- or post-processing script to run on the mounted image and the corresponding timeout in seconds. For detailed information on pre-script, post-script, and timeout in seconds, see Script options.
Click the Create New Virtual Application option to perform an application aware mount. This option is available only for IBM Db2, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, SAP ASE, SAP HANA, SAP MaxDB, and SQL server database applications. The displayed settings vary according to database type. If you do not select the Create New option you instead get a file system mount to your target hosts.
Optionally, enable Remove Mounted Image After Done if you employ one or more scripts to process the mounted data as a one-time task after which the mounted data is no longer needed, such as extraction of data into a data warehouse. Once the script finishes its task, this option unmounts and deletes the virtual application.

You cannot use this option if you have selected the Manage New Application option.
Click Add to create the Backup and DR Workflow.