PowerProtect Data Manager 19.9 Administration and User Guide

About vCenter Server asset sources and virtual assets

After you add a vCenter Server as an asset source in PowerProtect Data Manager, an automatic discovery of VMware entity information from the vCenter Server is initiated.

The virtual assets for the vCenter Server appear in the Assets window of the PowerProtect Data Manager UI under the Virtual Machine tab.

The initial vCenter Server discovery identifies all ESXi clusters, hosts, and virtual machines within the vCenter Server. Subsequent discoveries can be performed to identify any additional or changed VMware entities since the last discovery operation. You can also manually initiate a discovery of VMware entities at any time from the vCenter tab of the Asset Sources window by selecting a vCenter Server and clicking Discover.

Upon vCenter Server and virtual asset discovery, the PowerProtect Data Manager VM Direct protection engine facilitates the management of virtual assets as PowerProtect Data Manager resources for the purposes of backup and recovery. Dell EMC recommends that you also add an external VM Direct Engine in the Protection Engines window. You can protect virtual machine assets by manually adding the assets to a virtual machine protection policy, or by creating and applying protection rules to determine which assets are included in a protection policy based on rule definitions.