A resource group is a collection of resources on a host or cluster. A backup operation on the resource group is performed on all resources defined in the resource group. You can back up a resource group on demand from the Resources page. If a resource group has a policy attached and a schedule configured, then backups occur automatically according to the schedule.

Before you begin

You must have created a resource group with a policy attached.
If you want to back up a resource that has a SnapMirror relationship to secondary storage, the role assigned to the storage user should include the “snapmirror all” privilege. However, if you are using the “vsadmin” role, then the “snapmirror all” privilege is not required.
If a resource group has multiple databases from different hosts, the backup operation on some of the hosts might trigger late because of network issues. You should configure the value of MaxRetryForUninitializedHosts in web.config by using the Set-SmConfigSettings PowerShell cmdlet

When backing up a file system, SnapCenter does not back up LUNs that are mounted on a volume mount point (VMP) in the file system that is being backed up.

If you are working in a Windows file system context, do not back up database files. Doing so creates an inconsistent backup and a possible loss of data when restoring. To protect database files, you must use the appropriate SnapCenter plug-in for the database (for example, SnapCenter Plug-in for Microsoft SQL Server, SnapCenter Plug-in for Microsoft Exchange Server, or a custom plug-in for database files).

Steps

In the left navigation pane, click Resources, and then select the appropriate plug-in from the list.
In the Resources page, select Resource Group from the View list.

You can search the resource group either by entering the resource group name in the search box or by clicking and selecting the tag. You can then click to close the filter pane.

In the Resource Groups page, select the resource group that you want to back up, and then click Back up Now.

For SnapCenter Plug-in for Oracle Database, if you have a federated resource group with two databases and one of the database has datafile on a non-ETERNUS AX/AC/HX Series, the backup operation is aborted even though the other database is on a ETERNUS AX/AC/HX Series.

In the Backup page, perform the following steps:
1. If you have associated multiple policies with the resource group, from the Policy drop-down list, select the policy that you want to use for backup.
  
  If the policy selected for the on-demand backup is associated with a backup schedule, the on-demand backups will be retained based on the retention settings specified for the schedule type.
2. Click Backup.
Monitor the operation progress by clicking Monitor > Jobs.
- In MetroCluster configurations, SnapCenter might not be able to detect a protection relationship after a failover.
- If you are backing up application data on VMDKs and the Java heap size for the SnapCenter Plug-in for VMware vSphere is not large enough, the backup might fail. To increase the Java heap size, locate the script file /opt/netapp/init_scripts/scvservice. In that script, the do_start method command starts the SnapCenter VMware plug-in service. Update that command to the following: Java -jar -Xmx8192M -Xms4096M.