Avoiding Duplication of VM Clients

Symptoms Duplicate client names for virtual machines appear in the Client Computers list (for example, client_name and client_name_1).

Causes The following cases might cause the creation of a duplicate virtual machine client with a numeric suffix (for example, client_name_1), which appear in the Client Computers list:

• A VM is restored out of place and then backed up again while the source VM still exists.
• A short hostname is used to identify a virtual machine instead of the fully qualified domain name.

Resolution Avoiding Duplication of VM Clients You can take the following steps to reduce the occurrence of duplicate VM clients:

• Use the "Reuse existing VM client" option in the Restore screen to point the restored VM backups to the existing source VM client.
• Install VMware tools on guest VMs. When VMware tools are installed, the vCenter provides a fully qualified domain name during VM discovery.
• When installing agents on guest VMs:
  • Specify the fully qualified domain name for the guest VM instead of a short name.
  • Use remote installation operation from the CommCell Console to install an agent on a discovered guest VM. For more information, see Installations Using the CommCell Console (Remote Installations).
• When restoring a VM out of place with a different UUID. The restored VM is backed up while the source VM is deleted. Verify that the following conditions are met for this scenario:
  • The source VM and restored VM belong to the same tenant company.
  • The source VM and restored VM host names match.
  • The source VM and restored VM are from the same vCenter
• Preserve UUID while cloning or migrating VMs so that both the older and the new backups point to a single VM client.

Examples

• Scenario: Tenant A created VM1 and backed up VM1. Tenant A then deleted VM1.Tenant B created VM1 with the same name as Tenant A's VM1, however, with a different GUID. Tenant B runs a new backup. (Tenant A and Tenant B are associated with the same company). Result: The same VM client is reused.
• Scenario: Tenant A created VM1 and is running a backup of the VM. Tenant A then deletes VM1 (from vCenter). Tenant B created VM1 with the same name as Tenant A's VM1, however, with a different GUID. Tenant B runs a new backup. (Tenant A and Tenant B are not associated with the same company.) Result: Because the Tenants are not associated with the same company, Tenant B's VM is created with a different name.

To merge duplicate VM entries run the Merge Duplicate Clients Report or QScript.