Appendix F: Business Continuity : vApp Backup/Restore : Protect vApps and Create Backup Jobs
   
Protect vApps and Create Backup Jobs
With valid credentials, the backup product can connect to vCloud Director and vSphere components, extract the data hierarchy, and list the UUIDs of the vApps available for backup. Use the vCloud API or the vCloud Director Web console to perform this task. Then, find the location of the virtual machines to backup.
If using REST code, the logic is to:
1. Start at the top level of the inventory by getting a list of the vCenter Servers that are attached to vCloud Director and all of the organizations.
2. Build a map of the vCenter Servers keyed on their ID for easy lookup later.
3. Browse to the appropriate level. When browsing to an organization virtual datacenter, all the vApps in that organization virtual datacenter are visible, as well as all the datastores accessible to the organization virtual datacenter (through the parent provider virtual datacenter). When browsing to a vApp, all virtual machines in that vApp are visible.
4. The data captured by the end of the process should be:
*Organization.
*Organization virtual datacenters.
*Datastores.
*vApp network configuration – vApp networks, organization networks, and NAT, firewall, and DHCP settings.
*Virtual machines belonging to that vApp – For each virtual machine, retrieve the same virtual machine properties needed to perform vSphere backups (such as managed object reference, network, description, others).