Limiting the total number of simultaneously backed-up virtual machines

The Scheduling backup option defines how many virtual machines an agent can back up simultaneously when executing the given protection plan.

When multiple protection plans overlap in time, the numbers specified in their backup options are added up. Even though the resulting total number is programmatically limited to 10, overlapping plans can affect the backup performance and overload both the host and the virtual machine storage.

You can further reduce the total number of virtual machines that an Agent for VMware or Agent for Hyper-V can back up simultaneously.

To limit the total number of virtual machines that Agent for VMware (Windows) or Agent for Hyper-V can back up

1. On the machine running the agent, create a new text document and open it in a text editor, such as Notepad.
2. Copy and paste the following lines into the file:

   Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
   
   [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Acronis\MMS\Configuration\ManagedMachine\SimultaneousBackupsLimits]
   "MaxNumberOfSimultaneousBackups"=dword:00000001

3. Replace 00000001 with the hexadecimal value of the limit that you want to set. For example, 00000001 is 1 and 0000000A is 10.
4. Save the document as limit.reg.
5. Run the file as an administrator.
6. Confirm that you want to edit the Windows registry.
7. Do the following to restart the agent:
   1. In the Start menu, click Run, and then type: cmd
   2. Click OK.
   3. Run the following commands:

      net stop mms
      net start mms

To limit the total number of virtual machines that Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) can back up

1. To start the command shell, press CTRL+SHIFT+F2 while in the virtual appliance UI.
2. Open the file /etc/Acronis/MMS.config in a text editor, such as vi.
3. Locate the following section:

   <key name="SimultaneousBackupsLimits">
       <value name="MaxNumberOfSimultaneousBackups" type="Tdword">"10"</value>
   </key>

4. Replace 10 with the decimal value of the limit that you want to set.
5. Save the file.
6. Execute the reboot command to restart the agent.