See the following table for backup methods that are supported to protect virtual machines.
Backup method |
Description and requirements |
---|---|
Full |
Protects the metadata and data for all disks attached to the virtual machine. All disk blocks are captured in a full backup. Note: For virtual disks hosted on an NFS datastore, the complete disk (virtual disk size) will be backed up when a full backup is run. Requirements: The full backup enables Change Block Tracking (CBT) on the disks for subsequent differential and incremental backups. To enable CBT, all snapshots on the VM must be deleted prior to running the full backup. VMware tools must be installed and running. For more information on enabling CBT, See KB 292. |
Differential |
Captures changes to the metadata and VM hard disk blocks since the last successful full backup. Requirements: Differential backups are only supported on virtual machines configured with hardware version 7 or higher on ESX(i) 4.x or higher. VMware tools must be installed and running. For a complete list of supported ESX versions, see the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix. For virtual disks hosted on an NFS datastore, the backup system must be running version 6.3 or higher. Differential backups are not supported for previous releases. For virtual-mode raw device mapped disks, the backup system must be running version 6.4 or higher. Differential backups are not supported for previous releases. |
Incremental |
This method captures the changes to the metadata and the virtual machine hard disk blocks since the previous successful full, differential, or incremental backup. Requirements: Incremental backups are only supported on virtual machines configured with hardware version 7 or higher on ESX(i) 4.x or higher. VMware tools must be installed and running. For a complete list of supported ESX versions, see the Unitrends Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix. For virtual disks hosted on an NFS datastore, the backup system must be running version 6.3 or later. Incremental backups are not supported for older releases. For virtual-mode raw device mapped disks, the backup system must be running version 6.4 or later. Incremental backups are not supported for older releases. |