In most cases, Unitrends recommends that you use host-level backups to protect your VMware virtual machines. However, in some instances, you might wish to protect your VMs at the guest level in the same way you would protect physical machines, using asset-level backups. Host- and asset-level backups provide you with different options.
Use the following tables to determine whether to run host- or asset-level backups of VMware virtual machines.
General features of VMware host-level and asset-level protection are given here:
VMware protection strategy |
Considerations |
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Host-level backups |
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Asset-level backups |
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Specific instances when you might want to protect VMs at the asset level are described below. For instructions on setting up asset-level protection, see Protected assets.
Important! Do not run host-level backups for VMs that you are protecting at the asset level. Doing so can lead to data corruption and other undesirable results.
VM configuration |
Protection considerations |
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Hosted applications |
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Hosted applications for which you need more granular control. |
Use asset-level application backups to select individual databases to back up and recover. |
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Exchange |
Do one of the following:
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SQL |
For simple recovery model databases, do one of the following:
For full or bulk-logged recovery model databases, use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported) |
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SharePoint |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Oracle |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Disk configuration |
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Cluster with fault tolerant disks |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Physical RDM disks |
Use asset-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.) |
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Independent or pass-through disks |
Use asset-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.) |
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Sparse disks |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Dynamic MAC address |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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VMs hosted on free ESXi versions |
Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Virtualized Active Directory (AD) servers for which you are not following Microsoft’s best practices |
Use asset-level protection. |
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VMs in Distributed File System environments for which you are not following Microsoft’s best practices |
Use asset-level protection. |
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VMs for which you would like to exclude volumes or large numbers of files when running backups |
Use asset-level protections and exclude files from backups. (With host-level you can exclude virtual disks only. Asset-level provides more granular control.) |
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VMs functioning as large file servers for which you may need to frequently recover files |
Use asset-level protections so you can search for files to recover by name. |
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Windows VMs that you would like to protect with the Windows instant recovery (WIR) feature |
Use asset-level protection. |
To provide application-aware protection of Windows VMs, the appliance requires local administrator credentials to interface with the VM’s application-specific VSS writers. Once credentials have been applied, the appliance discovers any hosted SQL or Exchange applications, and leverages VSS writers to quiesce data and perform any necessary post-backup processing.
To protect Windows VMs hosting Exchange or SQL simple recovery model applications, Unitrends recommends that you set credentials to ensure an application consistent backup. Log file truncation is handled by VMware application-aware backups as described here:
Application |
Log file truncation with VMware application-aware backup |
Exchange |
Logs truncated with VMware full and incremental backup. |
SQL |
Logs not truncated with VMware application-aware backup. Do the following:
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Note: Application-aware backups cannot be used to protect VMware templates or VMs on non-Windows operating systems.
Once you have configured and enabled credentials for a Windows VM, application-aware backups are run. If the appliance cannot gain access using these credentials, the
If credentials have not been enabled for the Windows VM, the appliance does not attempt application-aware backup. Application data is included in the host-level backup.