Comparison between Hyper-V and guest-OS-level backups

Hyper-V protection strategy

Considerations

Hyper-V (host-OS-level) backups

     Quickest setup, do not need to add VMs individually or install agent on each VM.

     Automatically include new VMs in backup schedules.

     Rapid disaster recovery of a failed VM. (See Instant recovery for Hyper-V.)

     Enable you to take advantage of the Features of Unitrends Hyper-V protection

Guest-OS-level backups

     Backup system treats the VM like a physical client.

     All backup options are supported, including selection lists, options to exclude at the volume, directory, or file level, and run pre- and post- backup commands. Recommended for VMs where more granular exclusion of data is required.

     Provide application and operating system consistent backup and restore.

     For SQL, Exchange, Oracle, and SharePoint backups, perform application-level post backup processing, such as log truncation.

     Support all SQL database recovery models. Must run guest-OS-level backups for all recovery models other than simple.

     Support backup of multi-node SharePoint farms.

     Protect VMs configured with shared VHDXs.

     Support Windows instant recovery (WIR) to quickly spin up a virtual replica of a failed Windows client.