You are here: Host-level Backups Overview > VMware virtual machines > Protecting VMware virtual machines at the asset level

Protecting VMware virtual machines at the asset level

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

Host-level backups

Quickest setup, do not need to add VMs individually or install agent on each VM.
Automatically include new VMs in backup schedules.
Leverages VMware’s VADP framework to perform application and operating system consistent backup and recovery.
Application-aware protection of Exchange or SQL simple recovery model applications.
For Unitrends Recovery-Series appliances, supports SAN-direct backup.
For UEB on VMware appliances, supports HotAdd backup.
Supports backup of VMware templates.
Supports excluding disks from a backup. If you have a requirement to exclude data at the directory- or file-level, or if you don’t have space in your VMFS datastores for snapshots of your VMs, consider using asset-level backups.
Supports recovering individual files from backups for VMs running Windows or Linux.
Supports VMware instant recovery to quickly spin up a failed VM.

Asset-level backups

Backup appliance treats the VM like a physical asset.
All backup options are supported, including options to exclude files, directories, or volumes from backup, 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 recovery.
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 asset-level backups for all recovery models other than simple.
Support backup of multi-node SharePoint farms.
Support Windows instant recovery (WIR) to quickly spin up a virtual replica of a failed Windows asset.

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

Hosted applications

 

Hosted applications for which you need more granular control.

Use asset-level application backups to select individual databases to back up and recover.

Exchange

Do one of the following:

Use host-level protection with the application-aware feature (see Application-aware protection for details).
Use asset-level protection for more granular control.

 

SQL

For simple recovery model databases, do one of the following:

Use host-level protection with the application-aware feature (see Application-aware protection for details).
Use asset-level protection or more granular control.

For full or bulk-logged recovery model databases, use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported)

SharePoint

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

Oracle

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

Disk configuration

 

Cluster with fault tolerant disks

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

Physical RDM disks

Use asset-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.)

Independent or pass-through disks

Use asset-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.)

Sparse disks

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

Dynamic MAC address

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

VMs hosted on free ESXi versions

Use asset-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.)

Virtualized Active Directory (AD) servers for which you are not following Microsoft’s best practices

Use asset-level protection.

VMs in Distributed File System environments for which you are not following Microsoft’s best practices

Use asset-level protection.

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.)

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.

Windows VMs that you would like to protect with the Windows instant recovery (WIR) feature

Use asset-level protection.

Application-aware 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:

  • Simple recovery model - no logs created. Use VMware application-aware backups.
  • Full recovery model - use agent backups or use VMware application-aware backups with separate transaction log backups to truncate logs. (Schedule periodic transaction log backups using a SQL Maintenance Plan. Do not use a SQL Maintenance Plan with agent backups.)
  • Bulk-logged recovery model - Use agent. See Recommendations for bulk-logged recovery model for details.

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 backup fails.

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.