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 file-level backups. Host- and file-level backups provide you with different options.
Use the following topics to determine whether to run host- or file-level backups of VMware virtual machines:
General features of VMware host-level and file-level protection are given here:
Notes:
To protect a VM with both host-level and file-level (agent-based) backups, be sure to adhere to the following:
• | Ensure that the VM's host-level and file-level jobs do not overlap. Running both simultaneously may lead to undesirable results. |
• | If protecting hosted SQL or Exchange databases with agent-based application backups, do not use application-aware protection for host-level backups. Doing so may compromise log truncation changes and lead to other undesirable results. |
VMware protection strategy |
Considerations |
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Host-level backups |
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File-level backups |
File-level application backups provide these benefits: Note: Application backups schedules cannot be created through SLA policies.
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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 file-level protection, see Protected assets.
VM type |
Protection considerations |
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Hosted applications |
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Hosted applications for which you need more granular control. |
Use file-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 file-level application protection. (Host-level protection is not supported) |
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SharePoint |
Use file-level application protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Oracle |
Use file-level application protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Disk configuration |
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Cluster with fault tolerant disks |
Use file-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Physical RDM disks |
Use file-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.) |
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Independent or pass-through disks |
Use file-level protection. (These disks are automatically excluded from host-level backups.) |
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Sparse disks |
Use file-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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Other VM considerations |
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Dynamic MAC address |
Use file-level protection. (Host-level protection is not supported.) |
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VMs hosted on free ESXi versions |
Use file-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 file-level protection. |
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VMs in Distributed File System environments for which you are not following Microsoft’s best practices |
Use file-level protection. |
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VMs for which you would like to exclude volumes or large numbers of files when running backups |
Use file-level protection and exclude files from backups. (With host-level you can exclude virtual disks only. File-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 file-level protection so you can search for files to recover by name. |
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Windows VMs that you would like to protect with Windows replicas |
Use file-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. For Windows servers that are running UAC, you must either disable UAC or use the server's default local administrator account when applying credentials. (UAC does not apply to the default local administrator account unless specified by a Group Policy, but does apply to other accounts that belong to the Local Administrator group).
See these topics for details on creating and applying credentials to the Windows asset:
• | To add a credential |
• | To apply a credential to an asset |
Once credentials have been applied to the Windows VM, 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 |
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Exchange |
Logs are truncated with VMware full and incremental backups. |
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SQL |
Logs are NOT truncated with VMware application-aware backups. 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 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.