Acronis Backing Up Virtual Machines User Manual

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Acronis Backup Advanced

Version 11.7

BACKING UP VIRTUAL MACHINES

APPLIES TO THE FOLLOWING PRODUCTS

Advanced for VMware / Hyper-V / RHEV / Citrix XenServer / Oracle VM

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Acronis patented technologies

Technologies, used in this product, are covered and protected by one or more U.S. Patent Numbers: 7,047,380; 7,275,139; 7,281,104; 7,318,135; 7,353,355; 7,366,859; 7,475,282; 7,603,533; 7,636,824; 7,650,473; 7,721,138; 7,779,221; 7,831,789; 7,886,120; 7,895,403; 7,934,064; 7,937,612; 7,949,635; 7,953,948; 7,979,690; 8,005,797; 8,051,044; 8,069,320; 8,073,815; 8,074,035; 8,145,607; 8,180,984; 8,225,133; 8,261,035; 8,296,264; 8,312,259; 8,347,137; 8,484,427; 8,645,748; 8,732,121 and patent pending applications.

Table of contents

1 About this document .......................................................................................................4

2 Supported virtualization platforms ...................................................................................5

3 Backup at a hypervisor level .............................................................................................7

3.1 Features and capabilities ........................................................................................................... 7

3.2 Limitations ................................................................................................................................. 8

3.3 What does a virtual machine backup store? ............................................................................. 9

3.4 Working in VMware vSphere ..................................................................................................... 9

3.4.1 Getting started with Agent for VMware........................................................................................................ 9

3.4.2 Installation of Agent for VMware................................................................................................................. 11

3.4.3 Operations with agents................................................................................................................................. 12

3.4.4 Flexible configuration of the agents ............................................................................................................ 14

3.4.5 Using a locally attached storage................................................................................................................... 15

3.4.6 Configuring ESX(i)-related options ............................................................................................................... 16

3.4.7 Support for VM migration ............................................................................................................................ 19

3.4.8 Support for datastore clusters and Storage DRS ........................................................................................ 19

3.4.9 Backing up fault tolerant machines ............................................................................................................. 20

3.4.10 Backing up independent disks and RDMs ................................................................................................... 20

3.4.11 Backing up virtual machine templates ........................................................................................................ 21

3.4.12 Privileges for VM backup and recovery ....................................................................................................... 21

3.5 Working in Microsoft Hyper-V .................................................................................................23

3.5.1 Getting started with Agent for Hyper-V ...................................................................................................... 23

3.5.2 Backing up clustered Hyper-V machines ..................................................................................................... 25

3.5.3 Backing up pass-through disks ..................................................................................................................... 26

3.5.4 Backing up and recovering a Hyper-V host ................................................................................................. 27

3.5.5 Support for Hyper-V 3.0 ................................................................................................................................ 28

3.6 Backing up Linux logical volumes and MD devices ..................................................................29

3.7 File-level recovery ....................................................................................................................30

3.8 Virtual machines on a management server .............................................................................31

3.9 VM-specific backup and recovery options ...............................................................................32

3.9.1 Simultaneous VM backup ............................................................................................................................. 32

3.9.2 VM power management .............................................................................................................................. 33

3.10 Limitations for backup and recovery options ..........................................................................33

4 Backup from inside a guest OS ....................................................................................... 34

4.1 Working with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization .....................................................................34

4.1.1 Overview of the RHEV platform ................................................................................................................... 34

4.1.2 How Acronis Backup works with RHEV ....................................................................................................... 35

4.1.3 Backup and recovery of RHEV virtual machines ......................................................................................... 36

4.1.4 Migrating a physical machine to a virtual machine .................................................................................... 41

1 About this document

This document contains information that is specific for backup and recovery of virtual machines with Acronis Backup.

For the most comprehensive information about the functionality provided by Acronis Backup, please refer to

Acronis Backup Help

Web Help: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/support/documentation/AcronisBackup_11.7/

Built-in context-sensitive Help available in Acronis Backup Management Console by clicking the

question-mark button .

For the purpose of convenience, this information is also presented in other sources. Use the ones that correspond to your preferences.

Installation information

Installation Help available in your setup program by clicking View Installation Help.

Installation Guide for Acronis Backup Advanced:

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/download/docs/aba11.7/installguide

Information about the core functionality provided by Acronis Backup

User Guide for Acronis Backup Advanced:

http://www.acronis.com/en-us/download/docs/aba11.7/userguide

Command-line interface

Command-Line Reference: http://www.acronis.com/en-us/download/docs/ab11.7/cmdlineref

2 Supported virtualization platforms

Platform

Backup at a hypervisor

level (p. 7)

Backup from inside a

guest OS (p. 34)

VMware

VMware vSphere versions: 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, and 6.0

VMware vSphere editions:

VMware vSphere Essentials

VMware vSphere Essentials Plus

VMware vSphere Standard*

VMware vSphere Advanced

VMware vSphere Enterprise

VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus

VMware vSphere Hypervisor (Free ESXi)**

VMware Server (VMware Virtual server)

VMware Workstation

VMware ACE

VMware Player

Microsoft

Windows Server 2008 (x64) with Hyper-V

Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008/2008 R2

Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 with Hyper-V

Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012/2012 R2

Windows 8, 8.1 (x64) with Hyper-V

Windows 10 with Hyper-V

Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V

Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and 2007

Windows Virtual PC

Microsoft Virtual Server 2005

Citrix

Citrix XenServer 4.1.5, 5.5, 5.6, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and

6.5

Only fully virtualized

(aka HVM) guests

Red Hat and Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 2.2,

3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, and 3.5

The following table summarizes how various virtualization platforms are supported by Acronis Backup.

Platform

Backup at a hypervisor

level (p. 7)

Backup from inside a

guest OS (p. 34)

Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM)

Parallels

Parallels Workstation

Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal

Oracle

Oracle VM Server 3.0 and 3.3

Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.x

* The Standard edition does not support Hot-add so backups may run slower.

** Backup at a hypervisor level is not supported for vSphere Hypervisor because this product restricts access to Remote Command Line Interface (RCLI) to read-only mode. The agent works during the vSphere Hypervisor evaluation period while no serial key is entered. Once you enter a serial key, the agent stops functioning.

3 Backup at a hypervisor level

Backup at a hypervisor level (also known as agent-less backup) means the ability to back up and recover virtual machines without installing agents into the guest systems. This functionality becomes available by using Acronis Backup Agent for VMware or Acronis Backup Agent for Hyper-V.

Agent for VMware can be imported or deployed to a VMware ESX(i) host as a virtual appliance.

Agent for VMware requires either of the following licenses to work:

 Acronis Backup Advanced for VMware  Acronis Backup Advanced Universal License

Agent for Hyper-V needs to be installed directly on a Hyper-V host.

Agent for Hyper-V requires either of the following licenses to work:

 Acronis Backup Advanced for Hyper-V  Acronis Backup Advanced Universal License

3.1 Features and capabilities

Backup at a hypervisor level includes the following main features and capabilities.

 Disk-level backup

Backup of entire machines or individual disks or volumes.

During backup, a virtual machine can be running, stopped, suspended, or switching between the three states.

 Disk-level recovery

Recovery of entire machines, individual disks or volumes to a new or existing virtual machine.

A virtual machine has to be stopped during the recovery to this machine. By default, the software stops the machine automatically.

 File-level recovery (p. 30)

Recovery of individual files and folders to a network share, FTP or SFTP server.

 Cluster support

Backup and recovery of clustered virtual machines.

 Support for VMware vMotion (p. 19)/Microsoft Migration

A backup plan is executed no matter which host the machine is running on.

 Simultaneous backups of virtual machines (p. 32)

An agent can simultaneously back up as many as 10 virtual machines. The exact number is defined by the user.

 Incremental conversion to a virtual machine

An agent can convert a disk-level backup to a virtual machine of the corresponding type: VMware ESX(i) or Microsoft Hyper-V. Conversion of an incremental backup updates the machine instead of creating it from scratch.

 Flexible configuration of the agents (p. 14)

Applies to VMware vSphere only

Protect your virtual environment with as many agents as you want, from one agent for each host to one agent for each machine. The management server evenly distributes virtual machines among the agents running within each host. Or, you can bind the agents (p. 17) with the machines manually.

 Automatic agent deployment (p. 16)

Applies to VMware vSphere only

Just include virtual machines in a backup plan. The agents will be deployed and configured in the background if you allowed this when configuring integration with the vCenter Server.

 Backup to a locally attached storage (p. 15)

Applies to VMware vSphere only

Add a dedicated virtual disk to Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) and do backups directly to this storage, omitting LAN.

 New Changed Block Tracking (CBT) (p. 18) developed by Acronis

Perform faster incremental and differential backups of ESX(i) virtual machines without using VMware CBT.

 Support for UEFI-based virtual machines

Back up and recover virtual machines that use Unified Extensible Hardware Interface (UEFI). Convert a UEFI-based physical machine to a virtual machine that uses the same boot firmware.

 Support for VM templates (p. 21)

Back up and recover virtual machine templates in the same way as normal ESX(i) virtual machines.

3.2 Limitations

Sometimes, backup at a hypervisor level is not possible because of virtualization product or Acronis Backup limitations.

 Agent for VMware cannot back up fault tolerant virtual machines.  Agent for VMware cannot back up Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks in physical compatibility

mode and independent disks.

 Microsoft Hyper-V does not provide control over pass-through disks to a host system. As a result,

the Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider cannot provide Agent for Hyper-V with snapshots of pass-through disks.

To overcome these limitations, use backup from inside a guest OS (p. 34). Using this method, you can also:

 Execute pre/post backup or pre/post data capture commands within the guest operating system.  Back up individual files and folders of a virtual machine.  Recover files to a virtual machine's file system.  Back up a guest system stored on a logical volume to be able to recover the machine to a

different platform.

 Use the backup and recovery options that are not effective for backup at a hypervisor level (p.

33).

For more details, please see the following sections:

 Backing up independent disks and RDMs (p. 20)  Backing up pass-through disks (p. 26)

 Backing up fault tolerant machines (p. 20)  Backing up Linux logical volumes and MD devices (p. 29)

3.3 What does a virtual machine backup store?

Backing up an entire virtual machine, its disks or volumes, results in a standard disk backup. A backup created at a hypervisor level also stores the virtual machine configuration. This configuration will be suggested by default when recovering the backup content to a new virtual machine.

You can recover disks and volumes from a virtual machine backup to a physical machine. Similarly, you can recover disks or volumes from a physical machine backup to a new or existing virtual machine. Hence, physical to virtual and virtual to physical machine migration becomes available.

With Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux, you can mount volumes from a virtual machine backup and recover individual files from it.

3.4 Working in VMware vSphere

3.4.1 Getting started with Agent for VMware

This section describes how to start backing up ESX(i) virtual machines.

3.4.1.1 Prerequisites

Ensure that:

 You have a vCenter Server that manages one or more ESX(i) hosts.  VMware Tools is installed on every virtual machine you want to back up. See installation

instructions later in this section.

 You have an appropriate number of Acronis Backup Advanced licenses (p. 7). Each ESX(i) host

whose virtual machines you want to back up requires a separate license. For a vSphere cluster, you need as many licenses as there are hosts in the cluster.

To use the product in the trial mode, you do not need licenses.

 You have a machine running Windows that will act as the management server. This machine

must be always turned on and available across the network. For system requirements, see the installation documentation.

 You downloaded the setup program of Acronis Backup Advanced.

To install VMware Tools

1. In VMware Infrastructure/vSphere Client, log on to the vCenter Server.

2. Select the virtual machine and run the guest operating system.

3. Right-click the virtual machine and select Guest > Install/Upgrade VMware Tools.

4. Follow the onscreen instructions.

3.4.1.2 Installation

In this step, you will install the management server. This will enable backing up the virtual machines of the vCenter Server.

1. On the machine that will act as the management server, log on as an administrator and start the

setup program.

2. Click Install Acronis Backup.

3. Accept the terms of the license agreement.

4. Select the Centrally monitor and configure the backing up of physical and virtual machines

check box.

5. Type all your license keys or import them from a text file.

6. Click Install.

3.4.1.3 Integration with the vCenter Server

In this step, you will integrate the management server with your vCenter Server. Integration enables the management server to automatically deploy agents to ESX(i) hosts.

1. Start the management console, by clicking Acronis Backup on the desktop.

2. Click Connect to a management server. In Machine, type the name of the current machine.

3. In the Navigation pane, right-click Virtual machines, and then click Configure VMware vCenter

integration.

4. Specify the name or IP address of the vCenter Server, and the user name and password of a

vCenter Server administrator.

Note: If you want to specify a non-administrative user account, make sure that the account has the appropriate privileges (p. 21).

5. Select the Automatically deploy Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) check box.

6. Click OK.

Result:

 The All virtual machines view shows all virtual machines of the vCenter Server.  The virtual machines are shown as grayed out because Agent for VMware has not been deployed

yet. The agent will be deployed automatically after you select the virtual machines for backing up.

3.4.1.4 Creating a centralized vault

In this step, you will create a centralized vault available across the network. This will enable easy access to the backups.

1. In your network, choose a machine where you want to store the backed-up data. It can be the

machine where you installed the management server.

2. On the machine where you installed the management server, click Acronis Backup on the

desktop.

3. Click Connect to a management server. In Machine, type the name of the current machine.

4. On the Actions menu, click Create centralized vault.

5. In Name, type the name of the vault.

6. In Type, select Unmanaged.

7. Click Path and then specify the path to the network share where the backups will be stored. Click

OK. When prompted, provide access credentials for the shared folder.

8. Click OK. You can see the vault name in the Navigation tree under Vaults > Centralized. Click the

vault name to check its free space and contents.

3.4.1.5 Backup and recovery

Backup

In this step, you will back up one or more virtual machines to the centralized vault you created.

1. In the welcome screen, click Back up now.

2. Click Items to back up. In Data to back up, select Virtual machines.

3. Select the virtual machines that you want to back up.

4. Click Location, expand Vaults, and then specify the vault you have created.

5. Click OK to start backing up the virtual machines.

Result:

 Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) is deployed on each host or cluster whose machines you

selected to back up.

 The machines are backed up to the centralized vault you specified.

Recovery

In this step, you will recover the disks of a backed-up virtual machine to an existing virtual machine on the vCenter Server.

1. In the Navigation tree, expand Vaults > Centralized and then select the vault where you saved

the archives. If prompted, provide access credentials for the vault.

2. In the Data view tab, in Show, select Disks.

3. Select the virtual machine that you want to recover. Under Versions, select a recovery point. By

default, the latest recovery point is selected. Details. Instead of recovering the entire virtual machine, you can recover individual disks of it.

4. Click Recover.

5. Under Where to recover, in Recover to, select Existing virtual machine.

6. Click Select, and then select an existing virtual machine, either the same one you have backed up

(recommended for getting started), or a different one. Details. The agent will automatically stop this virtual machine before starting the recovery to it.

The machine must be powered off during the recovery for the recovery task to succeed.

7. If required, do the following for every disk found in the backup: a. Сlick Recover 'Disk N' to: and choose the destination disk from the disks of the existing

machine.

b. In NT signature, leave the default setting: Select automatically.

8. Click OK to immediately start the recovery.

3.4.2 Installation of Agent for VMware

Agent for VMware enables backup and recovery of ESX(i) virtual machines without installing agents into the guest systems. The agent is delivered as a virtual appliance.

Preparation

We highly recommend that you install Acronis Backup Management Server prior to the Agent for VMware installation.

Installation

There are three methods of installing Agent for VMware:

 Importing to a ESX(i) host as an OVF template.

Use this method for troubleshooting purposes or if you cannot install Acronis Backup Management Server for some reason.

 Deployment (p. 13) from Acronis Backup Management Server to a specified host or cluster.

Connect the console to the management server. In the Navigation tree, right click Virtual machines, then click Deploy Agent for VMware. Refer to the context help for further

instructions.

 Automatic deployment from Acronis Backup Management Server.

This is the easiest method. It is recommended in most cases. Connect the console to the management server. In the Navigation tree, right click Virtual machines, and then click Configure

VMware vCenter integration. Specify the vCenter Server, and then enable Automatic deployment. Any time a virtual machine is selected for backup but the agent is not installed on

its host, the Virtual Appliance will be automatically deployed on the host when the backup starts.

Providing licenses

Agent for VMware requires either of the following licenses to work:

 Acronis Backup Advanced for VMware  Acronis Backup Advanced Universal License

The installation of the agent does not require a license. However, you must specify a license server when installing the management server, or when connecting the console to the agent (if the agent was imported manually). Once the agent starts backing up a virtual machine, the agent checks whether the virtual machine's host has a license. If it does not have one, the agent takes a free license from the specified license server and assigns it to the host. If the host is included in a cluster, licenses will be assigned to all of the clustered hosts. Therefore, you need one license for each clustered ESX(i). This ensures the uninterrupted operation of your backup plans when virtual machines are moved around the cluster.

3.4.3 Operations with agents

This section explains how to deploy, update or remove Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) using Acronis Backup Management Server.

3.4.3.1 Prerequisites

To perform operations described in this section, Acronis Backup Management Server uses a number of TCP ports:

 Ports 443 and 902 are used to access the vCenter Server and ESX(i) hosts.  Port 9876 is used to access Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance).

If the management server uses a custom firewall, ensure that this firewall allows outgoing connections to these ports. Windows Firewall is configured automatically by Acronis Backup.

If the traffic from the management server to the vCenter Server, the ESX(i) hosts, or the agents goes through a router or a similar network device, ensure that the device does not block this traffic.

No special configuration is required on the vCenter Server or the ESX(i) hosts.

3.4.3.2 Deploying Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

If your host contains a big number of virtual machines, you may want to deploy one or more agents in addition to the automatically deployed one. The instructions below will also help you deploy the agent to a stand-alone ESX(i) host that is not managed by vCenter Server.

To deploy an additional virtual appliance

1. Connect the management console to the management server.

2. In the Navigation tree, right click the group that has the same name as the vCenter Server. When

deploying an agent to a stand-alone host, right click Virtual machines.

3. Click Deploy Agent for VMware.

4. Select the hosts or clusters to which you want to deploy the agent, or check the Select all check

box. When deploying an agent to a stand-alone host, enter the host name or IP address and administrator credentials.

5. [Optional] If necessary, modify the VA name, Datastore and Network interface settings

suggested for each agent by default.

[Optional] You may also want to modify the credentials that the agent will use to access the vCenter Server or ESX(i). Keep in mind that centralized backup and recovery tasks will run under this account by default. This means that the account must have the necessary privileges (p. 21) on the vCenter Server. Otherwise, you will need to specify credentials for the account with the necessary privileges in every centralized backup plan or recovery task.

[Optional] You may want to manually set the agent network settings, including the IP address. To do so, click Network configuration. By default, the agent obtains the network settings from the DHCP server, provided that this server is present in your network.

Tip: You will be able to change the network settings after the agent is deployed. To do so, select the virtual appliance in VMware vSphere inventory and go to the virtual appliance console. Under Agent options, click the Change link next to the name of the network interface, such as eth0.

6. Click Deploy Agent for VMware.

Result: Once a new agent is deployed, the management server redistributes the virtual machines

among the agents.

3.4.3.3 Updating Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

You can update Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) using the management server GUI.

To update Agent for VMware

1. In the Virtual machines view, on the toolbar, click Update Agent for VMware.

2. Select the agents to update.

3. Click Update Agent for VMware.

When upgrading from Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 to Acronis Backup, you need to additionally specify the agent's host.

3.4.3.4 Removing Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

You can remove Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) using the management server GUI.

If other agents are connected to the same ESX(i) host, they will undertake the backups of the machines assigned to the removed agent. If there are no such agents, the machines will become unprotected.

To remove Agent for VMware

1. In the Virtual machines view, on the toolbar, click Remove Agent for VMware.

2. Select the agents to remove.

3. Click Remove Agent for VMware.

3.4.4 Flexible configuration of the agents

This section gives you an overview of how the management server organizes the operation of multiple agents running within a VMware vCenter host.

All agents must be registered on the management server. All agents must be connected to vCenter Server.

Distribution algorithm

The management server evenly distributes the virtual machines between the agents. By evenly, we mean that each agent manages an equal number of machines. The amount of storage space occupied by a virtual machine is not counted.

Once a virtual machine is assigned to an agent, all centralized backups of this machine will be delegated to this agent.

Redistribution

Redistribution takes place each time the established balance breaks, or, more precisely, when a load imbalance among the agents reaches 20 percent. This may happen when a machine or an agent is added or removed, or a machine migrates to a different host, or if you manually bind a machine to an agent. If this happens, the management server redistributes the machines using the same algorithm.

For example, you realize that you need more agents to help with throughput and deploy an additional virtual appliance to the host. The management server will assign the most appropriate machines to the new agent and update the centralized backup plans on the involved agents. The old agents' load will reduce.

When you remove an agent from the management server, the machines assigned to the agent are distributed among the remaining agents. However, this will not happen if an agent gets corrupted or is deleted bypassing the management server. Redistribution will start only after you remove such agent from the management server.

Viewing the distribution result

You can view the result of the automatic distribution in the Agent column available for each virtual machine on the management server. Also, it is displayed in the management server options. To access this window, select Options > Management server options from the top menu, and then select Agent for VMware binding.

Manual binding

The Agent for VMware binding (p. 17) option lets you exclude a virtual machine from this distribution process by specifying the agent that must always back up this machine. The management server will continue maintaining the overall balance, but it is allowed to pass the machine to a different agent only if the original agent is removed.

Tips on setup

Below are brief instructions on how to set up some of the available configurations. For detailed information about integration with vCenter see the "VMware vCenter integration" (p. 16) section.

 1 agent per host - default (achieved by automatic deployment). Enable vCenter integration (do

not disable automatic deployment of virtual appliances). Alternatively, you can deploy or install the agents manually and connect them to vCenter Server.

 more than 1 agent per host - Enable vCenter integration (automatic deployment of virtual

appliances may be enabled or disabled). Deploy the required number of agents to the hosts (at least one agent per host). Connect the agents to vCenter Server.

Make sure that all agents are registered on the management server. If you deploy virtual appliances from an OVF template, you need to add them to the management server manually.

In any case you can bind one or more virtual machines to the agents manually.

Do not create local backup plans on agents if you want to make the best of the automatic distribution.

3.4.5 Using a locally attached storage

You can attach an additional disk to Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance) so the agent can back up to this locally attached storage. Such backup is normally faster than backup via LAN and it does not consume the network bandwidth. We recommend using this method if you have only one ESX(i) host in your environment.

Data backed up to a locally attached storage does not appear in the centralized catalog. To access a backup stored in a locally attached storage, connect the console directly to the agent.

Using a locally attached storage presumes that the agent always backs up the same machines. If multiple agents work within the host, and one or more of them use locally attached storages, you need to manually bind (p. 17) each agent to all machines it has to back up. Otherwise, if the machines are redistributed among the agents by the management server, a machine's backups may be dispersed over multiple storages.

You can add the storage to an already working agent or when importing the agent from an OVF template.

To attach a storage to an already working agent

1. In VMware vSphere inventory, right click the Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance).

2. Add the disk by editing the settings of the virtual machine. The disk size must be at least 10 GB.

Be careful when adding an already existing disk. Once the storage is created, all data previously contained on this disk will be lost.

3. Go to the virtual appliance console. The Create storage link is available at the bottom of the

screen. If it is not, click Refresh.

4. Click the Create storage link, select the disk and specify a label for it.

Details. The label length is limited to 16 characters due to file system restrictions.

To select a locally attached storage as a backup destination

When creating a backup plan, in Where to back up > Location do one of the following, depending on where the console is connected:

+ 35 hidden pages

Acronis Backing Up Virtual Machines User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

1 About this document

2 Supported virtualization platforms

3 Backup at a hypervisor level

3.1 Features and capabilities

3.2 Limitations

3.3 What does a virtual machine backup store?

3.4 Working in VMware vSphere

3.4.1 Getting started with Agent for VMware

3.4.1.1 Prerequisites

3.4.1.2 Installation

3.4.1.3 Integration with the vCenter Server

3.4.1.4 Creating a centralized vault

3.4.1.5 Backup and recovery

3.4.2 Installation of Agent for VMware

3.4.3 Operations with agents

3.4.3.1 Prerequisites

3.4.3.2 Deploying Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

3.4.3.3 Updating Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

3.4.3.4 Removing Agent for VMware (Virtual Appliance)

3.4.4 Flexible configuration of the agents

3.4.5 Using a locally attached storage