Data Protection for VMware and Application Data in Mission Critical Environments

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Appendix A
Backup Option Pros Cons
Backup agent in virtual machine • Traditional backup/restore method
• No additional skill set required
• File level backup available for all OS
• Provides ability for application
consistent backups
• Puts significant load on system
resources (CPU, network bandwidth)
• Does not take advantage of
virtualization encapsulation
• Backups must be staggered and LAN
backups take long, both yielding
longer RTO
Backup agent in the ESX console • Fast image level VM backup by
leveraging virtualization encapsulation
• Only a single backup agent is needed
• Requires scripting to enable
application backup consistency
• File-level or incremental backups are
not possible
• Restore window are large because full
images restores are the only option
• Puts load on the console OS
Backup via proxy server • File and image level backups are
both possible
• Backup load is offloaded to a
third-party server
• Integration with third-party backup
software may be complex
• File-level recovery still require a
backup agent in the virtual machine
• No integration with third party
enterprise application
HP/VMware backup advantage
[Solution described in this paper]
• File and image level backups are
both possible
• Backup load is offloaded to a third
party server
• HP Data Protector Software is fully
integrated with enterprise
applications like (Oracle, SAP)
• Quick and easy integration with
VMware VCB
• Instant recovery capability provides
the ability for very small RTO.
• Virtual machine OS file level
recovery may require a backup
agent to be installed.