Data Protection for VMware and Application Data in Mission Critical Environments

Backup agent in the console OS/hypervisor

This method involves installing a backup agent within the console OS and then backing up the set of

VMDK files and configuration files that encapsulate each virtual machine. A single backup agent is

needed and installed in the console OS and backups are performed through the LAN. This method

provides fast image level recovery of virtual machines.

Challenges:

1. In order to ensure application consistency during the backup, scripting must be employed to

shutdown and start up the virtual machine.

2. Virtual machine snapshots can eliminate downtime; however, they will not provide an application

data consistency as the backups will be crash consistent.

3. This method does not provide file level backups or incremental backups.

4. The availability of a service console is a must.

5. Long RTO: No file level restores available making restore windows larger than sometimes necessary.

Figure 3: Backup agent in console OS

LAN

ESX Server

Guest

Apps

Backup Infrastructure

BACKUP

AGENT

Console