Supported virtualization platforms
The following table summarizes how various virtualization platforms are supported.
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| VMware | ||
| VMware vSphere versions: 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0 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 – all installation options, except for Nano Server Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Windows Server 2019 with Hyper-V – all installation options, except for Nano Server Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 |
+ | + |
|
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, 6.5, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6 | Only fully virtualized (aka HVM) guests. Paravirtualized (aka PV) guests are not supported. | |
| Red Hat and Linux | ||
|
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 2.2, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.0, 4.1 |
+ | |
| Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM) | + | |
| Parallels | ||
| Parallels Workstation | + | |
| Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal | + | |
| Oracle | ||
| Oracle VM Server 3.0, 3.3, 3.4 | Only fully virtualized (aka HVM) guests. Paravirtualized (aka PV) guests are not supported. | |
| Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.x | + | |
| Nutanix | ||
| Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 20160925.x through 20180425.x | + | |
| Amazon | ||
| Amazon EC2 instances | + | |
| Microsoft Azure | ||
| Azure virtual machines | + | |
* In these editions, the HotAdd transport for virtual disks is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later. On version 4.1, 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.
Limitations
-
Fault tolerant machines
Agent for VMware backs up a fault tolerant machine only if fault tolerance was enabled in VMware vSphere 6.0 and later. If you upgraded from an earlier vSphere version, it is enough to disable and enable fault tolerance for each machine. If you are using an earlier vSphere version, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Independent disks and RDM
Agent for VMware does not back up Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks in physical compatibility mode or independent disks. The agent skips these disks and adds warnings to the log. You can avoid the warnings by excluding independent disks and RDMs in physical compatibility mode from the backup plan. If you want to back up these disks or data on these disks, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Pass-through disks
Agent for Hyper-V does not back up pass-through disks. During backup, the agent skips these disks and adds warnings to the log. You can avoid the warnings by excluding pass-through disks from the backup plan. If you want to back up these disks or data on these disks, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Hyper-V guest clustering
Agent for Hyper-V does not support backup of Hyper-V virtual machines that are nodes of a Windows Server Failover Cluster. A VSS snapshot at the host level can even temporarily disconnect the external quorum disk from the cluster. If you want to back up these machines, install agents in the guest operating systems.
-
In-guest iSCSI connection
Agent for VMware and Agent for Hyper-V do not back up LUN volumes connected by an iSCSI initiator that works within the guest operating system. Because the ESXi and Hyper-V hypervisors are not aware of such volumes, the volumes are not included in hypervisor-level snapshots and are omitted from a backup without a warning. If you want to back up these volumes or data on these volumes, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Linux machines containing logical volumes (LVM)
Agent for VMware and Agent for Hyper-V do not support the following operations for Linux machines with LVM:
- P2V and V2P migration. Use Agent for Linux or bootable media to create the backup and bootable media to recover.
- Running a virtual machine from a backup created by Agent for Linux or bootable media.
- Converting a backup created by Agent for Linux or bootable media to a virtual machine.
-
Encrypted virtual machines (introduced in VMware vSphere 6.5)
- Encrypted virtual machines are backed up in an unencrypted state. If encryption is critical to you, enable encryption of backups when creating a backup plan.
- Recovered virtual machines are always unencrypted. You can manually enable encryption after the recovery is complete.
- If you back up encrypted virtual machines, we recommend that you also encrypt the virtual machine where Agent for VMware is running. Otherwise, operations with encrypted machines may be slower than expected. Apply the VM Encryption Policy to the agent's machine by using vSphere Web Client.
- Encrypted virtual machines will be backed up via LAN, even if you configure the SAN transport mode for the agent. The agent will fall back on the NBD transport because VMware does not support SAN transport for backing up encrypted virtual disks.
-
Secure Boot (introduced in VMware vSphere 6.5)
Secure Boot is disabled after a virtual machine is recovered as a new virtual machine. You can manually enable this option after the recovery is complete.
- ESXi configuration backup is not supported for VMware vSphere 6.7 and 7.0.