Backing up VMware virtual machines

You can use the backup-archive client to back up and restore a VMware virtual machine (VM). Full backups of the virtual machine operate at a disk image level. Incremental backups copy only the data that is changed since the previous full backup.

Data mover This feature is available only if the client operates as a data mover for IBM Spectrum® Protect for Virtual Environments: Data Protection for VMware.

Table 1 lists the backup and restore capabilities for VMware virtual machines that the backup-archive client can implement on Linux® platforms.

Table 1. Backup and restore capabilities for VMware virtual machines on Linux platforms
Capability	Comment
Full VM incremental-forever backup:	A full VM backup is required before you can create incremental backups. If you schedule incremental-forever backups, this backup type is selected automatically for the first backup if a full backup was not already created. Data from incremental backups is combined with data from the full backup to create a synthetic full backup image. Subsequent full VM incremental-forever backups read all used blocks and copy those blocks to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. Each full VM incremental-forever backup reads and copies all of the used blocks, whether the blocks are changed or not since the previous backup. You can still schedule a full VM backup, although a full backup is no longer necessary. For example, you might run a full VM backup to create a backup to a different node name with different retention settings. You cannot use this backup mode to back up a VMware virtual machine if the client is configured to encrypt the backup data.
Incremental-forever-incremental VM backup:	Requires you to create a full VM backup one time only. The full VM backup copies all of the used disk blocks owned by a virtual machine to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. After the initial full backup is complete, all subsequent backups of the virtual machine are incremental-forever-incremental backups. Each incremental-forever-incremental backup copies only the blocks that are changed since the previous backup, irrespective of the type of the previous backup. The server uses a grouping technology that associates the changed blocks from the most recent backup with data already stored on the server from previous backups. A new full backup is then effectively created each time changed blocks are copied to the server by an incremental-forever-incremental backup. The incremental-forever-incremental backup mode provides the following benefits: Improves the efficiency of backing up virtual machines. Simplifies data restore operations. Optimizes data restore operations. During a restore operation, you can specify options for point-in-time and point-in-date to recover data. The data is restored from the original full backup and all of the changed blocks that are associated with the data. You cannot use this backup mode to back up a VMware virtual machine if the client is configured to encrypt the backup data.
Item recovery for files and folders from a full backup of the virtual machine:	Provides the capability to recover files and folders from a full backup of a virtual machine. Item recovery is available only with the IBM Spectrum Protect recovery agent.
Full restore of the virtual machine:	Restores all of the file systems, virtual disks, and the virtual machine configuration.

Table 2 lists the backup and restore operations for VMware virtual machines that the backup-archive client can implement on Windows platforms.

Restriction: You can complete VMware backup and restore operations with the backup-archive client only on 64-bit Windows operating systems.

Table 2. Backup and restore capabilities for VMware virtual machines on Windows platforms
Capability	Comment
Full VM incremental-forever backup:	Requires the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments licensed product. A full VM backup is required before you can create incremental backups. If you schedule incremental-forever backups, this backup type is selected automatically for the first backup if a full backup was not already created. Data from incremental backups is combined with data from the full backup to create a synthetic full backup image. Subsequent full VM incremental-forever backups read all used blocks and copy those blocks to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. Each full VM incremental-forever backup reads and copies all of the used blocks, whether the blocks are changed or not since the previous backup. You can still schedule a full VM backup, although a full backup is no longer necessary. For example, you might run a full VM backup to create a backup to a different node name with different retention settings. You cannot use this backup mode to back up a VMware virtual machine if the client is configured to encrypt the backup data.
Incremental-forever-incremental VM backup:	Requires the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments licensed product. Requires you to create a full VM backup one time only. The full VM backup copies all of the used disk blocks owned by a virtual machine to the IBM Spectrum Protect server. After the initial full backup is complete, all subsequent backups of the virtual machine are incremental-forever-incremental backups. Each incremental-forever-incremental backup copies only the blocks that are changed since the previous backup, irrespective of the type of the previous backup. The server uses a grouping technology that associates the changed blocks from the most recent backup with data already stored on the server from previous backups. A new full backup is then effectively created each time changed blocks are copied to the server by an incremental-forever-incremental backup. The incremental-forever-incremental backup mode provides the following benefits: Improves the efficiency of backing up virtual machines. Simplifies data restore operations. Optimizes data restore operations. During a restore operation, you can specify options for point-in-time and point-in-date to recover data. The data is restored from the original full backup and all of the changed blocks that are associated with the data. You cannot use this backup mode to back up a VMware virtual machine if the client is configured to encrypt the backup data.
Item recovery for files and folders from a full backup of the virtual machine:	Requires the IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments licensed product. Provides the capability to recover files and folders from a full backup of a virtual machine. Item recovery is available only with the IBM Spectrum Protect recovery agent.
Full restore of the virtual machine:	Restores all of the file systems, virtual disks, and the virtual machine configuration.
File-level restore of the virtual machine:	The restore approach depends on the type of backup of the virtual machine: If you have a license for IBM Spectrum Protect for Virtual Environments, you can restore files and directories from a full VM image backup. Backup-archive client users can restore files and directories that are created file-level backups of a virtual machine. You use the restore command to restore individual files from a file-level backup of a virtual machine, not the restore vm command. File-level backups were created with the version 7.1 or earlier backup-archive clients.