About protecting an application database with VMware backups
With a VMware backup policy and the Veritas VSS Provider, NetBackup can create consistent, full backups of an application database that resides on a virtual machine.
VMware application backups let you:
Choose whether or not to truncate logs.
Use the existing database restore process to restore and recover data from VMware backups.
From one VMware backup, choose from these restore options: Disk-level restore, file-level recovery, database restore, or granular-level restore (GRT).
Point-in-time restores are not supported.
Restore to the recovery database or another database.
Restore and recover databases from VMware backups to alternate clients. The target destination client can be a physical computer or a virtual machine.
See the following information on virtual systems compatibility:
https://support.cohesity.com/s/
VMware backups are supported for standalone Exchange servers and DAGs. For DAG nodes, NetBackup protects at the node level of a DAG. This behavior is different than for an agent backup, where protection is at the DAG level.
Cohesity recommends the Veritas VSS Provider. VMware Tools calls the provider to quiesce the VSS writers for a file-level consistent backup. Without this VSS provider (or the VMware VSS Provider), database recovery may require manual steps and granular recovery is not supported.
See Installing the VSS provider for vSphere.
The Veritas VSS Provider allows the following functionality:
VMware backups that truncate the logs on Exchange virtual machines. The Veritas VSS Provider truncates the logs by means of full VSS backups. When the VMware snapshot is complete, the Exchange VSS writer truncates the transaction logs.
Backups of a virtual machine that is a node in an Exchange DAG. Only the active copies of the database are cataloged; only log files for those databases are truncated.
Ability to use the exclude file list for Exchange.
Select the policy option to use NetBackup Accelerator to potentially increase the speed of full VMware backups. (This option is not available in the settings for a protection plan.) By reducing the backup time, it is easier to perform the VMware backup within the backup window. To use this feature, you must first perform an initial backup with Use Accelerator enabled. Subsequent backup times can then be significantly reduced. Accelerator support for database agents currently restricts backups to the full schedule type.
To periodically establish a new baseline of change detection on the client, create a separate policy schedule with the option enabled.
For more details on Accelerator with VMware backups, see the NetBackup for VMware Administrator's Guide.