snapprotect & app consistency in vmware

[john_kougoulos]

Hello,

In TR-3920 I read the following:

"VMWARE AND APPLICATIONS

When run inside a virtual machine, Microsoft Exchange and SQL Server have integration with VSS that

allows database consistency during the backup of the virtual machine. The File System iDA and the VSS

Provider must be installed on the guest OS to get this functionality. To enable these application-

consistent backups, make sure that the “Application aware backup for granular recovery” box is checked

under the SnapProtect Operations tab for the subclient. Exchange backups offer the additional option to

perform log truncation as part of the backup operation; select Truncate ExDB Logs."

Does this mean that the backup infrastructure eg. CommServe needs to have network connectivity with the guest VM in order to perform application consistent backups, or is this handled entirely by the hypervisor integration with the VSS, so CommServe needs connectivity only to the hypervisor?

Thanks,

John

[bwood]

John,

It's a hypervisor-level backup using VSS.  But since the File System iDA is required for SQL and Exchange it adds the VM as a client in the CommServe... requiring network connectivity I believe.  For generic VMs you shouldn't need any direct network connection since they are not added as clients.

Thanks

Chris