Choose backup types based on workload criticality, required consistency, recovery objectives, deployment model, and hypervisor support.
How to choose a backup type
Use this as a quick starting point:
| Scenario | Recommended backup type |
|---|---|
| Transactional applications (databases, SAP, Exchange) | Application-aware |
| Large environments with strict RPO/RTO | Snapshot-based (IntelliSnap), often combined with application-aware |
| General VM protection | File-system- and application-consistent |
| Platforms without snapshot support | Streaming or agent-based |
| Low-criticality or stateless workloads | Crash-consistent |
Backup type characteristics
Backup types represent different characteristics of protection that can be combined, depending on configuration:
-
Consistency level (data integrity)
-
Data capture method (how backups are taken)
-
Architecture (how protection is deployed)
Consistency level (data integrity)
| Backup type | What it means | Typical use cases | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crash-consistent | No quiescing; equivalent to sudden power loss | Dev/test, stateless workloads | Possible data loss for in-flight transactions |
| File-system- and application-consistent | File system integrity with OS-level quiescing | General workloads | Not fully reliable for transactional applications |
| Application-aware | Application-level consistency (transactions, logs) | Databases, Exchange, SAP HANA | More setup and overhead |
Data capture method (how backups are taken)
| Method | What it does | Typical use cases | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Snapshot-based | Storage-level snapshots for rapid capture and recovery | Large environments, low RPO/RTO, DR scenarios | Requires supported storage infrastructure |
| Streaming | Direct data transfer without snapshots | Platforms without snapshot support | Slower; higher network and host resource usage |
Architecture (how protection is deployed)
| Approach | What it does | Typical use cases | Trade-offs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentless (hypervisor-based) | Backup via hypervisor integration | Most modern VM environments | Less granular control |
| Agent-based application | In-guest agent captures application data | Legacy systems, specialized application requirements | Operational overhead and agent management |
Combining backup types
Backup types are often used together:
| Combination | Outcome / Use case |
|---|---|
| Snapshot-based + application-aware | Fast, application-consistent backups (common for databases at scale) |
| Streaming + application-aware | Used when snapshot support is not available |
| Agent-based + application-aware | Maximum control and granularity, with higher operational overhead |
Supported workloads
Availability for backup types might depend on configuration, guest OS, and application support.
| Workload | Crash-consistent | File-system- and application-consistent |
Application-aware | Snapshot-based | Streaming | Agent-based application |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alibaba Cloud ECS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Amazon EC2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Azure Local | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Azure Stack Hub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Azure Virtual Machines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Google Compute Engine | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Microsoft Hyper-V | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (temporary snap, used only during backup) | ✗ | ✓ |
| Nutanix AHV | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| OpenStack | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Oracle Cloud Infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Oracle VM | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Proxmox VE | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Red Hat Virtualization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| VMware Cloud Director | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| VMware vSphere | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |