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Consistent backup

  • October 11, 2021
  • 5 comments
  • 688 views
A
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Hey guys, I have a question.

What kind of backup does veeam create, transactionally consistent or crash consistent backup? what is the difference between them? 

Best answer by vNote42

You can do (I assume vSphere Backup jobs)

  • Crash consistent. This happens when do not enable VMware Tools Quiescence and Guest Processing.
  • Application Aware (incl. VSS). This happens when you enable Guest Processing. This is recommended by Veeam
  • “VSS Aware” and Disk Quiescence. When you just enable VMware Tools Quiescence.
  • Additional you can use freeze-only backups. These are Storage Snapshots-only backups without VMware Snapshots.
    Chris.Childerhose
    wolff.mateus
    ashanpro

    5 comments

    JMeixner
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    • JMeixner
    • On the path to Greatness
    • October 11, 2021

    Both are possible with Veeam.

    Application aware backups are transactional consistent. You will use them for applications like databases or exchange to be sure that the application is recoverable to a consistent state with all transactions in a defined status.

    The “normal” snapshot backups are crash consistent. You will use them for all other systems and applications where it does not matter that every single action is in a defined status.

    Jochen (Joe) Meixner | Veeam Vanguard 2024 | Veeam Legend 2021 - 2024 | Veeam Certified Architect (VMCA) | X: @JoMeix | BlueSky: @jmeixner.bsky.social
    regnor
    BertrandFR
    Iams3le
    vNote42
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    • vNote42
    • On the path to Greatness
    • Answer
    • October 11, 2021

    You can do (I assume vSphere Backup jobs)

    • Crash consistent. This happens when do not enable VMware Tools Quiescence and Guest Processing.
    • Application Aware (incl. VSS). This happens when you enable Guest Processing. This is recommended by Veeam
    • “VSS Aware” and Disk Quiescence. When you just enable VMware Tools Quiescence.
    • Additional you can use freeze-only backups. These are Storage Snapshots-only backups without VMware Snapshots.
    Wolfgang | vnote42.net | @vNote42
    BertrandFR
    wolff.mateus
    Iams3le
    Cragdoo
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    • Cragdoo
    • Veeam Vanguard
    • October 11, 2021

    To simplify it even further

    Crash Consistent = state of the machine at the time  when the VM was powered off e.g. Any data/transactions held in memory is/are lost

     

    Transactional Consistent = Veeam instructs VM to commit data/transactions to disk, before taking the backup

     

    ?

    Veeam Vanguard | www.cragdoo.co.uk
    Chris.Childerhose
    BertrandFR
    wolff.mateus
    Andrey Stadler
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    • Andrey Stadler
    • Product Strategy
    • October 11, 2021

    https://www.veeam.com/blog/how-to-create-a-consistent-vm-backup.html 

    This one is still relevant, even 7 years later..

    Chris.Childerhose
    Link State
    wolff.mateus
    Chris.Childerhose
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    • Chris.Childerhose
    • Veeam Legend, Veeam Vanguard
    • October 11, 2021

    I think everyone has covered it and that blog is still very relevant.

    Chris Childerhose - VMCA2024 | VMCE2023 | VMCE-SP2024 | Veeam Vanguard 8* | Veeam Legend 5* | VUG Canada Leader | vExpert 6* | Toronto VMUG Leader | VCAP-DCV/VCP-DCV | Object First Ace | Cisco Champion | Twitter: @cchilderhose | Blog Site – https://just-virtualization.tech
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