Deployment for the Virtual Server Agent for VMware can include the following elements:
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The Virtual Server Agent can be installed on one or more machines, so that those machines can serve as VSA proxies. A VSA proxy manages backup and restore operations for guest VMs in your environment, eliminating the need to install agents on guest VMs.
The Virtual Server Agent can be deployed on physical servers or virtual machines. Multiple VSA proxies can provide load distribution and load balancing to improve performance.
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MediaAgents can be deployed on physical machines or virtual machines to manage the transmission of data between clients and backup media.
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You can configure application-aware backups using the Virtual Server Agent to protect application data without installing guest agents on virtual machines.
When necessary, guest agents can be deployed on guest VMs to support backup and restore operations for clients that have specific file systems, applications, or databases.
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A Linux access node can be deployed to browse and restore VM data directly from backups, including data from both Windows and UNIX-based file systems, without requiring that file metadata be collected during a backup. A Linux MediaAgent can also be transformed to serve as an access node.
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If your hypervisor uses Indexing Version 1, selecting the preferred node for guest file restores is mandatory to enable mount operations for guest file restores of a VM.
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For hypervisors using the latest version of indexing, selecting the preferred node for guest file restores is optional. If you do not configure a preferred node for guest file restores for a hypervisor, when you perform live browse and restore of guest files on Linux VMs, the Commvault software automatically selects an access node.
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