Perform a backup from the subclient for the VM that hosts an application.
Note
Perform full or incremental backups for VM groups (subclients) that are configured for application-aware backups. Synthetic full backups are not supported. Scheduled synthetic full backups are converted automatically to full backups for VM groups and subclients that are configured for application-aware backups.
An application-aware backup includes two backup operations:
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The virtual machine is backed up.
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The VSA backup automatically triggers a backup of the application using IntelliSnap. The application backup is always a full backup, regardless of the backup type chosen for the VM.
Before You Begin
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Review the requirements for application-aware backups.
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The VSA subclient must be configured for application-aware backup, and must specify a storage policy that has a Snap copy defined.
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In a firewalled environment with restricted network settings or where WMI ports are not open, see Remote Installation Requirements for Application-Aware Backups to enable remote installations during application-aware backups.
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To perform an integrity check for Microsoft Exchange databases during an application-aware backup, create the dwVSAExchangeIntegrityCheck additional setting on the Commvault client for the virtual machine that is running Exchange and set the value to 1. This option applies only when running an IntelliSnap backup from a VSA subclient. Ensure that the VSA proxy used for the backup has Exchange management tools installed.
Important
Do not filter virtual machine disks. If a virtual machine disk is filtered, the VSA backup job completes with errors and the application backup job fails. You will not be able to restore application data.
Notes
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If remote installation fails for any virtual machines during the initial backup, the VSA backup job status shows as "Completed with errors." For any virtual machines that already had an application agent installed, application-aware backups and restores can still be performed.
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If the first application-aware backup installs a plug-in for Oracle for Windows, the backup fails. Restart Oracle services on the virtual machine where Oracle is running after the application-aware workflow completes and then retry the backup.
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After a SharePoint plug-in is installed as part of an application-aware backup, set SharePoint Timer service account information in the SharePoint server properties.
Performing the Backup
Perform the backup from the Virtual Server Agent subclient that has been configured for application-aware backups using the standard backup procedure for streaming or IntelliSnap backups.
Backups use the default proxy for the instance or subclient. Streaming backups can take advantage of multiple proxies for load balancing or failover. All proxies that are available for the operation must meet the requirements for application-aware backups.
During the backup, you can see the following jobs for the application-aware backups from the Job Controller or Backup History:
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A job for the Virtual Server backup.
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A job for VSAAppAwareBackupWorkflow.
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IntelliSnap backup jobs for each application.
If you display the Virtual Machine Status tab in Job Details, you can check the App Aware Status value to verify whether applications were successfully backed up as part of the application-aware backup.
To restore application databases, see Performing a Restore from an Application-Aware Backup.