Comparison of VSA and VM-Centric VSA

VM client creation

VM client created during discovery.

VM client created during discovery, with backup set and subclient for each VM.

VM client entities are visible to end users and administrators who are identified as VM owners.

VM backup sets are associated with backup set of a subclient that includes the VM.

Enable or disable activity

Control whether backups, restores, and data aging are enabled for subclients.

Control whether backups, restores, and data aging are enabled for individual VMs.

VM-level security

Specify security settings for individual VMs. In the CommCell Browser, end users can only see clients for virtual machines for which they have appropriate ownership and permissions.

Specify security settings for individual VMs. In the CommCell Browser, end users can only see clients for virtual machines for which they have appropriate ownership and permissions.

Backup history

Delete a subclient to delete the backup history for all VMs in the subclient.

Delete a VM client to delete the backup history for that VM.

Deleting a VM from the hypervisor affects data retention and backup copy operations for the VM. For more information, see Data Aging and Retention Operations.

Backups

Perform streaming or IntelliSnap backup operations and backup copy operations.

Perform streaming or IntelliSnap backup operations and backup copy operations.

Subclient backup is performed as a single job for all VMs in the subclient.

A backup operation for a subclient runs as a VM Admin job. Commvault automatically creates child jobs with unique IDs for each VM, and commits VM-specific backup data as each child job finishes.

Distribute VM backup jobs across the available VSA proxies and MediaAgents, with a separate stream for each job.

Distribute VM backup jobs across the available VSA proxies and MediaAgents, with a separate stream for each job.

Indexing of backup metadata is performed for a subclient job.

Index extents are backed up and retained for each VM. VM Admin jobs do not carry indexing information.

Run synthetic full backup jobs for subclients.

Run synthetic full backup operations for individual VMs.

You can run incremental backups in parallel while synthetic full backup jobs are in progress.

Synthetic full backups use a single stream.

Perform multi-stream synthetic full backup operations.

Perform application-aware backups for a subclient.

Perform application-aware backups for individual VMs.

Incremental backups are performed for a subclient, and are not tracked across subclients when a VM is moved to a different subclient.

For streaming backups, incremental backups are maintained when VMs are moved to a different subclient within the same backup set.

Specify the Collect File Details option for a subclient to collect information during backups.

File and folder information is not collected during backups.

You can specify the Collect File Details option for backups that are copied to tape.

To restore guest files and folders from a VM-centric backup, use one of the copies (primary or secondary) and perform a live browse from the disk/cloud library. Guest file restores from tape are not supported with VM-centric backups, because file details are not collected in VM-centric backups, and live browse operations are not supported from tape copies. As a workaround if no disk library is available, you can restore a full VM or a virtual machine disk from a tape copy.

File indexing for virtual machines is supported from the Command Center.

File indexing for virtual machines is supported from the Command Center and for selected hypervisors in the CommCell Console.

For more information, see File Indexing for Virtual Machines.

From the CommCell Console, you can specify criteria to archive virtual machines as part of backups.

You cannot use the virtual machine archiving feature for VM-centric virtualization clients.

Job Control

Backups run for a backup set or for a subclient.

A backup operation for a backup set or a subclient runs as a VM Admin job. Commvault automatically creates child jobs with unique IDs for each VM, and commits VM-specific backup data as each child job finishes.

Perform job control operations from the virtualization client.

Perform job control operations for each VM.

Set the job priority for each VM.

Set the job priority for each VM.

Define an Operation Window from the backup set of a virtualization client, to queue a job that is launched outside of the defined operation window.

Define an Operation Window from the backup set of a VM client, to skip the VM if a job that includes the VM is launched outside of the defined operation window.

Restores

Browse and restore VMs or files from the virtualization client, or from a backup set or subclient under the virtualization client.

Browse and restore VMs or files from the client or subclient for an individual VM, or from the backup set for a subclient.

For a restore job that includes multiple VMs, the restore operation can use up to 10 streams (one stream per VM).

For a restore job that includes multiple VMs, the restore operation can use up to 10 streams (one stream per VM).

Perform live mount operations and live recovery operations for an individual VM, from streaming backups, IntelliSnap backups, or backup copies.

Perform live mount operations and live recovery operations for an individual VM, from streaming backups, IntelliSnap backups, or backup copies.

Perform live sync operations for VMs from streaming backups or from IntelliSnap backups.

Perform live sync operations for VMs from streaming backups or from IntelliSnap backups.

From the Command Center, you can configure replication for individual VMs.

If you restore files from a virtual machine that has a File System Agent installed, the Virtual Server Agent backup might not have the most recent backup data. To ensure that you are restoring from the most recent backup, initiate the restore from the job history for the virtual machine.

If you restore files from a virtual machine that has a File System Agent installed, the Virtual Server Agent backup might not have the most recent backup data. To ensure that you are restoring from the most recent backup, initiate the restore from the job history for the virtual machine.

Other operations

Specify retention settings in the storage policy that is associated with a subclient.

Customize retention and data aging for each VM.

Specify secondary copy associations for the virtualization client.

Identify a subset of VMs for secondary copy operations.

Generate reports for specific VMs.

Generate reports for specific VMs.

Command Center support

End users can use the Command Center to perform VM-centric operations.

End users can use the Command Center to perform VM-centric operations.

Web Console support

End users can manage VM backups and restores from the Web Console.

Web Console does not support VM-centric operations.