You can use the Virtual Server Agent (VSA) to back up and recover virtual machine data in a Hyper-V cluster or a standalone Hyper-V server.
Key Features
Feature |
Description |
Additional information |
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Agentless backups and restores |
Install the Virtual Server Agent on a Hyper-V node to act as a VSA proxy. A VSA proxy manages backup and restore operations for guest VMs in your environment, eliminating the need to install agents on guest VMs. |
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"Incremental forever" data protection |
After an initial full backup, you can perform ongoing incremental backups to capture changes for the source VM. |
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Changed Block Tracking |
Commvault uses Changed Block Tracking (CBT) to identify changes for each incremental backup. |
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Restores |
You can restore full VMs, disks, or guest files and folders |
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Disaster recovery |
Replicate VMs to a warm recovery site to ensure that VMs are available in the event of a disaster or other outage. DR orchestration features include planned or unplanned failovers and failbacks. |
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Simplified operational interface |
The web-based Command Center interface uses smart defaults to simplify configuration and support streamlined operations. |
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Self service for end users |
The Web Console provides self service options for end users and groups. |
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VM provisioning |
End users can use the Web Console to provision VMs based on pre-defined templates. |
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Advanced administration |
The CommCell Console provides advanced options for Commvault operations. Using the CommCell Console, you can configure a virtualization client that serves as a single point of administration for all cluster nodes. You can perform backups and restores from the virtualization client, and perform other administrative tasks such as creating schedules and generating reports. |
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Automatic protection for all virtual machines in a cluster or server |
By default, all virtual machines in a Hyper-V cluster or server are automatically selected for backup, to ensure that all virtual machines are backed up. |
Excluding Unprotected Virtual Machines in the Default Subclient |
Application-aware backups |
Perform application-consistent backups without manually installing application agents on virtual machines. From the Command Center, you can use the Auto discover applications option to automatically find applications on servers and install the agents that can back up the applications. (For more information, see Automatic Discovery of Applications in the Command Center.) |
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Automatic discovery |
To back up categories of virtual machines, you can create rules to automatically select virtual machines based on specific criteria. Automatic discovery is useful in environments where virtual machines are frequently added or removed. |
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Protection of migrated virtual machines |
The virtual machines in a cluster are seamlessly backed up even if virtual machine migrate to a different host. When the cluster is backed up, incremental backup cycles are also maintained. |
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Customized filters |
To exclude virtual machines from backups, create rules to filter virtual machines. |
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VM conversion |
When restoring a VM, you can choose to restore to a different hypervisor. This capability can be used to migrate VMs to a different virtualization platform. |
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Reports |
You can view detailed information about each backed up virtual machine, including information such as size of the data, the status of integration services, the guest operating system, and the host on which the virtual machine is running. |
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System Center plug-in |
You can install the Commvault System Center plug-in to manage backups and recovery of Hyper-V virtual machines from within the System Center on the Command Center. |
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Snapshot support |
Use array snapshots to capture virtual machine data quickly, with minimal impact on the source VM, and use the snapshot as a source for backup copies. |
Commvault Platform Features
The following features are available throughout Commvault and are not limited to the Virtual Server Agent.
Feature |
Description |
Additional information |
---|---|---|
Policy-driven data protection |
Policies drive operations to meet service level agreements (SLAs). |
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Block-level deduplication |
Block-level deduplication compares blocks of data during backups. If virtual machines contain identical blocks of data, block-level deduplication eliminates the storage of redundant data and reduces the size of data in storage. |
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Built-in compression |
Commvault storage policies automatically enable compression to reduce the quantity of data sent to storage. |