# Virtual machine backup types

Choose backup types based on workload criticality, required consistency, recovery objectives, deployment model, and hypervisor support.

## How to choose a backup type

Use this as a quick starting point:

Scenario | Recommended backup type
--- | ---
Transactional applications (databases, SAP, Exchange) | Application-aware
Large environments with strict RPO/RTO | Snapshot-based (IntelliSnap), often combined with application-aware
General VM protection | File-system- and application-consistent
Platforms without snapshot support | Streaming or agent-based
Low-criticality or stateless workloads | Crash-consistent

## Backup type characteristics

Backup types represent different characteristics of protection that can be combined, depending on configuration:

- Consistency level (data integrity)

- Data capture method (how backups are taken)

- Architecture (how protection is deployed)

### Consistency level (data integrity)

Backup type | What it means | Typical use cases | Trade-offs
--- | --- | --- | ---
Crash-consistent | No quiescing; equivalent to sudden power loss | Dev/test, stateless workloads | Possible data loss for in-flight transactions
File-system- and application-consistent | File system integrity with OS-level quiescing | General workloads | Not fully reliable for transactional applications
Application-aware | Application-level consistency (transactions, logs) | Databases, Exchange, SAP HANA | More setup and overhead

### Data capture method (how backups are taken)

Method | What it does | Typical use cases | Trade-offs
--- | --- | --- | ---
Snapshot-based | Storage-level snapshots for rapid capture and recovery | Large environments, low RPO/RTO, DR scenarios | Requires supported storage infrastructure
Streaming | Direct data transfer without snapshots | Platforms without snapshot support | Slower; higher network and host resource usage

### Architecture (how protection is deployed)

Approach | What it does | Typical use cases | Trade-offs
--- | --- | --- | ---
Agentless (hypervisor-based) | Backup via hypervisor integration | Most modern VM environments | Less granular control
Agent-based application | In-guest agent captures application data | Legacy systems, specialized application requirements | Operational overhead and agent management

## Combining backup types

Backup types are often used together:

Combination | Outcome / Use case
--- | ---
Snapshot-based + application-aware | Fast, application-consistent backups (common for databases at scale)
Streaming + application-aware | Used when snapshot support is not available
Agent-based + application-aware | Maximum control and granularity, with higher operational overhead

## Supported workloads

Availability for backup types might depend on configuration, guest OS, and application support.

Workload | Crash-consistent | File-system- and application-consistent | Application-aware | Snapshot-based | Streaming | Agent-based application
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Alibaba Cloud ECS | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Amazon EC2 | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Azure Local | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Azure Stack Hub | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Azure Virtual Machines | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Google Compute Engine | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Microsoft Hyper-V | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ (temporary snap, used only during backup) | ✗ | ✓
Nutanix AHV | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
OpenStack | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
Oracle VM | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓
Proxmox VE | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗
Red Hat Virtualization | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓
VMware Cloud Director | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓
VMware vSphere | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓

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