> Essential > Virtualization > Information for All Virtualized Platforms > Application-Aware Backups > Requirements for Application-Aware Backups

Source VM Requirements

The virtual machines that host applications must be discoverable by backup operations.

  • Ensure that hypervisor guest tools are installed on the source VMs.

  • When a virtual machine is discovered during backup, a client for the VM is created in the Command Center if one does not already exist. If a virtual machine with spaces or special characters in its name is discovered during backup, the spaces or special characters are replaced with underscores ('_') when creating the VM client name that is displayed in the Command Center. The VM name with spaces or special characters is still displayed in the backup job summary and in reports that include the VM name. The following special characters are replaced:

    [ \ \ | ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * + = < > ? , { } ( ) : ; ' \ " \ \ s / ]

  • To enable discovery of applications running on Windows VMs when using a Linux proxy, install the File System Core package on the guest VMs before running an application-aware backup.

  • To enable application discovery on Windows machines, the Windows machine where the application runs must have PowerShell 5.0.

  • On Windows guest VMs, make sure the applications that are protected by application-aware backups have the corresponding VSS writers installed and running. When a hypervisor application consistent VM snapshot is created, the application VSS writers are engaged to quiesce the application before taking the VM snapshot.

Shadow Storage for Volume Shadow Copies

The shadow storage for a VSS snapshot of an application volume must be associated to the same volume as the volume being snapped.

Use the vssadmin add shadowstorage command to set the shadow storage association for a volume on guest VMs. The following example for an application that resides on volume D: specifies that volume D: is to be used for storage and that the maximum size for storage space should be 900 MB:

vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=D: /on=d: /maxsize=900mb

VM Credentials

The credentials specified for application-aware backups at the hypervisor, VM group, or virtual machine level are used to install application plug-ins and to perform backups of virtual machines and application data.

If application credentials are different from the credentials that were specified to access the virtual machine, the application backup fails.

For more information, see Specifying Credentials for Application-Aware Backups.

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