The following VMware configurations and technologies are supported:
- Individual VMs acting as Protector nodes in their own right (as for a physical machine).
- vCenter Servers managed via Protector proxy nodes.
- vSphere environments.
- vMotion - Protector tracks VMware objects by MoRef.
- vRealize Orchestrator (vRO) workflows for Protector backup and restore operations.
- VMware Site Recovery Manager (SRM) in conjunction with Hitachi block storage replication.
The following data protection technologies are supported:
- Host based batch backups via the hypervisor using VADP with Changed Block Tracking (CBT). VMware SAN Transport Mode is supported to offload and increase backup and restore speed.
- Block based snapshots, local and remote replications of VMFS datastores.Note: Recovery of VMs direct from block based replications or original snapshots is possible but not recommended. The recovery process destroys the backup dataset. Use a snapshot or local clone of the replication or cascade mode snapshots.
- Quiesced backup (only available for online VMs running Windows and VMware Tools).
The following data protection technologies are NOT supported:
- Host based CDP or live backup via the hypervisor.
- Host based backup of VMs having physical or virtual RDM. These storage types will be skipped by the backup process.
- Block based snapshots and replications of VMs having physical or virtual RDM or Passthrough storage types. Note: These storage types will be skipped by the backup process, but the backup will succeed for all other supported storage types if they coexist on a VM.
- Automated mount operations to VMs running SUSE Linux as the guest OS.