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Microsoft Hyper-V Guest Quiescence

To create transactionally consistent backups and replicas for VMs that do not support Microsoft VSS (for example, Linux VMs), you must enable Microsoft Hyper-V guest quiescence for the job. In this case, Veeam Backup & Replication will use a native Microsoft Hyper-V approach to quiesce the VM. Microsoft Hyper-V guest quiescence helps freeze the file system and application data on the VM and create a stable shadow copy of the volume where VM data resides.

Microsoft Hyper-V Guest Quiescence Note:

To create consistent backups for such VMs, applications should be prepared using special pre-freeze and post-thaw scripts that you should create and store on the backup server beforehand. When the job starts, Veeam Backup & Replication will upload these scripts to the appropriate folders on VM guest. For more information, see Pre-Freeze and Post-Thaw Scripts.

To quiesce the VM, Veeam Backup & Replication can use the following methods:

  • Online backup (Microsoft Hyper-V method)
  • Offline backup (Microsoft Hyper-V method)
  • Crash-consistent backup (Veeam method)

The quiescence method is selected in the following way:

  • If a VM meets all requirements for online backup, Veeam Backup & Replication will use the online backup method.
  • If a VM does not meet requirements for online backup, Veeam Backup & Replication will use the offline backup method. During offline backup a VM is suspended for a short period of time.

If you do not want to suspend the VM, you can instruct Veeam Backup & Replication to create a crash-consistent backup instead of creating a transactionally consistent backup with the offline backup method.

Microsoft Hyper-V guest quiescence is enabled at the job level for all VMs added to the job. By default, this option is disabled.

Microsoft Hyper-V Guest Quiescence Note:

Offline backup is not applicable to VMs registered on Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016.

Microsoft Hyper-V Guest Quiescence