Snapshot Types

In terms of data protection, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV allows you to create the following types of snapshots:

• Backup snapshots

A backup snapshot is a VM snapshot created by a backup job. Backup snapshots are displayed both in the Nutanix AHV backup appliance web console and in the Veeam Backup & Replication console, and can be used to perform entire VM restore and disk restore.

Backup snapshots allow Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV to use the CBT mechanism while creating backups and to speed up the restore process (in comparison to restore from image-level backups).

• Snapshots

A snapshot is a VM snapshot created by a snapshot job or taken manually in the Prism Element or Prism Central console. Snapshots are displayed both in the Nutanix AHV backup appliance web console and in the Veeam Backup & Replication console. You can use snapshots to restore VMs to the original Nutanix AHV environment.

While taking VM snapshots, Nutanix AHV captures data residing on virtual disks attached to the VMs. To protect data residing on volume groups that are attached to the VMs, volume group (VG) snapshots or protection domain (PD) snapshots are created. VG snapshots capture data of volume groups only, whereas PD snapshots capture data of consistency groups that include VMs and volume groups attached to them.

• Snapshots on Replica Sites

[Applies only to the Prism Central deployment] A snapshot on a replica site is a VM snapshot created and replicated by a Prism Central protection policy. Snapshots on replica sites are displayed neither in the Nutanix AHV backup appliance web console nor in the Veeam Backup & Replication console — these snapshots can be only be found in the Prism Central console.

Snapshots on replica sites allow Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV to reduce the backup load on the production environment. However, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV can use these snapshots only if the following requirements are met for each VM included into the backup scope:

• No volume groups are attached to the VM.
• At least one VM snapshot has been replicated to a remote location since the most recent backup was created.
• The VM disk configuration has not changed since the most recent snapshot was replicated to a remote location.

If any of those conditions are not met, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV performs backup using VM snapshots created by backup jobs in the main site.

• VG snapshots

A VG snapshot is a volume group snapshot created by a backup job to produce VM backups. Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV takes VG snapshots only if the backup scope includes individual virtual machines (not protection domains) with volume groups attached.

VG snapshots are displayed neither in the Nutanix AHV backup appliance web console nor in the Veeam Backup & Replication console. VG snapshots allow Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV to use the CBT mechanism while creating backups and to restore VMs with volume groups.

• PD snapshots

A PD snapshot is a protection domain snapshot created by a PD snapshot job or a backup job to protect data of consistency groups (VMs and volume groups) included into a protection domain. PD snapshots guarantee the consistency of VM and volume group data. Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV takes PD snapshots only if the following requirements are met for each protection domain included into the backup scope:

• The protection domain does not contain multiple VMs with the same name.
• VMs and their volume groups belong to the same protection domain.
• VMs and their volume groups are included into one consistency group of the protection domain.
• CHAP authentication is disabled for the volume groups.
• [Applies to backup jobs only] At least one consistency group of the protection domain contains more than one VM or volume group.

PD snapshots are displayed both in the Nutanix AHV backup appliance web console and in the Veeam Backup & Replication console. You can use PD snapshots to restore VMs to the original Nutanix AHV environment.

In terms of data consistency, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV allows you to create the following types of snapshots:

• Crash-consistent snapshots

A crash-consistent snapshot contains the data of virtual disks and volume groups attached to a VM.

• Application-consistent snapshots

An application-consistent snapshot contains not only the data of virtual disks and volume groups attached to a VM, but also the data of applications (such as Microsoft Active Directory, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange and Oracle) running in the VM guest OS, which allows you to restore the applications without data loss and corruption.

By default, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV always tries to create an application-consistent snapshot (of the VSS_BT_COPY backup type) when processing a VM. However, if the requirements for application-consistent snapshots are not met, Veeam Backup for Nutanix AHV creates a crash-consistent snapshot instead.