VM Backup

To produce backups of VMs, Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV runs backup jobs. A backup job is a collection of settings that define the way backup operations are performed: what data to back up, where to store backups, when to start the backup process, and so on.

How to Protect VMs

How VM Backup Works

Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV performs VM backup in the following way:

Connects to the oVirt KVM Manager over REST API and creates a snapshot of the processed VM.
Launches a worker in the same cluster where the processed VM resides.

If no worker is deployed in the cluster, Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV launches a worker that is deployed in any other cluster connected to the oVirt KVM Manager; if no workers are deployed in the connected clusters, the embedded worker is used instead.

Uses the worker to read VM data from the snapshot created at step 1, transfers the data to the target backup repository and stores it in the native Veeam format.

To reduce the amount of data read from snapshots, Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV uses the changed block tracking (CBT) mechanism: during incremental backup sessions, Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV sends a REST API request to the oVirt KVM Manager to retrieve only those data blocks that have changed since the previous backup session. If CBT cannot be used, Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV reads all data from the snapshots. For more information, see Changed Block Tracking.

Veeam Backup for OLVM and RHV compresses and deduplicates data saved to repositories.

Removes the created snapshot and suspends the worker when the backup session completes.