Backup from Cisco HyperFlex Snapshots

Veeam Backup & Replication integrates with Cisco HyperFlex and allows you to improve performance of backup and replication of VMware vSphere VMs hosted on Cisco HyperFlex.

For backup and replication of VMs hosted on Cisco HyperFlex, Veeam Backup & Replication does not use VMware vSphere snapshots to preserve VMs in a consistent state suitable for backup or replication. Instead, it relies on native Cisco HyperFlex VM snapshots. Use of Cisco HyperFlex VM snapshots lets avoid the overhead produced by VMware vSphere snapshots removal on the production environment.

To create HyperFlex VM snapshots, Cisco leverages VMware vSphere Storage APIs Array Integration (VAAI). VAAI enables VMware vSphere ESXi hosts to communicate with storage devices and offload storage operations such as snapshot creation and cloning to the storage array. As a result, Cisco HyperFlex can create space efficient VM snapshots almost instantly. Veeam Backup & Replication, in its turn, can use HyperFlex snapshots for VM data processing, which helps speed up backup and replication operations, reduce impact of backup and replication activities on the production environment and improve RPOs.

Implementation of integration with Cisco HyperFlex is different from those provided for other supported storage systems. When Veeam Backup & Replication processes VMs hosted on Cisco HyperFlex, it leverages snapshots created at the VM level, not snapshots created at the storage volumes level. The results of the VM processing are reported in job results: if a VM is processed with Cisco HyperFlex snapshots, Veeam Backup & Replication displays the 'Creating VM native Cisco HX snapshot' message in job statistics.

Backup from Cisco HyperFlex Snapshots 

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