Chapter 6. Backups in vSphere 5

Moving to a virtualized environment provides the opportunity to perform an in-depth review of backup architectures. Backup technologies and methodologies must be adapted to the virtual environment because of the unique and complex issues involved; a virtual machine (VM) is usually not backed up the same way a traditional server is. Successfully implementing backups reveals some of the benefits of virtualization and serves as a lever to reduce costs. The opposite is also true; improper backup implementation can have dire consequences for the entire information system.

Backups: An Overview

Before detailing the key backup issues that can occur in this environment, we define some basic concepts in this section.

What ...

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