VMware Backup Overview

Features:

• Custom virtual machine selection
• Local or remote ESXi server or vCenter backup
• Block-level backup
• Compression and encryption
• Application-consistent backups
• Ability to exclude disks, files, or folders
• Changed Block Tracking (CBT) support
• Item-level restore
• Restore VMware VMs to Amazon EC2 and Microsoft Azure VM

Supported for:

• vSphere 6.0 to 8.0

Supported OS:

• Windows 10/11 (Pro, Enterprise)
• Windows Server 2008R2/2012/2012R2/2016/2019/2022

Licensing

A VM Server license is required to backup virtual machines. This license by default comes with two VM socket licenses included, meaning that you can only backup your virtual machines from a hypervisor that has no more than two physical processors. If your hypervisor incorporates three or more physical processors, acquiring an extra processor socket license will be required for each processor. If your virtual environment has more than 2 sockets, you need to buy additional VM Server Socket licenses to cover your requirements.

These licenses will be assigned as follows: once the backup plan starts for a VM, it checks if there are any sockets that are not covered by VM Server licenses, and if this is the case, the VM Sockets licenses will be requested from the license pool available to the user / company. If there is a sufficient amount of available VM socket licenses, these licenses will be assigned to the VM automatically. If there are no available VM socket licenses, the backup plan fails and the issue will be reported. It is recommended to ensure on Organization > Licenses that the VM socket licenses are available to the user/company before running the backup plan in question. All VM Socket licenses that are already in use will be shown as assigned.