Introducing Arcserve Backup Agents and Options › Using Agents › Agent for Virtual Machines › Backing Up Data › How the Agent Protects Volumes Mounted from Virtual Hard Disks › Limitations of Protecting Volumes Mounted from Virtual Hard Disks

Limitations of Protecting Volumes Mounted from Virtual Hard Disks

Consider the following limitations when backing up VHD and VHDX volumes:

• Arcserve Backup lets you restore individual VHD files (using the Restore by Session or Restore by Tree restore methods) and mount those VHD files that were backed up using the Raw (full VM) backup mode only when the Allow file level restore option was not specified. To recover and mount VHD files that were backed up using the Raw (full VM) backup mode and the Allow file level restore option was specified, use the Recover VM restore method. After the virtual machine is recovered, you can mount the VHD files of the recovered virtual machine.
• Arcserve Backup does not support using VSS to back up nested VHD or VHDX volumes that contain more than one level of data.

  Consider the following example:

  • Disk 0 contains drive C:\.
  • Drive C:\ contains mounted volume drive V:\.
  • Drive V:\ contains mounted volume drive W:\.

  Arcserve Backup cannot detect the .vhd or .vhdx file that resides in drive V:\.

  Note: To protect data files that reside in drive W:\, submit the backup using the Client Agent for Windows in conjunction with the Agent for Open Files.

• Arcserve Backup creates separate backup sessions for mounted volumes that contain VHD or VHDX files.

  Note: This behavior applies to backups that were submitted using the Client Agent for Windows in conjunction with the Agent for Open Files.

  Consider the following example:

  • A server contains physical disk (C:\) that contains VHDs or VHDXs D:\ and E:\. VHD or VHDX files (D.vhd or D.vhdx and E.vhd or E.vhdx) that reside in C:\ are mounted as drive D:\, and drive E:\. Drive D:\ is mounted to C:\MountD, and drive E:\ is mounted to C:\MountE.
  • When you back up C:\MountD and specify the Traverse Directory Junctions and Volume Mount Points option, Arcserve Backup creates separate backup sessions for drive D:\ and C:\MountD.
  • When you back up C:\MountE and specify the Traverse Directory Junctions and Volume Mount Points option and the Backup Mount Points as Part of the volume that they are mounted on option, Arcserve Backup creates separate backup sessions for drive E:\ and C:\MountE.

    Note: The following options are located on the Backup Manager, Global Options, Advanced dialog:

    • Traverse Directory Junctions and Volume Mount Points
    • Backup Mount Points as Part of the volume that they are mounted on