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Keeping virtual machines running smoothly has its challenges, but a well-defined virtual machine backup plan guarantees a resilient and secure system that keeps your data and virtual machine configurations safe. You can accomplish these goals through a combination of snapshots, backup agents and best practices. Snapshots and backup agents One amazing feature of virtual machines technology is the ability to take a snapshot of an entire machine at any point of time. You can take a snapshot while the machine is live and running programs and use it later to roll back your virtual machine to its previous state. You can use the snapshot to restore or back out configuration changes that are causing instability. The snapshot feature may seem like all you need to keep your system’s data safe, but it is only one component of a solid recovery plan. Snapshot also has a drawback. Since snapshots store all the details of a virtual machine’s configuration, programs and data, they consume a lot of disk space. If your disaster recovery plan simply includes taking regular snapshots, you will soon run out of space and watch as your virtual machine grinds to a halt. Most of the snapshot is just storing redundant configuration data over and over again anyway. Backup agents provide a better long-term recovery solution. Back up agents can be configured to track only data that has changed or only data from certain critical applications that you need to recover. Using backup agents will save you disk space and help you streamline your disaster recovery plan. Best practices Some recovery systems require take several different kinds of backups at different times of the week, however, the better backup software make a full backup once and incrementals thereafter. When creating so many backups, you will want to make sure you aren’t saving the same data over and over again. Since it is wise to avoid the pitfall of redundant data saving with snapshots, you will also want to make sure that your backup software has a de-duplication feature that automatically removes duplicate data about software sessions and data that has already been backed up. By following these guidelines, you will have a robust disaster recovery system. If you need to start over, you can restore the bare metal images and only the important application data. Either way, you will have a first class virtual machine recovery system standing by in the event of disaster. AppAssure has the #1 backup and replication software in the industry. To obtain a free trial version of AppAssure software, click here to download or go AppAssure to learn more.
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