Backup strategies have evolved to meet the unique challenges posed by virtual environments. One important decision that IT professionals must make is whether to perform backups at the guest level or the host level.
In this blog, we will examine the benefits and drawbacks of each approach and provide guidance on selecting the best backup strategy for your organization.
Guest level Backup – An Overview:
What is Guest level Backup?
Guest level backup is process of installing a backup agent on each virtual machine (VM). The special agent is being installed in the operating system of the virtual machine to carry on the backup by interacting with their file systems and applications. This is more like a physical machine backup.
How Guest level Backup Works?
Guest level backup works by installing backup agents or software directly onto each virtual machine (VM). These agents or software then communicate with the backup server to create backups of the VM’s data, applications, and operating system. This approach enables granular backups at the VM level, allowing for specific files and folders to be backed up within each VM.
Pros of Guest level Backup:
- Supports entire machines backup as well as granular backup of specific files and folders within each VM
- Suitable for smaller virtual environments
Cons of Guest level Backup:
- Installing backup agents on all virtual machines can be a time-consuming process
- Increased overhead as the backup agent on each VM will consume additional resources and affect performance
- Not suitable for large environments as management can be challenging
Host Level Backup – An overview:
What is Host level backup?
Host level backup is a backup strategy that involves installing software at the hypervisor level or connecting the hypervisor via APIs. The software is installed in the host and it backs up the entire VM inclusive of their OS, virtual disks and configuration. This approach allows for backups of all VMs on the host machine, and provides a more centralized and efficient backup solution.
How Host level backup works?
Host level backup works without bothering about the operating systems running on the VMs. A complete backup of the VMs are possible inclusive of their OS, applications, disk files and their configuration files in which the configuration settings of VMs such as Virtual CPU, memory,storage,network etc., are present.
Pros of Host level Backup:
- As there is no agents required in the host level backup it is easier to configure & manage backups compared to guest-level method
- Requires less setup and configuration time compared to guest-level backup
- Allows for the backup of all VMs on the host machine, providing a more efficient backup solution
Cons of Host level Backup:
- Backups are performed at the VM image level, limiting the ability to selectively backup specific files and folders within each VM
- Backup processes may impact the performance of other VMs running on the host machine
Guest Level Backup & Host Level Backup – A Comparison:
| GUEST LEVEL BACKUP | HOST LEVEL BACKUP |
|---|---|
| Agent-based Backup | Agentless Backup |
| Both VM Image level and Granular backups are supported | Only VM Image level backup is supported |
| Backup setup and configuration can be time consuming as agent need to be installed on each VMs | Backup setup and configuration is quick as backup software directly accesses the host |
| More computing resources needed | Less computing resources needed |
| Suitable for small virtual environments | Suitable for larger environments |
How to choose between Guest Level & Host Level Backup?
In conclusion, choosing between guest-level and host-level backup depends on the specific needs of your organization.
- Guest-level backup offers granular backups and independence from the host environment, but can be time-consuming to set up and may impact the performance of individual VMs
- Host-level backup provides a more centralized and efficient backup solution, but sacrifices granularity and may impact the performance of multiple VMs running on the same host
The understanding of how each backup method works & its pros & cons helps to choose the right method for your business.
BDRSuite – A Comprehensive Backup Software that support both guest-level and host-level backup
Fortunately, there are backup solutions available that support both guest-level and host-level backup. One such solution is BDRSuite, which provides a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery solution for virtual, physical, cloud workloads and SaaS applications.
With BDRSuite, you can choose the backup method that works best for your organization, whether that be guest-level or host-level backup for virtual environments. BDRSuite supports agentless image based backup for VMware & Hyper-V and also provides guest level backup for other hypervisors. Additionally, BDRSuite offers a range of advanced features, such as instant VM recovery and granular recovery, that can help minimize downtime and protect critical data in the event of a disaster.
Download BDRSuite now and start your 30-day free trial.
Follow our Twitter and Facebook feeds for new releases, updates, insightful posts and more.
