Application-aware backup

Application-aware backup takes consistent snapshots of application data on physical servers and virtual machines during the backup process. This ensures data consistency and enhances the reliability of restoring applications to their previous states in case of a disaster.

Before you start

Make sure your machines meet the following requirements:

• For Windows: Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is enabled on the target machine.
• For VMware: The latest version of VMware Tools is installed on the target machine.

Enable application-aware backup

1. Go to Plans > Protection Plans.
2. Click on the target plan and navigate to the Applications tab.
3. Select Enable application-aware backup.

Set database processing preferences

After enabling application-aware backup, you can customize settings for SQL or Oracle database processing:

Select a processing mode

Choose how the backup should proceed if all databases or database instances fail to process, or if there are VSS writer errors:

• Continue backups during database processing errors: The backup process will continue, ensuring the completion of the backup job.
• Stop backups during database processing errors: The backup process will terminate, skipping any remaining workload data.

Configure log settings

Specify how to manage SQL transaction logs and Oracle archived logs. Options include truncating or deleting logs from the source database server.¹

Set default credentials

To authenticate database backups, configure default guest OS and database credentials that will apply to all virtual machines or physical servers in the protection plan:

1. Select Set default credentials.
2. Click Credential Settings and enter the following credentials.
   • Guest OS credentials: Used to sign in to virtual machines for database processing. If database credentials are not provided, ActiveProtect will also use guest OS credentials to process databases.
   • Database credentials: Specifically used for authenticating and processing databases.