Your backup task failed and you see this error log:

"Failed to take an application aware snapshot of virtual machine because a production checkpoint couldn't be created. The system will disable application aware processing this time and retake the snapshot."

The system can't create production checkpoints in the following situations:

• When there isn't enough space.
• When the required Hyper-V Integration Services aren't running on the virtual machine.

Make sure your guest device can create a production checkpoint

Method 1: Create a production checkpoint using Hyper-V Manager

1. Right-click on a virtual machine from Hyper-V Manager and select Settings.
2. Under Management in the left panel, select Checkpoints.
3. Make sure Production checkpoints is selected.
4. Make sure that Create standard checkpoints if the guest does not support creation of production checkpoints. is not selected.
5. Right click on a virtual machine and click Checkpoint to create one.

Method 2: Create a production checkpoint using PowerShell

Important: In the following commands, replace $vm_name with the name of your virtual machine.

1. On the hypervisor host, run PowerShell as an administrator.
2. Check the type of checkpoint that is created:
   get-vm $vm_name | select Id,CheckpointType
3. Set the checkpoint type to Production Only if necessary (Production is the default option):
   set-vm $vm_name -CheckpointType ProductionOnly
4. Create a checkpoint:
   checkpoint-vm $vm_name
5. Delete the checkpoint after the test is successful:
   Get-VM $vm_name | Get-VMSnapshot | Remove-VMSnapshot
6. Switch the checkpoint type back to Production:
   set-vm $vm_name -CheckpointType Production

If checkpoint creation fails

Certain Hyper-V integration services need to be installed on the guest operating system to create production checkpoints. These services differ on Windows and Linux. Learn more about the required services on Windows and Linux guest operating systems.

For Windows guest operating systems

To create checkpoints, the guest operating system must have "vmicvss" installed.

1. In Windows Search, enter "services.msc" to open Services.
2. Make sure "vmicvss" is running.
3. If application-aware processing still isn't working, check if the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) is working.

For Linux guest operating systems

To create checkpoints, the guest operating system must have "hv_vss_daemon" or "hypervvssd" installed.

1. Open Linux Terminal.
2. Run the following commands to make sure "hv_vss_daemon" or "hypervvssd" is running:
   ps aux | grep [h]ypervvssd
   ps aux | grep [h]v_vss_daemon
3. If not, install the Hyper-V integration service to enable application-aware processing. Run the following commands as the root user:
   • Ubuntu:
     apt-get update
     apt-get install linux-azure
     apt-get install "linux-cloud-tools-$(uname -r)"
   • CentOS:
     yum install hyperv-daemons
   • Debian:
     apt-get install hyperv-daemons