Knowledge Base

The recommendation is to use Virtual Appliance instead of Windows Agent

This article applies to:

• Acronis vmProtect

Description

There are two ways to install Acronis vmProtect 6: the software can be installed directly on ESX(i) host as a Virtual Appliance or Acronis vmProtect Windows Agent can be installed on a physical Windows machine outside the ESX(i) infrastructure.

For installation instructions please see: Acronis vmProtect 6: Installation.

Installation as a Virtual Appliance is recommended for the following reasons:

• Your backups will be LAN-free without additional setup effort - you will not have to connect the FC/iSCSI storage to the Windows machine where you run the Agent;
• The hot-add method used by Virtual Appliance is usually fastest possible one to get access to the virtual machine data for reading;
• Virtual Appliance is free from possible software compatibility issues - such as third-party NFS servers or other services which may block the ports;
• It is easier to maintain Virtual Appliance and you will not need to have a dedicated Windows machine for it;
• Virtual Appliance is easier and faster to install.

More information

The disadvantage of virtual appliance is that the backup will consume CPU and memory resources from the ESX(i) host (rather than from Windows machine) which may be an issue for highly loaded environments.

See also Acronis vmProtect 6: Installation.