Acronis Backup (Advanced) for Virtual Host is designed and optimized specially for agentless backup of virtual machines: these editions allow you to perform backups of virtual machines without the need to install an agent on each guest system - agents only need to be installed on hosts.
The table below shows the main differences between agentless backup and using Agent for Windows/Agent for Linux to back up a virtual machine.
| Agentless backup | Agent-based (Agent for Windows/Linux) | |
|---|---|---|
| Available in |
Acronis Backup for Virtual Host |
Acronis Backup Acronis Backup Advanced |
| Available for |
VMware |
VMware Hyper-V Citrix XenServer RHEV Oracle KVM |
| Licensing |
1 license of Acronis Backup (Advanced) for Virtual Host: backup of an unlimited number of virtual machines on the same physical host If you are using clustered VMware ESX of Hyper-V servers, you need 1 license for Acronis Backup (Advanced) per each host in cluster. |
1 license of Acronis Backup (Advanced) for Virtual Host: backup of unlimited number of virtual machines on the same physical host Other Acronis Backup (Advanced) editions: backup of 1 physical or 1 virtual machine |
| Installation | One Agent on Hyper-V host One Agent on ESX(i) host or on a Windows machine outside of the vSphere environment |
Agents on all virtual machines |
| What OS can be backed up? | Any operating system supported as guest by virtualization server. |
Operating systems supported by Agent for Windows / Agent for Linux. |
| Back up selected files/folders inside virtual machine | NO* | YES |
| Back up to Online Storage | YES | YES |
| Exclude files/folders from backup | YES | YES |
| Recover backup to a virtual machine | YES | YES |
|
Recover backup directly to virtualization server |
YES | YES** |
* You can recover files and folders from a disk image.
**You need to have an Acronis Backup (Advanced) Virtual Host license registered in your License Server.
Virtual machines with Acronis Backup Agent for Windows/Linux installed inside will be shown in Physical Machines list in Acronis Management Server. Virtual machines backed up by Acronis Backup Agent for ESX/ESXi or by Acronis Backup Agent for Hyper-V will be shown in Virtual Machines list.
Agent-based and agentless backup may have different speed depending on many factors such as workload complexity and priority, server capacity and utilization, local area network (LAN) and WAN bandwidth, and more. Since no two environments are the same, it is recommended to test which type of backup works best for your infrastructure and better suits your needs.
More information
See also:
- Virtual Machines Supported by Acronis Products
- Converting Backup Archive of a Linux System to a Virtual Machine
- Acronis Products Licensing Table