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 |
Backup of an unlimited number of virtual machines on the same physical host with 1 license. 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** |
|
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.
More information
See also:
- Virtual Machines Supported by Acronis Products
- Converting Backup Archive of a Linux System to a Virtual Machine
- Acronis Product Licensing Table