Supported virtualization platforms
The following table summarizes how various virtualization platforms are supported.
The following hypervisor vendors and versions supported via the Backup from inside a guest OS method have been specifically tested. However, even if you run a hypervisor from a vendor or hypervisor with a version that is not listed below, the Backup from inside a guest OS method may still work correctly in all required scenarios.
If you encounter issues while using Acronis Cyber Protect with your combination of hypervisor vendor and version, contact the Support team for further investigation.
VMware
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| VMware vSphere versions: 4.1, 5.0, 5.1, 5.5, 6.0, 6.5, 6.7, 7.0, 8.0 VMware vSphere editions: VMware vSphere Essentials* VMware vSphere Essentials Plus* VMware vSphere Standard* VMware vSphere Advanced VMware vSphere Enterprise VMware vSphere Enterprise Plus |
+ | + |
| VMware vSphere Hypervisor (Free ESXi)** | + | |
|
VMware Server (VMware Virtual server) VMware Workstation VMware ACE VMware Player |
+ |
* In these editions, the HotAdd transport for virtual disks is supported on vSphere 5.0 and later. On version 4.1, backups may run slower.
** Backup at a hypervisor level is not supported for vSphere Hypervisor because this product limits the access to Remote Command Line Interface (RCLI) to read-only mode. The agent works during the vSphere Hypervisor evaluation period while no serial key is entered. Once you enter a serial key, the agent stops functioning.
Acronis officially supports any update within the supported major vSphere version.
For example, vSphere 8.0 support includes support for any update within this version, unless stated otherwise. For example, vSphere 8.0 Update 1 is also supported along with originally released vSphere 8.0.
Limitations
- Fault tolerant machines
Agent for VMware backs up a fault tolerant machine only if fault tolerance was enabled in VMware vSphere 6.0 and later. If you upgraded from an earlier vSphere version, it is enough to disable and enable fault tolerance for each machine. If you are using an earlier vSphere version, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Independent disks and RDM
Agent for VMware does not back up Raw Device Mapping (RDM) disks in physical compatibility mode and independent disks. The agent skips these disks and adds warnings to the log. You can avoid the warnings by excluding independent disks and RDMs in physical compatibility mode from the protection plan. If you want to back up these disks or data on these disks, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
In-guest iSCSI connection
Agent for VMware does not back up LUN volumes connected by an iSCSI initiator that works within the guest operating system. Because the ESXi hypervisor is not aware of such volumes, the volumes are not included in hypervisor-level snapshots and are omitted from the backup without a warning. If you want to back up such volumes or data on such volumes, install an agent in the guest operating system.
- Encrypted virtual machines (introduced in VMware vSphere 6.5)
- Encrypted virtual machines are backed up in an unencrypted state. If encryption is critical to you, enable encryption of backups when creating a protection plan.
- Recovered virtual machines are always unencrypted. You can manually enable encryption after the recovery is complete.
- If you back up encrypted virtual machines, we recommend that you also encrypt the virtual machine where Agent for VMware is running. Otherwise, operations with encrypted machines may be slower than expected. Apply the VM Encryption Policy to the agent's machine by using vSphere Web Client.
- Encrypted virtual machines will be backed up via LAN, even if you configure the SAN transport mode for the agent. The agent will fall back on the NBD transport because VMware does not support SAN transport for backing up encrypted virtual disks.
- Secure Boot (introduced in VMware vSphere 6.5)
Secure Boot is disabled after a virtual machine is recovered as a new virtual machine. You can manually enable this option after the recovery is complete.
- ESXi configuration backup is not supported for VMware vSphere 7.0.
Microsoft
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
|
Windows Server 2008 (x64) with Hyper-V Windows Server 2008 R2 with Hyper-V Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008/2008 R2 Windows Server 2012/2012 R2 with Hyper-V Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012/2012 R2 Windows 8, 8.1 (x64) with Hyper-V Windows 10 with Hyper-V Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V – all installation options, except for Nano Server Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016 Windows Server 2019 with Hyper-V – all installation options, except for Nano Server Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2019 Windows Server 2022 with Hyper-V – all installation options, except for Nano Server |
+ | + |
|
Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 and 2007 Windows Virtual PC |
+ | |
| Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 | + |
Limitations
- Pass-through disks
Agent for Hyper-V does not back up pass-through disks. During backup, the agent skips these disks and adds warnings to the log. You can avoid the warnings by excluding pass-through disks from the protection plan. If you want to back up these disks or data on these disks, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
Hyper-V guest clustering
Agent for Hyper-V does not support backup of Hyper-V virtual machines that are nodes of a Windows Server Failover Cluster. A VSS snapshot at the host level can even temporarily disconnect the external quorum disk from the cluster. If you want to back up these machines, install agents in the guest operating systems.
-
In-guest iSCSI connection
Agent for Hyper-V does not back up LUN volumes connected by an iSCSI initiator that works within the guest operating system. Because the Hyper-V hypervisor is not aware of such volumes, the volumes are not included in hypervisor-level snapshots and are omitted from the backup without a warning. If you want to back up such volumes or data on such volumes, install an agent in the guest operating system.
-
VHD/VHDX file names with ampersand symbols
On Hyper-V hosts running Windows Server 2016 or later, you cannot back up legacy virtual machines (version 5.0) originally created with Hyper-V 2012 R2 or older, if the names of their VHD/VHDX files contain the ampersand symbol (&).
To be able to back up such machines, in Hyper-V Manager, detach the corresponding virtual disk from the virtual machine, edit the VHD/VHDX file name by removing the ampersand symbol, and then attach the disk back to the virtual machine.
Scale Computing
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Scale Computing Hypercore 8.8, 8.9, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3 | + | + |
Citrix
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Citrix XenServer 4.1.5, 5.5, 5.6, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, 6.5, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6 | Only fully virtualized (aka HVM) guests. Paravirtualized (aka PV) guests are not supported. |
Red Hat and Linux
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
|
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) 2.2, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6 Red Hat Virtualization (RHV) 4.0, 4.1 |
+ | |
| Red Hat Virtualization (managed by oVirt) 4.2, 4.3, 4.4 (only available with the cloud deployment) |
+ | + |
| Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM) | + | |
| Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM) managed by oVirt 4.3 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6, 7.7 or CentOS 7.6, 7.7 (only available with the cloud deployment and with an Advanced license) |
+ | + |
| Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM) managed by oVirt 4.4 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x or CentOS Stream 8.x (only available with the cloud deployment and with an Advanced license) |
+ | + |
| Kernel-based Virtual Machines (KVM) managed by oVirt 4.5 running on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.x or CentOS Stream 8.x (only available with the cloud deployment and with an Advanced license) |
+ | + |
Limitations
Linux machines containing logical volumes (LVM)
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agentless mode:
-
You cannot select individual Linux LVM volumes as backup source—neither by direct selection nor by using policy rules. You can back up workloads with such volumes only by selecting Entire machine in What to back up.
- The file filters (Inclusions/Exclusions) are not applicable. Any configured inclusions or exclusions will be ignored. For more information about the file filters, see File filters.
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agent-based mode (that is, by Agent for Linux installed on the backed-up machine):
-
Performing a machine migration by recovering its backup as a virtual machine (for example, by using Agent for VMware, Agent for Hyper-V, Agent for Virtuozzo, Agent for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure, or Agent for Scale Computing for P2V, V2P, or V2V migration). To recover data from such a backup, use bootable media.
For more information about the migrations scenarios, see Machine migration.
- Running a virtual machine from a backup created by Agent for Linux or bootable media.
Parallels
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Parallels Workstation | + | |
| Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal | + |
Oracle
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Oracle VM Server 3.0, 3.3, 3.4 | Only fully virtualized (aka HVM) guests. Paravirtualized (aka PV) guests are not supported. | |
| Oracle VM VirtualBox 4.x | + |
Nutanix
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV) 20160925.x through 20180425.x | + |
Virtuozzo (only available with the cloud deployment)
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Virtuozzo 6.0.10, 6.0.11, 6.0.12 | + | Virtual machines only. Containers are not supported. |
| Virtuozzo 7.0.13, 7.0.14 | Ploop containers only. Virtual machines are not supported. | Virtual machines only. Containers are not supported. |
| Virtuozzo Hybrid Server 7.5 | + | Virtual machines only. Containers are not supported. |
Limitations
Linux machines containing logical volumes (LVM)
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agentless mode:
-
You cannot select individual Linux LVM volumes as backup source—neither by direct selection nor by using policy rules. You can back up workloads with such volumes only by selecting Entire machine in What to back up.
- The file filters (Inclusions/Exclusions) are not applicable. Any configured inclusions or exclusions will be ignored. For more information about the file filters, see File filters.
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agent-based mode (that is, by Agent for Linux installed on the backed-up machine):
-
Performing a machine migration by recovering its backup as a virtual machine (for example, by using Agent for VMware, Agent for Hyper-V, Agent for Virtuozzo, Agent for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure, or Agent for Scale Computing for P2V, V2P, or V2V migration). To recover data from such a backup, use bootable media.
For more information about the migrations scenarios, see Machine migration.
- Running a virtual machine from a backup created by Agent for Linux or bootable media.
Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure (only available with the cloud deployment)
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 | + | + |
Limitations
Linux machines containing logical volumes (LVM)
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agentless mode:
-
You cannot select individual Linux LVM volumes as backup source—neither by direct selection nor by using policy rules. You can back up workloads with such volumes only by selecting Entire machine in What to back up.
- The file filters (Inclusions/Exclusions) are not applicable. Any configured inclusions or exclusions will be ignored. For more information about the file filters, see File filters.
The following operations are not supported for Linux machines with LVM that you back up in the agent-based mode (that is, by Agent for Linux installed on the backed-up machine):
-
Performing a machine migration by recovering its backup as a virtual machine (for example, by using Agent for VMware, Agent for Hyper-V, Agent for Virtuozzo, Agent for Virtuozzo Hybrid Infrastructure, or Agent for Scale Computing for P2V, V2P, or V2V migration). To recover data from such a backup, use bootable media.
For more information about the migrations scenarios, see Machine migration.
- Running a virtual machine from a backup created by Agent for Linux or bootable media.
Amazon
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon EC2 instances | + |
Microsoft Azure
| Platform | Backup at a hypervisor level (agentless backup) | Backup from inside a guest OS |
|---|---|---|
| Azure virtual machines | + |