Policy Based Incremental for Virtual Machine Backup?

[mari]

Are the policy-based incremental backups for virtual clients only needed if you want incrementals of the virtual disk? We have a regular full backup template to catch the virtual disk and we're not using the policy that Symantec requires for the incremental. We're only interested in catching file level incremental changes, not virtual disk, so we're wondering if creating a policy-based Inc job is worth it.

Thanks for the feedback.

-Dennis

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

incrementals for Vmware are part of the new vStorage API's in vSphere.  It's required that change block tracking is enabled, and incrementals or diff's can only be taken from a policy, only AFTER a full has been run.

The incr/diff will be at the block level, capturing any file changes within.  They are a good idea especially to minimize what actually gets backed up.  However, if you are fine with FULL's all the time, then stick with what you are doing.  

BackupExec will be able to peer into the virtual disks and get any files you need, even from incrementals.  

[mari]

Thanks teiva-boy!