KACE SMA and SDA VM backups checkpoint error

[Frosty]

I'm new to HyperV so apologies if this is a really basic question.
Two new VMs running KACE Systems Management Appliance and Systems Deployment Appliance.
Was previously advised by external party to configure the Checkpoint type settings in the VMs as Standard, not Production.
Ran my first backups last night and they fail with error:

Failed to create VM recovery checkpoint (mode: Hyper-V child partition snapshot) Details: Failed to create VM (ID: f6879a46-a2b0-4cf2-9714-bd8defd7600c) recovery checkpoint. Job failed ('Checkpoint operation for 'K1000-VM' failed. (Virtual machine ID F6879A46-A2B0-4CF2-9714-BD8DEFD7600C) Production checkpoints cannot be created for 'K1000-VM'. (Virtual machine ID F6879A46-A2B0-4CF2-9714-BD8DEFD7600C)'). Error code: '32770'.

Seems straight forward enough, but the implications seem to be that I won't be able to rely on transaction-consistent backups if I switch the VMs to Production checkpoints.
Googling around I saw some commentary along the lines of "Don't bother imaging VMs for KACE appliances, if you ever have to restore you need to use the KACE backups not Veeam backups.
Anyone else here backing up KACE appliances who might care to comment?
Can I switch the VMs to use HyperV Production checkpoints and still get a reliable backup?

[david.domask]

Hi Frosty,

Per the company's own article, don't use snapshot based backups

This is pretty common for a lot of appliances in my experience. If I remember right, Cisco has a lot of appliances where they also don't support snapshot based backups and instead instruct to use their native backup system, and recovery is typically:

1. Spin up new appliance
2. Restore configuration from backup
3. Enjoy

So I would follow vendor instructions here, and if the backup utility for your appliance allows it, consider dropping the configuraiton backup to a file server you manage that you can protect with Veeam and then do a File Level Recovery (FLR) to move the appliance backup back to the re-deployed appliance.

[Frosty]

Seems to work happily enough when I powered off the KACE appliance VMs and then ran the Veeam backup.
In HyperV manager I can see a Veeam Recovery Checkpoint has been created.
In the job logs it seems happy "Creating VM recovery checkpoint (mode: Hyper-V child partition snapshot)".
Am not 100% sure precisely what that means, but I guess once a month I can manually shut the VMs down and run a backup, then start 'em up again.