Agent vs Backup and Replication

[jp1]

Probably asked and answered already...but...here it goes...what are the advantages/disadvantages of using the Agent vs using Backup and Replication to backup VM's?

In my case I have B&R running and have 16 CPU socket license for my main production hosts/VM's. I also have a couple 2-CPU hosts that have a couple VM's, about 6, running on them for non-production purposes.
It's not cheap to buy (and renew) socket licenses for B&R. However, I can use agent to backup the VM's and store them in my repository.

Just trying to figure out if it's worth the money to get more licenses or continue running the agent.

[Egor Yakovlev]

Hi Johnathan,
Agent-based backups are totally fine in terms of data protection, however features available during recovery might be different from ones VM-level(image-based backup) have - for example Full Machine recovery: when VM dies and you have VM-level backup, you can just spin a new one up from backup copy(Instant VM Recovery), whereas for Agent-based backup you will have to create a blank VM, boot it from Veeam Recovery Media, run full volume restore(which might take significant time depending on size), reboot again and finally get a working server.
Sometimes conversion to virtual disks from agent-based backup helps, sometimes Instant Restore to Hyper-V VM is possible, depending on configurations and system requirements condition, but overall experience with VM-level backup is better in pure virtual environment.
Having your note of "non-production workloads" in mind, I can conclude that you should be fine protecting those VMs with agent.
/Cheers!

[Mildur]

Egor, instant vm recovery from agent backups are now possible with VBR 10. Sort of.
You can do it with the new P2V Feature from Veeam this will be an instant vm recovery process. Recovery media is not required.



But I‘m on your site. A vm level Backup should always be preferred over Agent Backup, if HyperV or vSphere is involved.

[jp1]

I appreciate the answers. Think that I will ask management for funding to add to our CPU licenses.
Thank you!