Agent vs Agentless Backup for application awareness VM

[angtl91]

We have a MSSQL VM that running in VMware platform. Backup job was configured (agentless backup) with application awareness enabled.
As application awareness will use VSS shadow copy to backup the transaction log, which mean VM snapshot (VADP) and VSS shadow copy will be taken during the backup (2 layers of snapshot).
I'm thinking that since application awareness required VSS shadow copy, does agent backup (only VSS) will be better in this scenario? What are the pros and cons?

[HannesK]

Hello,
correct, agents do only one snapshot, because they cannot snapshot the VM.

I would go for VMware backup, because there is no advantage with an agent and the disadvantage of agent management. I'm sure, there are many discussions over the last 15 years about agentless vs. agent-based backup

Best regards,
Hannes