Question regard Backup of VMs with Snapshot

[serverbu]

Making some mind games regarding veeam b&r just now, a question arose.

Say we have a fresh VM without snapshot. We work for 5 days and create a snapshot. We work further 5 days with this VM than we make a backup of it using veeam b&r.
After a few days we crash the VM horribly and need to restore it so we restore the veeam b&r backup.
What happens to the snapshot we created on day 5? Is it still present in vmware and more important if it is still present, is it still usable or would we produce datagarbage when roling back to that snapshot after we had restored with veeam?

fresh VM
|
|-->snapshot1
|
|-->veeam b&r

what exactly is veeam copying to backup storage? just the normal vmdks along with vmx and other definition files (would be state of fresh VM) or the whole VM folder including the snapshots delta file (would be state of snapshot1)?

[veremin]

The snapshot tree is not preserved. The restored VM will reflect the VM state at the time when backup has occured.

[serverbu]

So is veeam consolidating the snapshot into the VM data on backup?
For this example restored VM would have state of fresh VM consolidated with state of snapshot1?

[veremin]

VB&R creates helper snapshot to capture VM state at the time of backup.

[foggy]

Existing source VM snapshots get consolidated into a single flat file (containing actual VM state) that is backed up during backup job.

[Alex.Vetrov]

Hello, all!

For example: we have virtual machine with user-created snapshot(s). Also we have backup proxy, which works in Virtual appliance mode only (without fallback NBD).
What will happen if we start backing up this VM? What data will contain a backup:
1) VM disk before creating first user snapshot?
2) VM disk with user created snapshot(s)?
3) Backup job will fail?

Thanks for answers.

[foggy]

Alexey, regardless of the transport method, the backup will contain the actual VM state.

[george.jame]

I have got backup from a virtual machine that reside a snapshot on that now want to know
Does veeam get backup from all vms snapshot due to get backups or It will ignore snaphots during backup ?

[DGrinev]

Hi George,

The backup process by Veeam B&R will trigger a new helper snapshot to capture the current state of the VM.
Existing VM snapshots are not backed up but are preserved on the original VM.

Thanks!

[foggy]

Please also note that CBT cannot be enabled on the VM with existing snapshots.

[george.jame]

Hi George,

The backup process by Veeam B&R will trigger a new helper snapshot to capture the current state of the VM.
Existing VM snapshots are not backed up but are preserved on the original VM.

Thanks!

As I understood due backup job it just can get backup from current vm state without snapshot actually we don't have any backup from our snapshots

1- Is that correct ?

2- What is the benefit of CBT ? it it was disabled what will be happened ?

[foggy]

1. Correct.
2. CBT allows quickly obtaining information about changed blocks to optimize incremental backups. If it is not enabled, Veeam B&R will need to perform a full snap&scan of the source VM to calculate changes.