Technical Tip: Virtual Machine backups can interrupt database operation
Description
This article describes automated virtual machine backup software that backs up the entire virtual machine can cause problems, including causing it to stop running.
Automated backup software runs on the physical hardware that contains the virtual machine, not inside the virtual machine. This type of backup software may attempt to force the target virtual machine to flush everything being written to the disk drives to produce a more reliable and consistent backup. However, this interference with the software contained within the virtual machine can cause that software to stop running.
The appliance runs on a CentOS platform; therefore, backup software that supports Linux and specifically CentOS is recommended.
Automated backup software runs on the physical hardware that contains the virtual machine, not inside the virtual machine. This type of backup software may attempt to force the target virtual machine to flush everything being written to the disk drives to produce a more reliable and consistent backup. However, this interference with the software contained within the virtual machine can cause that software to stop running.
The appliance runs on a CentOS platform; therefore, backup software that supports Linux and specifically CentOS is recommended.
Scope
Version: All.
Solution
Many backup software packages have an option to "quiesce the virtual machine's hard drives". Set this parameter to false or disabled. When this parameter is enabled, the backup is more reliable, but it could cause the virtual machine to shut down. When this parameter is disabled, some amount of data may not make it into the backup because it has not been written to the drive yet, but the virtual machine should continue to run.
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