Hi,
We perform backups of VMware 4.x virtual machines using Weekly Full / Daily Differential templates created by policy, GRT enabled. VMs are Windows 2008, Backup Exec is 2010 R3. It works pretty well. (We are upgrading, but need to support this setup at 30+ discreet sites during a s-l-o-w rollout.) We also manually perform quarterly "off-site" AVVI backups to USB drives.
I got to wondering, does the Full backup we perform to the USB drives interfere with cbt for the policy-based backups? In other words, do the Differential backups run the rest of the week link back to the manual Full VM backup, or to the policy-based Full that ran before it over the weekend (do I need to re-run the template-based full backup after the manual backup)? A "Full-Copy" backup should not affect change tracking, but this does not seem to apply to VMware backups.
In a related vein, if that weekly Full fails or gets cancelled the Differentials still run successfully. We figure that was okay because "the differentials would work with the last good full backup". My reading lately suggests otherwise, and that I would need to complete a good full backup for later differentials to be usable. Which is the case?
Thanks for all your comments.