Backup Tools

Backup tools differ in what they are designed to protect. The following table summarizes where each tool applies.

SUSE Virtualization includes native backup, snapshot, and restore functionality for virtual machines. Backups are exported to a configured backup target (an NFS or S3-compatible server), while snapshots provide fast, local point-in-time copies for quick rollbacks.

The built-in capabilities are the simplest option and require no additional software. For step-by-step instructions, see Built-in Virtual Machine Backup, Snapshot & Restore.

Velero is an open-source, Kubernetes-native tool for backing up and restoring cluster resources and persistent volumes to object storage such as S3, Azure Blob, or Google Cloud Storage. When combined with the KubeVirt Velero plugin, Velero can back up and restore virtual machines running on SUSE Virtualization, including those that use external CSI storage.

Velero supports scheduled and on-demand backups, CSI volume snapshot data movement, and pre- and post-backup hooks that can trigger guest filesystem freeze and thaw for application consistency. Because Velero filters resources by group and label rather than by individual virtual machine, backing up a single virtual machine requires applying custom labels to the virtual machine and all of its dependency resources. As a best practice, back up an entire namespace and filter resources during the restore operation.

Area of application: Kubernetes-native, scriptable backup and restore for teams comfortable managing the tooling themselves. For configuration, automation, and recovery testing, see Integrating Velero.

Veeam Kasten is an enterprise data protection platform for Kubernetes that extends backup and recovery to virtual machines running on SUSE Virtualization. It adds policy-driven automation, immutable backups for ransomware protection, application-aware and granular recovery, and cross-cluster disaster recovery. Backup and restore policies are defined declaratively as Kubernetes resources, and the Veeam Kasten interface can be accessed from SUSE® Rancher Prime.

Area of application: Enterprise environments that require policy-driven automation, immutable backups, and application-consistent recovery. For configuration, automation, and recovery testing, see Integrating Veeam Kasten.

CloudCasa is a Kubernetes-native backup and disaster recovery platform, available as a managed SaaS service or as a self-hosted deployment, that is certified for SUSE Virtualization. CloudCasa provides a centralized view across multiple clusters, guided restore workflows, and immutable backups.

CloudCasa also offers a disaster recovery solution that pairs application-level backups managed by CloudCasa with persistent volume replication provided by SUSE Storage Disaster Recovery volumes. During a failover, CloudCasa restores the application resources and automatically activates the corresponding SUSE Storage volumes, enabling low-RTO recovery without duplicating replication.

Area of application: Multi-cluster environments that require centralized management and low-RTO disaster recovery. For configuration, automation, and recovery testing, see Integrating CloudCasa.

The following table summarizes the available tools to help you choose an approach.