Which backup technique in virtualized environments creates a point-in-time copy of a VM to enable rapid recovery?

Which backup technique in virtualized environments creates a point-in-time copy of a VM to enable rapid recovery?

• A. Tape backups
• B. Cloning
• C. Image backups
• D. Snapshots

Answer: (D)

In virtualization, a point-in-time copy of a VM that lets you recover quickly is achieved with a snapshot. A snapshot captures the exact state of the virtual machine at a specific moment, including the disk state and, in many cases, the memory state. This lets you revert the VM to that moment with minimal downtime, which is ideal for rapid recovery after tests, patches, or errors. Tape backups are for long-term archival and aren’t designed for fast in-place recovery of a live VM. Cloning creates a separate, running copy of the VM, which is useful for creating new instances but isn’t a revertible snapshot of the original. Image backups provide a full copy of the VM’s data at a point in time, good for restores, but restoring from them typically takes longer and isn’t as quick for returning the original VM to a known good state. So, the option that best enables rapid recovery by preserving a point-in-time state of the VM is a snapshot.

In virtualization, a point-in-time copy of a VM that lets you recover quickly is achieved with a snapshot. A snapshot captures the exact state of the virtual machine at a specific moment, including the disk state and, in many cases, the memory state. This lets you revert the VM to that moment with minimal downtime, which is ideal for rapid recovery after tests, patches, or errors.

Tape backups are for long-term archival and aren’t designed for fast in-place recovery of a live VM. Cloning creates a separate, running copy of the VM, which is useful for creating new instances but isn’t a revertible snapshot of the original. Image backups provide a full copy of the VM’s data at a point in time, good for restores, but restoring from them typically takes longer and isn’t as quick for returning the original VM to a known good state.

So, the option that best enables rapid recovery by preserving a point-in-time state of the VM is a snapshot.