HotAdd is a capability provided by the Cloud Platform that supports "hot" adding additional devices to a running VM, including CPUs, memory, network cards, and disks.

HotAdd transport mode is an agentless backup transport method in which the third-party backup app accesses business VM disk data within the backup proxy VM and transmits the disk data to the backup media server for storage.

Figure 1-4 HotAdd Transport Mode

Deployment Requirements for Backup Proxy VMs:

1.The third-party backup app must be deployed in a backup proxy VM that belongs to the same HCI resource pool as the business VM.

2.The backup proxy VM must be able to access the datastore where the business VM disk resides.

3.The backup proxy VM must have vmtools installed.

4.The backup proxy VM must be set to the "backup proxy" type.

During agentless backup:

1.Create a snapshot of the business VM.

2.Hot-add a linked clone of the business VM disk snapshot to the backup proxy VM.

3.Within the Guest OS of the backup proxy VM, the backup app reads data from the hot-added disk to complete the backup.

During agentless recovery:

1.Hot-add the business VM disk to the backup proxy VM.

2.Within the Guest OS of the backup proxy VM, the backup app writes backup data to the hot-added disk to complete the recovery.

HotAdd transport mode does not require a backup data transfer network (LAN) and can directly access business VM disks for backup and recovery, providing higher transmission performance than NBD/NBDSSL transport modes.

To meet parallel backup requirements, third parties can deploy multiple backup proxy VMs as needed.