From build 8.21, VM Backup introduces a number of improvements:

• Optimized backup & restore performance, which leads to a shorter backup window
  
  
• The most significant performance improvements will be seen in offsite backups to cloud storage providers (Azure / Amazon S3 / Wasabi)
  
  
• Faster maintenance operations such as retention operations, this will be more significant for customers that have larger backup sets

A slight increase in the backup repository size is expected, this will vary according to your data.

IMPORTANT: In order to take advantage of the performance improvements introduced in 8.21, you will need to start your onsite and offsite backups from scratch. Older backups can be kept and restored from.

Here's how to switch to the new backup format; follow the steps below:

1. Ensure that you are running VM Backup 8.21 or newer. Download the latest version from here.
   
   
2. Open the VM Backup management console and go to [Setup] > [Backup Locations]
   
   
   
   
3. You will need to create a new primary Backup Location and point to a new folder on the same location. For instance, I will [Add Backup Location] and I have created a new folder named 'altaro-backups'.
   
   

   IMPORTANT: Do not delete your previous backup locations.

   
   
   
4. Assign the VMs to these newly added backup locations and click [Save Changes]
   
   At this point you will be notified that the offsite copies will require a Full Backup:
   
   
   Click [Proceed] and ensure that you have enough free space on the offsite location for the new full backup.
   
   
5. It's important to note that you should leave the backup locations you were previously backing up to, added in VM Backup.
   
   The reason is that retention will still run on these locations, so it will clear your older backups. You can eventually delete the backup folder on your old location once you're happy that you have enough backup history on your new location.