Patent attributes
A method, computer program product, computing system, and system for snapshotless backup are described. The method may include receiving, via a backup agent, an indication of a virtual machine to be backed up in a backup archive file. The backup agent may run outside of the virtual machine. The virtual machine may be hosted by a virtualization host device. The method may further include identifying, via the backup agent, a virtual disk associated with the virtual machine indicated to be backed up. The method may also include tracking, via a virtualization host agent running on the virtualization host device outside the virtual machine, changes to the virtual disk associated with the virtual machine on a sector level basis. The method may additionally include reading the virtual disk and transmitting sectors from the virtual disk to the backup archive file on a first pass.