Every admin should have a backup. This principle works for any virtual environment; regardless of the hypervisor you are running (VMware, Hyper-V or whatever): backup is king!

One of the timeless rules that can effectively address any failure scenario is called the 3-2-1 backup rule. This approach helps to answer two important questions: how many backup files should I have and where should I store them?

The 3-2-1 rule is based on two groups of people: those who have already had a storage failure and those who will have one in the future. In other words, the 3-2-1 backup rule means you should:

• Have at least three copies of your data.
• Store the copies on two different media.
• Keep one backup copy offsite.