A unified backup workflow process for different hypervisor configurations of virtual machines on different storage of a cluster leverages RCT-based backup functionality so that backup operations can be performed by a single host of the cluster. The process enables backing up together virtual machines that are local, as well as part of CSV or SMB storage using virtual machine level snapshots as checkpoints rather than volume level snapshots that were traditionally used. Backup data is sent to a backup server as a data stream rather than a file, which avoids the necessity of maintaining chains or structures that identify parent-child disks on the server.