During a data protection operation, a system exploits a virtual hierarchy to centralize the configuration and management of operating system credentials of numerous virtual guests. For each virtual guest, the system uses the credential to collect a single Globally Unique Identifier (GUID) previously generated and stored in-guest by any data protection agent. The system stores the collected GUID as a custom property in the context of the virtual hierarchy. The system also exploits the virtual hierarchy custom properties to determine if GUIDs are copies due to virtual guest replication. The system ensures GUID uniqueness by requesting regeneration of the GUID by in-guest data protection agents. Using GUIDs that are unique across the virtual hierarchy, the system can correlate application data of multiple in-guest data protection agents.