1. At a computer system including at least one processor, a computer-implemented method for backing up a virtual machine cluster, the method comprising: determining a plurality of virtual machine nodes that are part of the virtual machine cluster; determining one or more shared storage resources that are part of the virtual machine cluster; determining which of the virtual machine nodes owns each of the shared storage resources; indicating to each of the virtual machine nodes that is an owner of a shared storage resource that at least one specified application is to be quiesced over the nodes of the virtual machine cluster, such that a consistent, cluster-wide checkpoint can be created; and initiating the creation of a cluster-wide checkpoint which includes a checkpoint for each virtual machine node in the virtual machine cluster, wherein the cluster-wide checkpoint includes at least one instance of each shared storage resource in the virtual machine cluster.