What is the best way to include the VM’s as part of backing up the host? Im on Win10 with hyper v running 3 guest machines. How do i include these guest to get backed up when the hosts backup runs?
Most of my backup options are image only.
The posts ive seen revolve around running Windows Hyper V (as os) not Win10
You could just install UrBackup on the VMs and be done with it…otherwise it can depend on what sort of backup/s you want to do, and how the VMs are set up in terms of their VHD files…
At a basic level, and especially if each VM only has a single drive, you may be best to just have the VHD file backed up…will be an exact point-in-time of how the drive was at the particular time, and I’d guess that your host is a simple setup with the config data in the same location as the data…
My only concern would be if you have multiple [virtual] drives with different data that needs other drives to be kept in time - for example, if you had a SQL server where the logs and data rely on each other…but if the file-level backup of the host was to capture them at different times, then there is a possible risk that a restore may have a marginally different set of data in one VHD to the other/s that relate to it…
That said, it would be a bit odd to have a SQL server that is live as a VM on a workstation operating system…
yeah, i think im just going to lookout for the vhdx file and backup that way
To be honest, and IMHO, as long as the backups include the data drive/s on the host, you should be fine…
Am curious what the VMs are now though, as am presuming they aren’t production systems…right…?
they are. mostly small web servers
If they are internal ones, esp if them being offline doesn’t make much/any difference (for example for yourself or maybe your team) then that is fine…but if they need to be available properly, then you should really get a server OS for them to be hosted on…
Servers are generally designed for prolonged uptime and company policy/policies will likely have a separate patching structure for servers than a workstation - plus will normally be on higher grade kit, often with resilient power, power supplies, drives, and remote access tools for any event that the host isn’t responding properly…
i know. Host is a precision 5820 so hardware is deff ok. i just chose 10 instead of server. Not running anything to crazy here
Not wanting to delve down a rabbit hole, but does your desktop grade machine have a RAID array set up, multiple PSUs, and a UPS to protect from power blips…?
These are the simplest points for consideration when running business required (let alone mission critical) systems, as PSUs do fail and so do drives…have had to replace both of these in custy servers this month already in my MSP role…
We had one custy that we just took on, and one of the first things we spotted was that their Hyper-V host only had a single power supply (which, coincidentally needed replacing) and they went cheap by not getting a DRAC when they bought it…and their on-site/in-house guy was about to leave, so if the host had an issue, we can’t do anything with it remotely and means that they might have a longer downtime while someone with access to the server room gets there oe we come out to site if it needs more intervention…
In the msp space as well. I’m running this more for personal use so PSU wasn’t mission critical for me. Yes there are preventive measures in place but none that I would let my customers have