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Is it ever safe to backup a Hyper-V host ?

sdo
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Quick question...

...is there a technical recommendation from either Microsoft or Veritas that one should not backup the Hyper-V hosts themselves ?

If so, could someone share a link ?

Thank you.

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Alexis_Jeldrez
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Finding a Microsoft official comment on not backing up an Hyper-V server might be difficult but I recommend thinking why in the first place should we back it up? It's commonly because the hypervisor is offering additional services apart from Hyper-V Server. Try looking for a Microsoft note about that. For example, here's a blog that mentions this somewhat:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2013/03/10/windows-server-2012-hyper-v-best-practices...

"Do not install any other Roles on a host besides the Hyper-V role and the Remote Desktop Services roles (if VDI will be used on the host)."

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Nicolai
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Hi SDO

Thinking out loud.

We backup stuff to protect data. So backup of VM on top of the hypervisor is needed.

But hypervisor itself is in my view "data less" and can be disposed when causing trouble. So why do you want to back it up.

Is there more in your question, or just searching for best practice  :) ?

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Alexis_Jeldrez
Level 6
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Finding a Microsoft official comment on not backing up an Hyper-V server might be difficult but I recommend thinking why in the first place should we back it up? It's commonly because the hypervisor is offering additional services apart from Hyper-V Server. Try looking for a Microsoft note about that. For example, here's a blog that mentions this somewhat:

https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askpfeplat/2013/03/10/windows-server-2012-hyper-v-best-practices...

"Do not install any other Roles on a host besides the Hyper-V role and the Remote Desktop Services roles (if VDI will be used on the host)."

Nicolai
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Partner    VIP   

Hi SDO

Thinking out loud.

We backup stuff to protect data. So backup of VM on top of the hypervisor is needed.

But hypervisor itself is in my view "data less" and can be disposed when causing trouble. So why do you want to back it up.

Is there more in your question, or just searching for best practice  :) ?

sdo
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Yes, thanks, I get that any other Windows technology server role should not be installed alongside Hyper-V Server role.  And/but/also note or be aware of... that when we install NetBackup Client on a Hyper-V server for the function of VM backups then this is effectively a server-ish like function because it backs-up potentially many VMs.  So, a separate third party role is effectively deployed, and has to be deployed, in order to take VM style backups.

As for taking a backup of a Hyper-V hosts itself, yes, ordinarily one would not expect to have to, nor expect to need to, take a backup of any Hyper-V host itself.  My initial exploration was that, in the absence of log scraping/capture, then might it be useful to capture the Windows Event Logs via a backup process... i.e. to capture failures or alerts of nefarious events on an off-host system (the backup infrastructure) - but that is a separate question of perceived risk versus perceived value.

So, I guess I can re-phrase my question... is it harmful, or disruptive in anyway, to the Hyper-V service function to have a third party backup tool effectively instantiate a VSS snapshot of the C: volume of a Hyper-V host ?