Backing up Hyper V host and VM's

[JustinY]

Hello,

I've recently put BESR 2010 on a host server (Server 2008 Standard with Hyper V enabled). This host server has 2 VM's (SBS2008 and Server 2008) stored on the D: volume.

Which is the best way to backup the host and the 2 VM's? I currently have created a backup job to backup C: volume and D: volume using VSS. Is this the best way or should I only backup C: volume and install agents on the VM's and create another backup job for them?

Regards,

Justin

[Markus_Koestler]

Have a look: http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH74946

[JustinY]

I have Backup (volume snapshot) checked under Intergration Services and my VHD's are a fixed size. The article doesn't specify if I should include the C and D volume in the same backup.

[Markus_Koestler]

You should NOT install BESR Agents in the VM. The VSS Backup accomplishes the backup of the Guests. Personally I think it is good to include both C: and D: in one backup job.

[criley]

It really depends on your restore requirements.

If you need to do 'granular' restores of your VMs (in other words, perform file level restores from the VM file system), you will need to install BESR inside the guest machines and back them up individually.

If you dont need this, just backup the entire host machine. You will then need to recover the entire volume where the guests are stored in order to restore your VMs.

[JustinY]

Hi Chris,

I initially had BESR installed in the VM's but was unable to successfully recover my VM's to a new host. They would restore, but I had problems with clients logging onto the domain. Clients had to leave and rejoin the domain which is not feasible. I lodged a support case with Symantec and was told that I couldn't just backup the VM, I would need to backup the host environement as well. So this is why I moved BESR to the host. I have tried 3 times now to recover my host without success to different hardware. If I restore the D: volume that contains my VM's it freezes at random points of the restore process. If I restore the C: volume only, the restore completes, but when I boot I get Blue screen flash and reboot loop. Won't even boot in safe mode.

Justin

[JustinY]

So if I want to backup host with the VM's I can't do granular recovery within the VM's? If that's the case might be better to look at DPM 2010.

"Individual file-item restore from host-based backups, so you can protect the entire virtual machine from the host (no guest agent required), but selectively restore individual files from inside the VHDs." http://www.microsoft.com/systemcenter/en/us/data-protection-manager/dpm-protect-virtual-environments...

[criley]

That's right; if you need to perform granular recovery from inside the VMs, you must install the agent in each VM and back them individually.

You might also want to have a look at Backup Exec 2010 R2 which has a nice agent for Hyper-V:

http://www.symantec.com/business/products/agents_options.jsp?pcid=pcat_business_cont&pvid=57_1

Hope that helps.

[JustinY]

So that would mean BESR installed on the host and agent installed for each VM. I would then need a backup job to backup the host including the volume where the VHD's are and a separate backup job for each VM via the agent?

I'll have a look at BE 2010 R2. I currently have BE 2010 and BESR 2010 and haven't been able to successfully recover to different hardware. That's a matter I need to take up with the support team.

[criley · Accepted solution]

So that would mean BESR installed on the host and agent installed for each VM. I would then need a backup job to backup the host including the volume where the VHD's are and a separate backup job for each VM via the agent?

That would seem overkill as you are basically backing up the VMs twice. However, that does give you the ability to:

1. Restore the entire host server including all VMs

2. Granular recovery of files/folder and Exchange/SharePoint items from each VM