VM backup only C Drive

[Niclas Boehm]

 

HI,

I am looking for the command so that I can backup a VM on a Xenserver 7.6.

However, I just want to backup the "C" disk .. Since the D disk is very large and it would take forever .. More specifically, it is about a PVS server.

So I just do not need C and D. Only C. The whole thing should be done as XVA.

The command for the VM to export .. I do not find what I depend on the D disk and only exports the C disk.

 

The whole thing happens at night, automatically.

 

Any idear ?? 

 

Thanks

 

[Tobias Kreidl]

You could also clone the original VM, then detach the D: drive from it and export it and then delete that temporary VM.

No downtime would be necessary.

 

Or you could just run NAU VMbackup, which allows you to just back up the main OS drive: https://github.com/NAUbackup/VmBackup/ as an option instead of the whole VM.

There would be no downtime there, either. Its a free backup and restore utility.

 

-=Tobias

[Boby John1709155536]

Detach the D drive of the VM from XenCenter and then take a snapshot of the VM. Now you can export the snapshot. ( Which has only C-drive )

While the export happens at the background, you can re-attach the D drive and resume working. 

[Niclas Boehm]

The problem is that it should always run automatically at night.

My script also works with Vm's where only one hard drive hangs ..

But unfortunately not with several. Or. it would work with several, but we do not want to with certain VM's.

[Nicolas Closs]

Is VM need turn ON while backup?

If no, I think you can make a script to turn off VM, detach D:\ drive, backup, attach again and turn on.

What you think?

[Tobias Kreidl]

No, it's not necessary to turn the VM on - it works with it on or off.  You just take a snapshot of the VDI and export it, perhaps along with the VM's metadata. All the code to do this is in the backup script mentioned above.

 

There's no need IMO to actually detach the drive. The command line xe utility supports vdi-export that you supply with the UUID of the VDI (associated with your C: drive in this case) and an output file path/name.

 

-=Tobias

[Niclas Boehm]

 

No, the VM can be quiet during the backup.

Nice idea Tobias  ;) ! 

 

@Nicolas Closs 

That would be great ! By the way, many ask for that kind of backup.. 

[Tobias Kreidl]

The utility also cleans up the snapshots it creates for its own purposes afterwards. Check it out!

 

-=Tobias

[Niclas Boehm]

 

I will give you feedback!