Hyper -V backup and encryption and diskshadow
Hello,
i would like to back-up my virtual machines to a removable storage (USB hard drive or NAS) so that the backups can be encrypted and taken off-site. I also wish to have two backup sets which i can use in alternative weeksI am thinking of using the diskshadow command as we only have 4 VMs to backup
if i run the following script:
set context persistentset verbose on
set metadata c:\backup\backup.cab
begin backup
Writer Verify {66841cd4-6ded-4f4b-8f17-fd23f8ddc3de}
add volume e: alias VHDs
create
end backupexpose %VHDs% z:
#this batch file contains an xcopy command, which copies vhd files to my encrypted storage eg. x:\
exec c:\backup\copyvhds.batunexpose %VHDs%
delete shadows all
i have the following questions:
1) does z:\ have to be an existing physical disk/volume? i assume that it also has to be equal or greater in size to e:\
2) my copyvhds.bat file will reference files on z:\, what will the directory structure on z:\ be like, can it be browsed? or how do i know where the VHD files are in order to copy them - will this be evident by inspecting the backup.cab file and how do i open the .cab file?
will this work?
thanks
dc
Answers
- OK
for those interested here are some answers
* i also had to add c: into the volume for it to work properly - maybe some of the writer stuff was needed
* the mount point does not have to be a physical disk, it is just a virtual interaction with the snapshot
* as long as you have integration Components installed the machines are not stopped, if not they are saved and restarted (this happened with my server 2003 R2 machine even though IC are installed), and my linux machine was saved and restarted without issues, and also an XP client
* it does seem to take up a certain amount of memory doing the copy, i guess this is because i have all my virtual machines on the same volume
* the copy is also straighforward, and browsed as if the mount point were a disk
* once the file is on the external storage it will be able to be encrypted
an excellent example of the scripts to use are on the links
http://virtuallyaware.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!549C424F228D6040!153.entry
dc- Marked As Answer byjdmc43 Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:28 PM
All Replies
- Are these VMs going to be turned off?
Juraj - Hello
I do not want to turn them off, VSS copes with this right?
dc - It does when you use the VSS Hyper-V writer:
http://blogs.technet.com/askcore/archive/2008/08/20/how-to-enable-windows-server-backup-support-for-the-hyper-v-vss-writer.aspx
Juraj - OK
for those interested here are some answers
* i also had to add c: into the volume for it to work properly - maybe some of the writer stuff was needed
* the mount point does not have to be a physical disk, it is just a virtual interaction with the snapshot
* as long as you have integration Components installed the machines are not stopped, if not they are saved and restarted (this happened with my server 2003 R2 machine even though IC are installed), and my linux machine was saved and restarted without issues, and also an XP client
* it does seem to take up a certain amount of memory doing the copy, i guess this is because i have all my virtual machines on the same volume
* the copy is also straighforward, and browsed as if the mount point were a disk
* once the file is on the external storage it will be able to be encrypted
an excellent example of the scripts to use are on the links
http://virtuallyaware.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!549C424F228D6040!153.entry
dc- Marked As Answer byjdmc43 Tuesday, October 06, 2009 2:28 PM
