Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 17:23:57 Z

If USB does not work in a virtual SBS 2008 in Hyper-V Server 2008 R2, how do you use the SBS backup? Is iSCSI a good option to another server before backing up to an external device?

Thanks,

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:19:48 Z

Although a USB external device won't be picked up natively by a Hyper-V virtual machine, you can map a drive to any physical drive including an external USB drive.

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 06:51:39 Z

Hi,

John provide exactly the right method for your environment.

In Windows SBS 2008, you should have two options for the backup destination:

1. Local drives

2. Remote shared folder(For example, \\MyFileServer\SharedFolderName)

Option 2 is the only method you can use if you don't want to backup the system in a local drive.

Note: Please ensure you have the right permission in the remote shared folder.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:25:19 Z

Hi,

I want to see if the information provided was helpful. Your feedback is very useful for the further research. Please feel free to let me know if you have addition questions.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:29:58 Z

I think this is what John meant by mapping a drive:

On my physical SBS 2008, SBS Backup will only use local drives it owns so I do not see how a network share is going to back up SBS and the mail store. Can you explain this in case I have missed something?

In the mean time, I have attached a USB drive to the Hypervisor, made it offline and then added it to a SCSI controller in the SBS 2008 VM. This now shows up as local drive E: in SBS and the SBS backup wizard took ownership of E: and made a successful scheduled backup.

Now I have been told that an SBS VM will not recognize swapped USB drives so this is my next obstacle. At the very least I would like to rotate two USB drives in and out of the daily SBS backup.

Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 indicates it supports hot swap of pass-through drives connected to a SCSI controller.

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:05:12 Z

Hi,

Q: On my physical SBS 2008, SBS Backup will only use local drives it owns so I do not see how a network share is going to back up SBS and the mail store. Can you explain this in case I have missed something?

A: Please see the below screen shot, you should have two options for the backup destination.

In the mean time, I have attached a USB drive to the Hypervisor, made it offline and then added it to a SCSI controller in the SBS 2008 VM. This now shows up as local drive E: in SBS and the SBS backup wizard took ownership of E: and made a successful scheduled backup.

--àThis is an expected behavior in Windows Server 2008 R2. Hyper-V in R2 provides the ability to add or remove storage from running virtual machines (i.e. while hot). By supporting storage changes while a virtual machine is running, it is possible to quickly reconfigure virtual machines to meet changing requirements without disrupting users. The addition and removal of both virtual hard disks (VHDs) and physical disks (Pass-Through disks) requires SCSI controllers in the virtual machines. Hot plug-in and removal of storage also requires the installation of Hyper-V Integration Services, which are included in Windows Server 2008 R2, in the guest operating system in the virtual machine.

Restrictions:

 Hot-add/remove disk only applies to VHDs and pass-through disks attached to the SCSI controller (not the IDE controller).

 Hot-add remove of storage controllers is not supported.

Q: Now I have been told that an SBS VM will not recognize swapped USB drives so this is my next obstacle.

A: I suspect what you are talking about is the function that you can’t connect the USB drives directly to the VM(like the function in VMware). If so, that’s an expected behavior, we can’t connect the USB drives to Hyper-V. The above method is attach the USB drive to the host machine and then assign it to the VM as a pass-through disk(you can treat the USB drive as a normal hard drive here). It’s totally different from connecting the USB drive directly to the VM.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:06:21 Z

Q: Now I have been told that an SBS VM will not recognize swapped USB drives so this is my next obstacle.

A: I suspect what you are talking about is the function that you can’t connect the USB drives directly to the VM(like the function in VMware). If so, that’s an expected behavior, we can’t connect the USB drives to Hyper-V. The above method is attach the USB drive to the host machine and then assign it to the VM as a pass-through disk(you can treat the USB drive as a normal hard drive here). It’s totally different from connecting the USB drive directly to the VM.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

I have tried to articulate the best I can my procedures during this test and I am aware that you can't connect USB drives to VMs. (there is much I am not aware of though <grin>

I can create a pass-through disk with a SCSI no problem and I can swap it out and Hyper-V Server sees the drive change. The problem is SBS 2008 chokes when you change the USB drives. SBS does not recognize the swapped out drive. The SCSI controller binds itself to the physical disk and if you change the disk, SBS fails to back up. If you put the original USB drive back in, the backup works.

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:42:03 Z

Vincent, I ended up with two threads both addressing the same problem. Please see

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/c3ed0f32-7684-44ff-80c0-c4ce6ab9a477

Thanks,

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 01:03:26 Z

This will not work because Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 belongs to a workgroup and SBS 2008 (VM) is a domain controller. As I mentioned before, if I create a passthrough disk to a USB drive connected to the hypervisor, SBS backup works fine. If I spaw the drive, SBS backup fails even though the hypervisor recognizes the drive change.

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:29:39 Z

Hi,

According to the description, I don’t think that this is a problem of Hyper-V. Instead, it is how the backup application of SBS server identifies a disk. I suspect that SBS uses the disk signature to identify a disk instead of the drive letter, just like how cluster service manages the disk. Each disk has a distinct disk signature. When the USB disk is changed, it will have different disk signature event with the same drive letter.

Base on the current situation, you may consider using the following workaround:

1. Use the same USB disk and configured as pass through disk in guest machine;

2. On host machine, use Windows Server Backup to backup the content in the USB disk to another place, such as a network folder. After the backup, schedule a task to delete the contents on the USB disk.

In addition, if you want to do the further research, I recommend that you initial a post in SBS newsgroup so that you can get the most qualified pool of respondents. Thanks for your understanding.

For your convenience, I have list the related link as followed.

Discussions in Windows Small Business Server General

http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.server.sbs

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 11:24:06 Z

My host machine is Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 so there is no option to back up the content of the USB drive. I have also ben suggesting the 'disk signature' theory and have posted in the SBS 2009 forum at Community Connect

Thanks,

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:58:29 Z

Hi,

I understand that you cannot use the backup option on Hyper-V server. Considering the current situation, I suggest that you create a .vhd file on the Hyper-V host machine and attach it to the SCSI controller of the SBS 2008 guest machine. You can back up SBS 2008 system to the .vhd file. After the backup is down, we can use the new Hot Add/Remove storage function to unplug the .vhd from the guest VM. At this time, you can use the "copy" command to copy the .vhd file to another place, such as USB drives. When you need to backup next time, you can simply attach the .vhd file to SBS 2008, delete all the existing contents, and then perform the backup again.

Here is the steps:

1. Create a VHD file(a fixed VHD file will has better performance) on your local disk, format it and assign it a drive letter.(I assume X: here)

2. Mount the VHD file to Windows SBS 2008 Server VM(you can use the Hot Add/Remove storage function)

3. Backup up the system inside the Windows SBS 2008 Server VM to the X: drive.

4. Copy this VHD file to your USB drive and take it to anywhere.

Best regards,

Vincent Hu

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 11:34:36 Z

Thank you but a process too complicated for a non-technical end user, the customer. I am dealing with people accustomed to switching a tape or swapping a portable USB drive.

Backup SBS 2008 VM in Hyper-V Server 2008

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 09:26:00 Z

Hi,

Please refer to the following post:

USB over Network, configure help

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winserverhyperv/thread/fef572a9-2171-40d3-85a1-53968b07af6d

Best regards,

Vincent Hu