I was looking around for a quicker and easier way to do automated backups for running Hyper-V guests as part of a recent work project. As you might guess, there are tons of options – mostly it comes down to how much you want to spend.
I had been told that Microsoft’s System Center would be the way to go, but it sure looks expensive. I made a few phone calls on that and then decided to look for something more focused at backups.
A few web searches later I turned up a product called BackupChain. I liked what I saw on their “Hyper-V Backup” link so I decided to try the free 20 day trial. 15 minutes later I had it installed and configured on three Hyper-V host servers and the first backups running.
Does just what it says on the tin and I’m now seeking the funding to purchase a few licenses. And to be clear: I’ve had no contact with the company or their marketing people. I just like the product!
I set up weekly backups for a big pile of live VMs and haven’t had to think about it since. And yes, I’ve tested restores too. That’s also dead simple – and a reasonable way to clone VMs to boot.
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2 comments
Nathan
February 20, 2012 at 9:34 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
You can also make the built in Windows Server Backup(which I rather like) Hyper V aware: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/958662
Chris
February 20, 2012 at 10:00 am (UTC -6) Link to this comment
Side note: You don’t have to do that “fix” with 2008 R2 servers. They’re properly aware.
Server backup is OK but we’re running a bunch of VMs on each host and I want to have the flexibility to easily work with each VM individually when doing one-off backups and restores.