How-to backup a Hyper-V host with Bacula Enterprise Edition

We will configure Hyper-V backup as an example for backup of virtual machine with Bacula Enterprise Edition. No matter which hypervisor you use, the process that follows in this how-to is always similar. Where possible, such as with VMWare, image based backups allow for incremental backups and single file restores as well using tools like Changed Block Tracking (CBT) and the single file restore capabilities presented by VMWare’s backup API.īacula Enterprise’s virtual machine backup plugins are all configured in a similar way. Bacula Enterprise Edition – Supported Virtualization Enginesīacula Enterprise has plugins to backup virtual machines with these hypervisor vendors:ĭepending on the tools available from the hypervisor, the backup is either snapshot based or file based. Bacula Systems support can help determine which is the best approach for a given environment. However, it may be preferable to install a backup client and database-aware backup software on these machines for more granular backups of important databases and applications. In many cases, the virtualization software is able to quiesce the filesystem through the use of guest tools, and this often means that databases can be reliably backed up with a hypervisor initiated backup. There are some potential pitfalls to look out for, such as backing up databases running on a virtual machine.

Single file restore is available as long as the hypervisor API allows us to access them, so there is no loss of functionality over file backups.

New clients are automatically detected and added to the backup, reducing the risk of a machine being ‘missed’.

There is no need to install the Bacula client component (FileDaemon) on each virtual machine individually.

The hypervisor is a convenient central place to orchestrate all backup operations for your virtual environment.

Some of the major advantages of performing backups at the hypervisor for virtual machines include: This how-to will cover some of the advantages of adding hypervisor-level backup of virtual machines to your Bacula Enterprise installation, and demonstrate the basics of setting up these backups for a HyperV environment. Performing backups at this level rather than at the more ubiquitous file level provides many advantages, though in many cases a combined approach that uses both file and hypervisor backups will provide the best coverage in complex environments with virtual machines. How to Backup Virtual Machines with Bacula Enterprise Edition?īacula Enterprise Edition provides tools to backup virtual machine images through their hypervisor backup APIs.

Maintenance, Administration Jobs and special Jobs.

Enterprise Data Backup Best Practices (Prior to installation).

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