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Backing up virtual machines
Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Advanced Server Virtual Edition allows for backing up virtual machines
from the host.
Preparation
On Windows 2008 Server x64 (any edition) or Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008:
Install the Agent for Hyper-V on the Hyper-V host.
Integration services (p. 52) have to be installed on the guest systems.
On VMware ESX/ESXi:
Install the Agent for ESX/ESXi on the ESX or ESXi host. The agent is delivered as a virtual
appliance.
VMware Tools (p. 52) have to be installed on the guest systems.
Virtual machines backup
Once the agent is installed on the host and the required services are installed on the guests, you can:
back up a virtual machine or multiple virtual machines residing on the server without having to
install the agent on each virtual machine
recover a virtual machine to the same, another, or new virtual machine residing on the same
server or on another virtualization server where the agent for virtual machines is installed. The
virtual machine configuration, stored in a virtual machine backup, will be suggested by default at
recovering the backup content to a new virtual machine
back up and recover individual disks and volumes of a virtual machine.
A virtual machine can be online (running), offline (stopped), suspended, or switch between the three
states during backup.
A virtual machine has to be offline (stopped) during the recovery to this machine. The machine will
be automatically stopped before recovery. You can opt for manual stopping of machines (p. 133).
Virtual machine backup vs. the machine's volumes backup
Backing up a virtual machine means backing up all the machine's disks plus the machine
configuration. With this source type, you can back up multiple machines. This comes in handy when
having small (in terms of virtual disk size) but numerous legacy servers such as those resulting from
workload consolidation. A separate archive will be created for each machine.
Backing up volumes within a virtual machine is similar to backing up a physical machine's volumes.
With this source type, you select the machine and then select the disks/volumes to back up. This
comes in handy when the operating system and applications, such as a database server, run on a
virtual disk, but the data, such as a database, is stored on a large capacity physical disk added to the
same machine. You will be able to use different backup strategies for the virtual disk and the physical
storage. The virtual machine configuration will be also backed up.
Limitations
A Hyper-V virtual machine that uses at least one pass-through disk (a physical disk, either local or
SAN-LUN, attached to the virtual machine) cannot be backed up from the host. To back up such
machine or its disks, install Agent for Windows or Agent for Linux on the machine.