Backup of Virtual Machines available under Hyper-‐V Server is supported using Hyper-‐V Plugin. Using the Hyper-‐V plugin, snapshots can be taken for the selected Guest OSes and then upload it to the Vembu Cloud directly.
Supported Hyper-V Servers
• Hyper-‐V Server 2008 R2 • Hyper-‐V Server 2012 • Hyper-‐V Server 2012 R2
Installing Vembu OnlineBackup in Hyper-V Servers
Download the Windows Client installer and install Vembu OnlineBackup using Silent installation.
Note:
To backup Hyper-‐V guest OSes you must install PowerShell in Hyper-‐V Server 2008 R2 / Hyper-‐V Server 2012 / Hyper-‐V Server 2012 R2 machine. Please follow the steps below,1. Use the following command to displays a list of features and their status: DISM /Online /Get-‐Features
2. Enables the NetFx2-‐ServerCore feature: DISM /Online /Enable-‐Feature /FeatureName:NetFx2-‐ServerCore
3. Enables the PowerShell feature: DISM /Online /Enable-‐Feature /FeatureName:MicrosoftWindowsPowerShell
You need to install 'NetFx2-‐ServerCore' feature before you install PowerShell feature otherwise it will show you an error. If NetFx2 or NetFx3 already installed on your Server you need not to proceed further. NetFx2/NetFx3 is the .NET FrameWork installed on your computer.
4. Restart the machine
Vembu OnlineBackup | Admin User Guide | Microsoft Hyper-‐V Backup 136
Microsoft Hyper-V plugin Backup Configuration
Please click on “Backup à MS Hyper-‐V” to access the MS Hyper-‐V Backup Configuration page.
Step 1: Schedule Name
The first step in configuring a backup is to give a name for the backup schedule. The backup schedule name will uniquely identify the backup. While restoring your backup data, you need to choose the data to be restored using its schedule name.
Step 2: Select Backup Source
On the left side of the "Hyper-‐V Backup Schedule" Page, is the tree with a list of Guest OSes available in the Hyper-‐V Server. Select the Guest OS that needs to be backed up as part of this schedule.
Step 3: Set Basic Configuration
Backup Type
Vembu OnlineBackup provides 2 types of Backup options.
1. Seed Backup – With this option you can seed backup to local drive which you can
migrate to the Vembu Cloud using USB/External Hard drives to avoid more network bandwidth. It can be done only with the initial Full backup and incremental backup will not be continued.
2. Vembu Cloud – With this option you can directly backup the data into the Vembu Cloud
over the Internet.
Test connectivity -‐ Before you proceed with the backup, you can check the connectivity to Backup Server (Vembu Cloud). It will check the Connectivity and DNS Lookup with the Vembu Cloud.
Retention Policies
Vembu OnlineBackup provides the retention feature where backups of multiple versions of a file can be maintain at the Vembu Cloud. Vembu OnlineBackup cleans up the version files in the Vembu Cloud based on two major retention policies:
1. Version-‐Based Retention -‐ Retains multiple version files in the Vembu Cloud based on the version file count.
2. Time-‐Based Retention -‐ Retains multiple version files in the backup up server based on the age of the version files.
1. Version-Based Retention
Vembu OnlineBackup can retain backups of multiple versions of a file based on the version retention count specified. The number of version files to be retained can be specified as any value from 0 to 99 with a default setting of 5.This option is useful when you wish to store just the complete latest version of a file.
For example, if the version file retention count is specified as 5, then Vembu OnlineBackup retains the latest five version files. These files can be restored from the Vembu Cloud at any point of time. When the sixth version of the file is created, Vembu Cloud automatically deletes the first version.
2. Time-Based Retention
Vembu OnlineBackup can retain version files in the Vembu Cloud based on the age of version files. Default setting is for 5 years, meaning the version files will be retained in the Vembu Cloud for 5 years and then will be removed automatically. The maximum number of versions that can be created during the retention period can also be optionally further configured. There are two options:
Any number of versions can be created within this retention period -‐ This is the default setting. If enabled, Vembu OnlineBackup retains all the versions created during the specified retention time period.
Restrict the maximum number of versions that can be created within this retention period to 'n'. -‐ If this option is enabled, Vembu OnlineBackup will clean up the version files based on both; retention time period and maximum version file count. For example, if the retention time period is set to 1 month and maximum version file count is 5, Vembu OnlineBackup will retain only the last five version files created within the last one month and versions older than one month with be deleted.
Vembu OnlineBackup | Admin User Guide | Microsoft Hyper-‐V Backup 138
Step 4: Full Backup Scheduling (Timings)
This step allows you to configure the frequency at which a full backup of the Microsoft Outlook has to be done. A full backup is a complete backup of the Microsoft Outlook folders. Since full backups take more time to complete than an incremental backup, a full backup is typically configured to run weekly or monthly or much less frequently than the incremental backup. Configuring a full backup schedule is mandatory, i.e. this step cannot be skipped. Vembu OnlineBackup will do a full backup dump of the Microsoft Outlook whenever the full backup is scheduled and back it up.
This step has the following options from which any one can be chosen.
Run Every Few Minutes
Choose the hours/minutes interval between each time Vembu OnlineBackup must run. If Vembu OnlineBackup is restarted in the interim, the backup will run once the Vembu OnlineBackup starts. Thereafter, Vembu OnlineBackup automatically reschedules the next backup after the period you’ve set. For example, if you created a backup schedule at 10 am and set it to run every 1 hour, Vembu OnlineBackup will first run the schedule at 10am and the next scheduled time will be 11am. However, if at 10.15am, Vembu OnlineBackup is restarted, then the schedule will run once at 10.15am and the next scheduled time will now be set to 11.15am.
Additionally, you can also select the days in which this schedule should run. For example, if you do not want to run this backup schedule on Saturdays and Sundays, uncheck the checkbox against these days.
Run Daily
Choose the time at which the backup should run daily. This will execute the backup everyday at a time you have provided. Vembu OnlineBackup will run at the stipulated time only.
Run Monthly
Choose the time and day of the month the backup should run. Vembu OnlineBackup will run the backup every month on the particular day and time chosen. Vembu OnlineBackup will run at the stipulated time/day only.
Run Weekly
Choose the time and the day of the week the backup should run. Vembu OnlineBackup will execute the backup every week on the particular day and time chosen. Note that you can select multiple days of the week if you wish to run the backup on multiple days of the week. Vembu OnlineBackup will run at the stipulated time/day only.
Step 5: Additional Full Backups
Typically, you would do a full backup first time you backup your data and thereafter only do incremental backups. However, like in a typical enterprise scenario, if you want to run full backups periodically and run the incremental backups in between two full backups, then you can configure the scheduling for how to run the full backups here.
For Run Every Few Minutes and Run Daily backups, the Additional Full Backup settings will allow you to configure daily/weekly/monthly additional full backups. For weekly backups, only
Monthly additional full backups are possible.
Additionally you can specify the maximum number of full backups that need to be stored in the server. For example if you configured a weekly backup and additionally if you configure a monthly full backup, then Vembu OnlineBackup will take a full backup the first time and then weekly do an incremental backup. The next month, Vembu OnlineBackup will do a new full backup and subsequently run the weekly incremental backup over this full backup. After 6 months you will have 6 separate full backups in the Vembu Cloud along with weekly
Vembu OnlineBackup | Admin User Guide | Microsoft Hyper-‐V Backup 140 data for 6 months, then you can configure "Store maximum of 6 full backups" here. On the 7th month, Vembu OnlineBackup, after finishing the 7th full backup, will delete the first full backup along with its weekly incremental backups thus retaining always the last 6 month backups.
Advanced Options
If you want to configure some additional advanced options -‐ like, Data Integrity, etc. click on the Advanced Options button.
Advanced Backup Schedule Settings
There are several options here on how the backup should be scheduled.
1. Run this backup each time Vembu OnlineBackup restarts – If you enable this option by
checking the check box, then this backup schedule will be run every time Vembu
OnlineBackup is restarted or the machine is rebooted irrespective of the actual schedule time of this backup schedule. This is to ensure that any modified or new files created when Vembu OnlineBackup was down are backed up as soon as possible. In case of the Continuous backup or ‘Run every…’ scheduling options, backups will run each time Vembu OnlineBackup restarts – by default.
2. Run this backup immediately after saving this configuration (thereafter, Backups will
be scheduled as per the schedule stipulated) -‐ If you enable this option, then this backup schedule will be executed once immediately after you save this backup schedule – even if it's not yet ‘time’ as per the schedule. For example if you configure a daily backup at 10.00 AM but you configured the backup at 8.00 AM, then the backup
schedule will be run once immediately (8.00 AM) and then as per schedule (e.g. daily at 10.00 AM).
3. Attempt to run this backup every 5 minutes in case of non completion because of a
problem (Network error etc.) -‐ If enabled, the user can choose to reschedule this
backup every 5/10/15/20/25/30 minutes, whenever an attempted backup is incomplete because of a network error, server crash etc. The number of times the backup will be rescheduled (due to an error) can be configured to be in between 1-‐5 or unlimited, with the default setting as 5. This is to ensure that an incomplete backup is completed as soon as possible without waiting for the next actual schedule time. Note that this option is enabled by default.
4. Data Integrity Check -‐ Vembu OnlineBackup supports data integrity check where the
data sent from the client machine is verified for integrity at the Vembu Cloud. When a file's integrity check fails, Vembu OnlineBackup flags that file as skipped and the file is then again backed up during the next backup schedule.
5. Perform Synthetic Full Backup for files when the size of the incremental backup of a file exceeds certain % of the size of the initial full backup of the file -‐ By default Synthetic Full Backup will be run when the size of the incremental exceeds 80% of the original backup data. A very low value will lead to too many Synthetic Full Backups been run and all those versions need to be maintained in the Vembu Cloud. A very large value could lead to Synthetic Backups not running at all.
Pre & Post Backup Commands (Optional)
This feature provides the ability to configure running custom actions before and after executing a backup schedule. The custom actions may include running an application or some script files.
When is this feature useful?
If an application has exclusively locked a file and you need to close the application before Vembu OnlineBackup can backup that file, then you can run a Pre-‐backup command to close the application and then a post-‐backup command to open the application again after Vembu OnlineBackup successfully backs up the file.
How does this feature work?
Whenever a backup schedule starts, Vembu OnlineBackup will start the Pre Backup commands and wait till the timeout value. After completing the Pre Backup commands, Vembu
OnlineBackup will transfer the configured files & folders to the Vembu Cloud. After transferring the configured files and folders, Vembu OnlineBackup will run the Post Backup Commands. If multiple servers are configured for the backup schedule, then both the Pre and Post Backup commands will run while backing up to each of the servers.
Vembu OnlineBackup | Admin User Guide | Microsoft Hyper-‐V Backup 142
Pre & Post Backup command settings:
You can provide maximum of 5 Pre Backup commands and maximum of 5 Post Backup commands for each backup schedule. Both the Pre and Post Backup commands are optional.
1. Command Name: This filed is mandatory. This is the command that should be run. The
command should be provided with full path. If the command name is in the system command path, then providing full path for the command is not necessary. The command can be an executable file such as application exe, batch files, script files etc. Example: C:\MyTools\myzip.exe. A simple zip tool which compresses the given files or folders.
2. Arguments: You can provide any command line arguments for the command to be
executed.
Example: For the Command C:\MyTools\myzip.exe, the arguments may be 'High Zip Replace "D:\Project" myproject.zip' [without quotes]. Here, the High may denote high compression, Zip denotes zip file format, Replace denotes replacing existing files, 'D:\Project' denotes folder to compress and 'myproject.zip' denotes the target compressed file name.
3. Working Path: This field specifies the directory path from which the Command has to be
run. If this field is left empty, then the command will be executed from the Vembu OnlineBackup working path [Vembu OnlineBackup Home]
Example: 'D:\Project'. The command will be executed from the directory D:\Project.
4. Timeout: This filed is used to specify a timeout value, in seconds, for the command to
finish execution. Vembu OnlineBackup will wait for so many seconds for the Pre and post command to finish running. If the command still runs beyond the timeout period, then Vembu OnlineBackup will abruptly terminate the command and will continue with the backup schedule.
Please note that if you provide -‐1 value, then the command will run till completion and Vembu OnlineBackup will wait till the command completes. If command never
completes, then Vembu OnlineBackup may just infinitely wait without proceeding with the backup schedule.
Example: 60. For the myzip.exe command, the myzip.exe command will compress the given project folder up to 60 seconds. If the myzip.exe completes before the timeout period, say 15 seconds, then Vembu OnlineBackup will immediately continue the next Pre Backup Command [if configured] or continue with the backup schedule.
So, the example command will look like below: Command Name : C:\MyTools\myzip.exe Arguments: High Zip Replace
Working Path : D:\Project Time out : 60
The whole command will be run up to 60 seconds as below: C:\MyTools\myzip.exe High Zip Replace "D:\Project"
Saving the configured backup
Once all the Guest OSes to be backed up are chosen and the configuration options are set, you simply need to click on the "Configure/Save Backup” button to activate the backup as per the schedule-‐ on to the configured Vembu Clouds.
Troubleshooting Tips
Error: “Unable to get the GUID of the GuestOS(s) configured for backup.”
Cause: This error occurs for the following reasons,
àPowershell feature is not enabled in your machine.
àThe configured guest OS is deleted/renamed from the Hyper-‐V Server.
Solution: If PowerShell is disabled then enable and restart the machine. If you have
deleted the guest OS from the Hyper-‐V Server then you cannot backed up that machine or if you have renamed the guest OS then changed to the name which you have configured for backup.
Error: “*.VHD files not found for the backup. Please check whether *.VHD files
attached for the selected Guest OS(es).”
Cause: This error comes if the configured guest OS doesn't have the *.VHD files in the
original location. This may happen if you have *.VHD files in external drive and its disconnected during backup.
Vembu OnlineBackup | Admin User Guide | Microsoft Hyper-‐V Backup 144
Error: “Error while backing [Guest_OS] : VSS service seems to be disabled.”
Cause: Volume Shadow Copy or MS Software Shadow Copy Provider service is disabled.
Solution: Start the VSS services and schedule the backup again.
Error: “Error while dumping backup data in the client. An error occurred while writing a
file; the disk is full. Data has not been saved. Free some space and try again.”
Cause: This error will occur if the location in the client machine where the backup data
is dumped doesn't have enough free space to store the snapshots.
Solution: Please free or allocate more space in the dump location in the client machine
and schedule again.
Error: “Error While connecting to the Hyper-‐V Server 'server Name'. Reason: Unable to connect to the host.”
Cause: This error will occur when Vembu OnlineBackup is not able to connect to the selected Hyper-‐V Server as the Hyper-‐V services are not started.
Solution: Please start all the Hyper-‐V Services and then try again.
Error: “Error while dumping backup data in the client. The virtual machine cannot be
found.”
Cause: This error occurs if the configuration files of the virtual machine is not available
or corrupted.
Solution: Please Check the Hyper-‐V Configuration files *.vmx and *.vmdk available in the
Host OS VMFS file system. You can check this by powering on the particular