Back up a VM
Perform this task to perform a full, incremental, or differential backup on a VM or the disks of a VM. You can save backup files to a local directory or a remote server.
To perform scheduled backup of VMs, see "Backup policies."
Restrictions and guidelines
The system does not back up permission information, boot priority, automatic migration settings, and GPU settings of VMs.
For VMs that use block devices as disks or use raw disks, online backup, incremental backup, and differential backup are not supported.
Snapshots do not support changed block tracking (CBT) backup. If you restore a VM with snapshots by using a CBT backup file, the snapshots of the VM will be lost.
To avoid backup failure, do not change the running state of a VM during a CBT backup.
For CBT backup, only CBT full backup and CBT incremental backup are supported in the current software version.
To use CBT backup, make sure the VMs use intelligent disks and single-level image files.
Procedure
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The system supports cancelling VM backup tasks. To cancel a VM backup task, right click that task on the task console, and then click Cancel Task. |
On the top navigation bar, click Resources.
From the left navigation pane, select Compute > host pool name > host name > VM name or Compute > host pool name > cluster name > host name > VM name.
Click More, and then select Back Up Now.
Set the parameters as described in "Parameters," or click Import Backup Policy to select a backup policy to back up VMs in real time. In the latter case, make sure you have created a backup policy as described in "Backup policies."
Parameters
Configure basic settings:
Backup File Name: Enter the name of the VM backup file.
Reserved Number: Enter the number of reserved backup files. If you do not configure this parameter, the system does not limit the number of backup files.
Disk Read Rate Limit: Set the limit on the disk read rate during backup.
Disk Write Rate Limit: Set the limit on the disk write rate during backup.
Temp Directory: Enter the temporary directory used during backup. During the backup, the system saves backup data to the temporary directory. After the backup is finished, data saved in the temporary directory will be deleted. If the directory you specify does not exist, the system automatically creates the directory during backup.
Type: Select a backup type.
VM Backup—Backs up the entire VM, including its disk data and configuration files. You can restore the entire VM by using the backup file.
Disk Backup—Backs up only one or multiple disks of the VM and does not back up its configuration files. You can restore only the disk data by using the backup file.
Compress: Set whether to compress the disk image during backup.
CBT Backup: Select whether to enable CBT backup for the VM. CBT backs up only the data that has changed since the last backup, which saves time and system resources.
Location: Select the backup destination. If you select the Local Directory option, the system saves the backup file to the local host. If you select the Remote Server option, the system saves the backup file to a remote server.
Configure the following parameters if you select the Local Directory option:
Backup Directory: Enter the directory that the host uses to store backup files.
Configure the following parameters if you select the Remote Server option:
IP Address: Enter the IP address of the remote server.
Username: Enter the name for logging in to the remote server. The account must have read and write permissions. If the connection mode is FTP, this account must be the one created on the FTP server. If the connection mode is SCP, this account must be the one created on the OS of the remote server.
Password: Enter the password for logging in to the remote server.
Connection Mode: Select a connection mode. If you select FTP, only Server-U, VsFTP, and IIS FTP servers are supported.
Server Port: Specify the port number of the remote server. The default port number is 21 for the FTP connection mode and 22 for the SCP connection mode.
Connection Test: Test availability of the remote server.
Backup Type: Select a backup type.
Full—Backs up all data and applications before a specific point in time for a VM.
Incremental—Backs up the data that has changed since the previous full or incremental backup. If no backup has been performed when you perform an incremental backup, the incremental backup takes effect as a full backup.