Back up a VM

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

1. On the top navigation bar, click Compute.

2. From the left navigation pane, select Resource Navigation > All > Resources > host pool name > host name > VM name or Compute > host pool name > cluster name > host name > VM name.

3. Click More, and then select Back Up Now.

4. Configure the backup parameters by using one of the following methods:

   • Use the VM backup parameters configured in the backup center. To use this method, first go to the Compute > Backup Center > VM Backup page and edit the VM backup parameters.

   • Manually configure the VM backup parameters.

5. Select a backup pool. For more information about backup pools, see "Manage backup pools."

6. Configure the other parameters, and then click Finish.

7. To cancel the VM backup task:

   1. Click the icon on the top right of the page.

   2. Right-click the VM backup task, and then select Cancel Backup.

Parameters

Configure basic settings:

• Backup File Name: Enter the name of the VM backup file.

• Retained Full Backup Files: Set the number of full backup files to be retained in the same backup directory. This parameter limits the number of backup files to be retained for incremental full backup or differential full backup. If you do not set a value, the number of full backup files to be retained is not limited.

• 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.

Configure backup settings:

• Backup Pool: Select a location to save the VM backup file, shared storage or remove server. The default is shared storage. For more information about backup pool parameters, see "Manage backup pools."

• 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.

  • Differential—Backs up the data that has changed since the previous full backup. If no backup has been performed when you perform a differential backup, the differential backup takes effect as a full backup. This mode is unavailable if you enable CBT backup.