virtualbox.org

Hello comunity

I have read many things about creating backup of my virtualbox machine VDI file.
But, i don´t find explicitely what the best solution.
I found this solution, with virtual machine state power off:
1- exporting appliance
2-using vbmanage with clonehd on command line
3-Freeware software to create a clone of my virtual machine
and so on...

What i need to know is what the best and secure solution to backup my virtual machine to restore on same computer (like clone), or to restore to diferent machine with dissimliar hardware.
Also, i don´t know if exist any software to backup my virtualbox machine like i say, on same machine or dissimilar hardware on other PC or Laptop.

I hoe someone could give me the best practices to do that.

Many thanks

Luis Santos

I don't understand why newbies have this fixation with the VDI file. Yes, it's larger than any of the other files, but that doesn't mean you can forget everything else.

The best way to back up a VM is to shut it down, and then copy the entire VM folder to backup media. To restore you simply copy the files back - and depending on why you needed to do a restore (e.g. hard disk exploded?) then you may also need to use Machine|Add... to reregister the VM.

The Export tool makes changes to the VM and hence is not an ideal backup tool.

If you only back up the VDI then restoring it will likely encounter any of a multitude of issues (e.g. crashes because hardware recipe changed, activation of OS and other guest apps because hardware signature changed, network failures because NIC MAC address changed... etc etc).

Hello again

It´s not a fixation neither the size of the VDI file represente any problema for me, because i can shrink or expand this file without any problem, but only a simple preocupation about doing things in the most safe and eficiente way.
as i said i read much things about that and many solutions, but in did i just need to know what the best one.

Thanks for your reply
Luis Santos