Backing up a live Virtual Box VM

[tampatechman2]

We have a live linux VM running in Virtual Box on a Windows 2008 server host. Presently using Stroagecraft for image and snapshot backups on the host, our concern is that the vdi files are not being captured in a stable state. What is best practice to backup this VM in a live production environment? I dont believe Virtual Box is VSS aware...

[Perryg]

Generally the *best way* to backup a guest is to pause it first. Better yet is to stop the guest and backup the files.
If you must do this *hot* some people suggest rsync as the best approach.

[BillG]

We have a live linux VM running in Virtual Box on a Windows 2008 server host. Presently using Stroagecraft for image and snapshot backups on the host, our concern is that the vdi files are not being captured in a stable state. What is best practice to backup this VM in a live production environment? I dont believe Virtual Box is VSS aware...

I don't follow your comment about VirtualBox being VSS aware. How does VirtualBox come into the discussion? You are not backing up VirtualBox, you are backing up a virtual machine, How is VirtualBox involved?

[UncleBen]

I would presume he is implying that perhaps VBox is registered as a VSS writer, and thus pauses and flushes all pending writes when requested to do so.

If you are using storage craft on the HOST, as you know, it takes a snapshot of you host filesystem.

You may want to simply snapshot your guest in the pre shadowcopy command.
And then post shadowcopy, or hell even post-backup, you can get rid of the snapshot.

What ShadowProtect will then backup is a shadow copy of the BASE vdi, which was frozen in time by VB just before the shadow copy was taken.

Test snapshotting for reliability with the guest under load.

This presumes that snapshoting a VBox guest is considered a secure backup option for your environment.

Mic