virtualbox.org

Hi

I have been looking at backing up virtual computers overnight. I was just wanting to check that I am on the right track here...

If I used 'controlvm "computer name" shutdown' to shutdown the computer
then ran 'clonevm "computer name" --basefolder h:\vmcomp' after that to copy the hard drive to a backup drive

would I need to schedule startvm to run later or could it be put in the same script to run when the clone is finished? is so would it be a simple matter of scheduling a couple of batch files overnight in order to make safe vm backups of my computers?

thanks in advance

Subjet has been discussed quite a few times - but yes you can of course restart a VM within the same script. Why couldn't you?

On the other hand, using the clone command for a backup means you are NOT doing a backup, but a new copy of the VM with many important IDs reset within.
You may encounter activation problems as well as network issues - see vboxmanage clonevm User Manual entry for details.

What you should do is a copy of the VM folder. This way you will have the same VM in case you need to restore.

Thanks for the advice.

So basically the clone is totally unnecessary and a scheduled shutdown and startup would be easier with a file copy in between.

The purpose of cloning is to create a new VM which is a copy of an existing VM. If all you want to do is make a backup of the existing VM then simply copying the VM folder is all you need: ideally with the VM fully shut down (not suspended). Btw, it's a folder copy - copying (say) just the VDI file does not make an adequate backup. The control files are important too.