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I'm searching for advice on whether backups are better taken from within a guest (e.g. ShadowProtect), or from within the host (e.g. copying virtual disk files, or other software).

We have 12 VM's (a mixture of Win2012, Win2008, and Debian) running on a pair of oVirt (KVM) nodes. Storage is on an HP P2000 SAN, and backup space is available on a FreeNAS server.

Currently I'm considering a two-pronged approach:

  1. Host-based homegrown script to shutdown the VM's and rsync the qcow2 file to the backup server weekly
  2. Use guest-based software to backup time-critical data on the email server & file server every hour

It feels like there should be A Better Way™, particularly considering the homegrown script.

Should I focus on host-based backups, guest-based backups, or a combination of the two?

Rhyven
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Ever considered using technology applicable for the job? I can not imagine a backup that requires the VM to be turned off and then is done via a hodge podge script, instead of having a backup software that integrated with the hypervisor.

Plus, this is not nevessarily "either or". I use Hyper-V and we do machine backups from the host twice per day - BUT: critical data within the VM's is backed up every 15 minutes by agents in the VM. This gives me for a databsae server a twice per day system image and a 15 minute accurate database backup.

From about 30 or so VM's 4-5 have agents installed. ALL are backed up from the host twice per day.

And drop the scripts - here is backup management software around.

TomTom
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It is better to backup the virtual machines themselves. The host should be disposable.

If you ever have to rebuild the hardware, a machine backup can be problematic. Also, if you need to restore an individual VM then your only option is to restore the whole thing.

There are many products out there that support backing up running virtual machines.

Super1337
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    -1. He is not saying "the host" but "from the host". I do the same - most of my VM's are backed up from my virtualization host - but not as part of a "host image" but as part of a "backup the VM without installing an agent" approach that any decent integrated backup software will have. – TomTom Jun 05 '15 at 05:04