On Thu, Nov 20, 2008 at 01:04:33PM -0700, Michael Loftis wrote:
> 
> 
> --On November 20, 2008 2:51:24 PM -0500 Jon LaBadie <jon AT jgcomp DOT com> 
> wrote:
> 
> >Just dipping my toe into virtual machines and
> >wondering how others are doing backups of them.
> >
> >I'm using VirtualBox with a host of Fedora 9.
> >My guest is WinXP Pro.  The objective is to
> >no longer need to dual-boot this machine.
> >
> >The virtual guest does appear on my network as
> >a separate host and static IP when it is up.
> >
> >I can see two ways to backup it up;
> >
> > - backup the VBox files (*.vdi and others) on
> >   the host Fedora file system
> >
> > - consider the virtual machine a separate host
> >   and amanda client
> >
> >How have others dealt with this situation?
> >Or maybe both forms are used simultaneously?
> 
> Both have problems.
> Backing up the vdi's requires the machine be down. 

Why is this a requirement Michael?  Is it because the
VDI is changing while being backed up?  Currently the
VDI is not on a FS that can be snapshot'ted.  If it was,
for example an LVM file system on Linux, would the VDI
of a running virtual machine be suitable for backup if
taken from a snapshot (snapshot from the FS, not VBox).

To my thinking, another major problem is the lack of
access to individual files within the VDI file.

> Backing up inside each VM requires you be careful not to overload the VM 
> host during backup windows.  For me, backing up inside each VM (each VM as 
> an amanda client) was/is the only way to go, despite the pitfall.
> 

That is what I expect to do.  I just hate windows backups with
all the hassle over "can't backup system and any in-use files".

jl
-- 
Jon H. LaBadie                  jon AT jgcomp DOT com
 JG Computing
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