Source:Hyper-V Backup

Overview

SEP sesam provides efficient data protection for Microsoft Hyper-V environments thus helping you implement a valuable data backup and recovery strategy for your virtual machines. SEP sesam provides Hyper-V host as well as virtual machine backup with Cluster Shared Volumes (CSV) and Server Message Block (SMB 3.0) support. Note that as of version 4.4.3 Grolar, it is no longer possible to back up multiple VMs running on a Hyper-V standalone server or on a Hyper-V cluster with a single task (backup source all). The virtual machines on Hyper-V must now be backed up individually by configuring a backup task for each VM.

A variety of storage devices is supported, allowing you to back up any Hyper-V system to any virtual machine-supported storage. By using the integrated Si3 target deduplication for Hyper-V backups, you can benefit from reduced disk capacity and increased overall storage performance.

Key features

Backup level

• Supported backup levels are FULL, INCR and COPY. Note that with INCR backup a snapshot is maintained in Hyper-V Manager. Do not delete the snapshot as it is required for the FULL/INCR backup chain. Deleting a snapshot manually will break a backup chain, thus triggering a FULL backup on the next run.

Backup options

• SEP sesam supports backup for Hyper-V standalone server and Hyper-V cluster with Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) or Server Message Block (SMB 3.0).
• Backup of individual VMs is supported on Hyper-V standalone server and on Hyper-V cluster (via Hyper-V resource).
• Backup of individual VMs which can be grouped together into a single task group running on multiple hosts via the Hyper-V resource is supported on a Hyper-V standalone server and on a Hyper-V cluster.

Prerequisites

To ensure error-free operation of SEP sesam and improve performance, make sure that the following conditions are met:

• Check the support matrix for the list of supported Hyper-V versions.
• Make sure your Hyper-V environment is configured properly, as described in Hyper-V Configuration.
• Before configuring a backup task for the host components, make sure that the nodes of the selected Hyper-V cluster are added as a client to the SEP sesam environment. For details, see the procedure Automatically installing SEP sesam client on all Hyper-V cluster nodes.

	Tip
	You can assign individual backup tasks to a task group and then trigger the backup of all tasks belonging to that group with a single event. The tasks are processed according to the number of available channels. The remaining tasks are placed in the execution queue and are started sequentially. For details, see the procedure Adding a task to the task group below.

Note that a task group must always be linked to a schedule with a corresponding backup event attached to it. For details, see Standard Backup Procedure.

Note

When backing up via hypervisor and using external disk, SEP sesam cannot back up the data on the RDM disks or on a VM without attached SCSI controller(s). The data of such disks is silently skipped from backup, hence the backup saveset contains no data for the external disk, while the backup succeeds and no warning about the missing data is issued. If a restore of a VM with external disk is performed to the original VM by using the option overwrite, the disk is re-created and all existing data on the restore target is lost. To back these hypervisors, you have to add one or more SCSI controller to the virtual machine before performing a backup, even if there are no devices to use the SCSI, or you have to install a SEP sesam Client in the virtual machine and perform an additional file or application backup to back up this data.

Creating a backup task for each VM

You have to create a separate task for each VM running on a Hyper-V standalone server or a Hyper-V cluster.

1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By clients, select Hyper-V client (Hyper-V standalone server or Hyper-V cluster resource) and click New backup task. The New backup task window opens.
2. Specify the Source. Browse for the VM that you want to include in the backup and select it. Note that you can only configure one VM per backup task. By selecting the source, the task type and task name are set automatically.
3. If you want to define other options (such as pre/post backup and restore commands, set encryption or compress data, consolidate individual tasks under a specific task group, assign a task to the schedule), click the corresponding tabs in the New backup task window.
   Click OK to create the task.


4. If you want to start the newly created task immediately, right-click the name of the task and click Immediate start. If you want to schedule the task, click New schedule under Main Selection -> Scheduling -> Schedules. For details, see Creating a Schedule.

	Tip
	You can also add your backup task to an existing schedule by double-clicking the backup task, selecting the tab Schedules and adding it to one or more schedules.

Once you have configured a schedule, you must create a new backup event for it. Go to Main Selection -> Scheduling -> New Backup Event, click the Parameter tab and select one of the available backup levels (FULL, INC or COPY). For details, see Creating a Backup Event.

Creating a backup task for the host components

Create a special backup task for your Hyper-V host component.

	Note
	The host components item is needed to recover your Hyper-V server or Hyper-V cluster. Besides backing up each VM on a standalone server or in a cluster, you should also configure a separate backup task for your Hyper-V host components which contain your virtual server application configuration settings and are required to recover your Hyper-V host.

1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By clients, Hyper-V standalone server or Hyper-V cluster resource and click New backup task. The New backup task window opens.
2. Specify the Source. Browse for the Host Component and select it. By selecting the source, the task type and task name are set automatically.


3. If you want to define other options (such as pre/post backup and restore commands, set encryption or compress data, consolidate individual tasks under a specific task group, assign a task to the schedule), click the corresponding tabs in the New backup task window.
   Click OK to create the task.

Adding a task to the task group

You can add all the tasks for an individual VM or a host component to a task group and trigger all the tasks with a single event. For details, see Adding a Task to the Task Group.

1. From Main Selection -> Tasks -> By groups, click New task group. The New task group window opens.
2. Enter the Group name. Under Tasks for this group, select the tasks (from the list of all available tasks on the left) and add them to your newly created task group list.


3. If you want to start backups for the task group immediately, right-click the task group name and click Immediate start. If you want to schedule the task group, click New schedule under Main Selection -> Scheduling -> Schedules. For details, see Creating a Schedule.

Once you have configured a schedule, you must create a new backup event for it. For details, see Creating a Backup Event.

Known issues

Backup of a Linux VM fails

When backing up a Linux VM without Guest Services support, backup job fails with error:

VSS_E_WRITERERROR_NONRETRYABLE

Backups of Linux systems with Guest Services support work normally.

Solution

If backing up Linux VM fails with VSS_E_WRITERERROR_NONRETRYABLE error, open the VM Settings -> Integration Services and disable the option Backup (volume shadow copy).

See also

Hyper-V Restore – Hyper-V Configuration