When Amanda Enterprise is configured and licensed for Hyper-V Virtual Machine backup, Amanda uses the Microsoft Windows Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to back up the Hyper-V virtual machines.
To backup Hyper-V virtual machine, Zmanda Windows client will have to be installed on the Hyper-V hypervisor. You need a Hyper-V license for each Windows Hypervisor. The windows client installed on the hypervisor can be backup virtual machines residing on the hypervisor.
Hyper-V virtual machine backups are always Full backups. Differential or Incremental backups are not supported.
The backups are performed using the Hyper-V VSS Writer.
Hyper-V uses one of two mechanisms to back up each Virtual Machine. The default backup mechanism is called the Saved State method, where the VM is put into a saved state during the processing of the snapshot event, snapshots are taken of the appropriate volumes, and the VM is returned to previous state as part of post-snapshot event.
The other backup mechanism is called the Child VM Snapshot method, which uses the VSS writers inside the Hyper-V child virtual machine to participate in the backup. The Child VM is the virtual machine being backed up. For the Child VM Snapshot method to be used, following conditions must be met:
You can read more about Hyper-V backups at Microsoft web site.
The backup mechanism is selected for each virtual machine (child VM) in Hyper-V management interface.
Users may select individual virtual machines within the Hyper-V host for backup. This will backup the virtual hard disk files (.vhd or .vhdx) as well as the snapshot files (.avhd or .avhdx) of the virtual machine(s) selected for backup.
Backup of the Initial Store is also available. This will backup the "IntiialStore.xml" file, which contains the Hyper-V Authorization Store. By default, the InitialStore.xml file is in %systemdrive%\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\.
Restores
For all Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft Sharepoint, and Hyper-V backups, the name of the new machine must exactly match the name of the old machine.
Functionality:
The guest VM that you are trying to restore to appears to be in running state. It will be turned off during the restore. Are you sure you want to continue?
OK Cancel
Select "OK" to turn off the running VM and continue the restore. Select "Cancel" to abort the restore process.
Requirements: