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Hyper -V backup - HELP!

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dashpuppy

Supreme [H]ardness
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May 5, 2010
Messages
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So im going back to hyper-v because it's easier to backup and manage. Xen was awesome but.. yah..

So when i had my vm's sbs 2012 & my 2008r2 RDP machine, they did backups to a share, when they backedup they were .vhd files. At first iw as told oh yeah install windows 2008r2 with hyperv then import the backup files as a vhd FAIL!

So another idea was create a vm, start windows then use the repair feature and look for the vhd file FAIL..

so now i'm stuck with raw data.

What can i do to get my 2 vm's back ?

Can i install windows ( the version i'm trying to get going ) then run the system backup / restore and look at the vhd ?

Thoughts help ?
 
So are your VHDs are from a Windows Backup? If so, did you keep the supporting files or just the VHD? And are those VHDs of the Host machine or the Guests, or what? Your original post is a bit unclear.
 
The virtual machine and virtual hard drive (.vhd) are two different things. The configuration files in Hyper V are the "virtual machines", which is what you restore from. If you do not have those anymore, you need to create a new virtual machine, then attach your old hard drive. Create a new virtual machine and attach the .vhd as an existing virtual hard drive, it should boot up but you may have to reinstall the network drivers as the virtual machine has changed. If it is a domain machine, log into the server as servername\builtinadmin in the username box then from the HyperV console insert the integration disc and run it, then verify network connectivity and reboot to log into the proper domain account.

Also, avoid snapshots and make sure you're not trying to pull up a snapshot. Inadvertently deleting a snapshot can roll your server back months if not years.
 
bigdogchris said:
The virtual machine and virtual hard drive (.vhd) are two different things. The configuration files in Hyper V are the "virtual machines", which is what you restore from. If you do not have those anymore, you need to create a new virtual machine, then attach your old hard drive. Create a new virtual machine and attach the .vhd as an existing virtual hard drive, it should boot up but you may have to reinstall the network drivers as the virtual machine has changed. If it is a domain machine, log into the server as servername\builtinadmin in the username box then from the HyperV console insert the integration disc and run it, then verify network connectivity and reboot to log into the proper domain account.

Also, avoid snapshots and make sure you're not trying to pull up a snapshot. Inadvertently deleting a snapshot can roll your server back months if not years.
Click to expand...

What the .vhd file was is a backup. When you use windows back up and set it up to a /share/backup type of folder it saves the system backup file as a .vhd. these not not bootable NOR are they able to be imported to hyper-v and run. I tried it googled for hours every artical i found said it was not possible :(

I still have the raw data, mount the /vhd file and extract the data so that's atleast one good thing.

I'm just installing Ubuntu server with KVM doing all the updates. Since i have to build brand new vm's i thought i would give Ubuntu server with kvm installed for my vm host. give it a try see what i think and play with it.

Things ill be learning :

Backup stradigy's with Ubuntu server Host
Creating new vm's
VNC remote to configure and setup
webmin ( again already now how to use this used to it already )
New 2008r2 wordpress server & mail server


It will be a learning curve but fun at the same point.

I ditched xen because it need's a windows client, same with Esxi, i wanted to ditch the client, because some times i'm at family's houses and want to check on server or im on my ipad / iphone etc etc.
 
Your VHD is a Windows Backup from the host? And it has your Guest VM VHDs in it.? What not just attach the VHD in Storage Manager and extract the Guest VHDs? Then just recreate the VMs in HyperV and use the extracted VHDs.
 
Nate7311 said:
Your VHD is a Windows Backup from the host? And it has your Guest VM VHDs in it.? What not just attach the VHD in Storage Manager and extract the Guest VHDs? Then just recreate the VMs in HyperV and use the extracted VHDs.
Click to expand...

No,

I was running xen, with 5 vm's all windows.

When windows did a backup, i told it to save it's backup to a share folder on a dedicated nas drive. When you look up the file, its not a .bck file its a .VHD.

witch you cannot import into hyper-v and run. it's just a system image, NON bootable..
 
Right, you have an individual backup from within each VM. Sorry no image-based shortcuts here. You've got the typical physical server restore scenario only on VMs.
 
Assuming you took the backup with Windows Server Backup why not just restore it as you would with a physical machine?

Create a VM, boot the 2k8 R2 disc and restore through the normal method.
 
bmh.01 said:
Assuming you took the backup with Windows Server Backup why not just restore it as you would with a physical machine?

Create a VM, boot the 2k8 R2 disc and restore through the normal method.
Click to expand...

didn't work. tried it..
 
In what way? I've had nothing but great sucess with windows server backup, only issue being sometimes it doesn't want to pick the image up.

You did take the image with WSB though yes?
 
bmh.01 said:
In what way? I've had nothing but great sucess with windows server backup, only issue being sometimes it doesn't want to pick the image up.

You did take the image with WSB though yes?
Click to expand...

Yes, and it saved it as a vhd, when browsing to the location to restore from it doesn't see the .vhd file.
 
As I asked previously, did you save the supporting files, or just the VHD file?
 
Is the folder structure still intact? IE its in a WindowsImageBackup folder and it has the Catalog and SSPMetadataCache and Backup folders and MediaId file present?

It doesn't work if you move it around or change names.
 
bmh.01 said:
Is the folder structure still intact? IE its in a WindowsImageBackup folder and it has the Catalog and SSPMetadataCache and Backup folders and MediaId file present?

It doesn't work if you move it around or change names.
Click to expand...

Yes they were all intact and still are..
 
dashpuppy said:
I ditched xen because it need's a windows client, same with Esxi, i wanted to ditch the client, because some times i'm at family's houses and want to check on server or im on my ipad / iphone etc etc.
Click to expand...

I know what you mean, but you could setup vMA with WSX on your ESXi host and then access your virtual environment on the go via ssh to vMA and also see the VM consoles in Safari on you iPad.

Just a thought ;)
 
joshu said:
I know what you mean, but you could setup vMA with WSX on your ESXi host and then access your virtual environment on the go via ssh to vMA and also see the VM consoles in Safari on you iPad.

Just a thought ;)
Click to expand...

that's a pita, Because if xen is down then i can't access it to fix it.

if hyper v goes down or win2008r2 then at least i can trouble shoot with idrac
 
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