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James Green
Asked: 2009-08-01 08:05:43 +0800 CST

Backing up VirtualBox VMs

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Does anyone have a good complete strategy for backing up a bunch of virtual machines running under VirtualBox?

I intend to run a handful of virtual machines on a single hardware platform and back them up nightly to external disks, which will be taken off site every weekend in rotation.

(Just to clarify, I don't intend to shut the machines down during this process, if I can avoid it)

Am I right in thinking I can just write a script which, each night, creates a snapshot, copies the 'main' disk image to the external media, then removes the snapshot again?

Better ideas are much appreciated!

backup virtualbox virtual-machines snapshot disaster-recovery

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    In the VirtualBox 2.2+, there is a feature that allows you to import/export VM's in the Open Virtualization format. This format puts everything together for you in one nice file.

    • To import

      • From the GUI: File -> Import Appliance
      • From the console:

        VBoxManage import SomeName.ovf

    • To export

      • From the GUI: File -> Export Appliance
      • From the console:

        VBoxManage export "Name of VM" -o SomeName.ovf

    • 5

  2. if you going shut your VMs down, just copy everything without snapshots, also keep in mind that you need to copy .xml files as well

    • 0

  3. maybe halting the VM is good enough to back the files up?!

    • 0