Hyper-V Backup in Backup Agent (new backup format)

This chapter cover the following topics:

• Create Backup Plan
• Edit Backup Plan
• Delete Backup Plan

Create Backup Plan

To create a new Hyper-V backup plan, expand the Hyper-V item in the horizontal menu bar and select Hyper-V Backup. To create a new Hyper-V backup plan in the legacy backup format, expand the Hyper-V item in the horizontal menu bar and select Hyper-V Backup (Legacy).

Learn Backup Wizard steps:

• Select Backup Storage
• Plan Name
• Connect to a Hyper-V Cluster (optional)
• Advanced Options
• Select Virtual Machines
• Configure Application-Consistent Backups
• Select Virtual Disks
• Compression and Encryption Options
• Consistency Check
• Schedule
  • Simple Schedule
  • Advanced Schedule
• Retention Policy, GFS and Object Lock
• Pre / Post Actions
• Notifications and Logging

Select Backup Storage

Select a storage account for the backup plan from the list of available backup storages.

Click Next.

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Plan Name

Specify the name for the backup plan.

Click Next.

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Connect to a Hyper-V Cluster (optional)

Select to back up: a local Hyper-V host only or a Hyper-V cluster.

The following options are available:

• Select the Back up the local Hyper-V host only option to back up a local Hyper-V host
• Select the Back up the Hyper-V cluster and local Hyper-V host option to back up VMs of a Hyper-V Failover Cluster, then specify the cluster access credentials

Click Next.

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Advanced Options

Specify advanced options for the backup plan. Advanced option set depends on the selected backup storage.

The following options are available:

• Use synthetic full backup. Select this option for cloud storages to enable the synthetic full backup usage for the backup plan. If a long-term storage class is selected as the bsckup destination, this will result in high storage costs.

Additional Advanced Options for Amazon S3

1. If your backup storage destination is Amazon S3, select the S3 storage class for the backup plan:

• Standard
• Intelligent-Tiering
• Standard-IA
• One Zone-IA
• Glacier Instant Retrieval
• Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier)
• Glacier Deep Archive

Usage of different storage classes for different backups is the subject of optimizing your storage costs.

2. Select Use S3 Transfer Acceleration to accelerate file transfer for an extra fee. The target bucket must have this feature enabled. Select this checkbox if you want to use the data transfer acceleration service provided by Amazon. To learn more, refer to the Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration.

Additional Advanced Options for Microsoft Azure

If your backup storage destination is Microsoft Azure, and you have the General Purpose v2 Azure account, select the required storage class (access tier).

The following options are available:

• Hot tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is accessed or modified frequently. The hot tier has the highest storage costs, but the lowest access costs.
• Cool tier. An online tier optimized for storing data that is infrequently accessed or modified. Data in the cool tier should be stored for a minimum of 30 days. The cool tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the hot tier.
• Cold tier.An online tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed or modified, but still requires fast retrieval. Data in the cold tier should be stored for a minimum of 90 days. The cold tier has lower storage costs and higher access costs compared to the cool tier.
• Archive tier. An offline tier optimized for storing data that is rarely accessed, and that has flexible latency requirements, on the order of hours. Data in the archive tier should be stored for a minimum of 180 days.

To learn more about the difference between Azure storage tiers, refer to the Azure Blob Storage - Hot, cool,cold, and archive storage tiers article at docs.microsoft.com.

Click Next.

Select Virtual Machines

Configure the backup dataset for the plan and select the virtual machines to back up.

The following options are available:

• Back up all Virtual Machines. Select this option to include all virtual machines of the Hyper-V server to the backup plan
• Back up only running Virtual Machines. Select this option to include running virtual machines of the Hyper-V server to the backup plan
• Back up selected Virtual Machines. Select this option to include specified virtual machines of the Hyper-V server to the backup plan

As of version 7.4, you can customize checkpoints to back up. To configure the checkpoint backup, click Advanced Settings. Select Back up current Hyper-V checkpoint only check box to back up the latest checkpoint only. Otherwise all existing checkpoints for the selected virtual machines will be backed up.

Along with the Back up current Hyper-V checkpoint only option, you can enable the Changed Block Tracking (Resilient Change Tracking) feature. Read more about the Changed Block Tracking in the Changed Block Tracking for Hyper-V paragraph.

Click Next.

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Configure Application-Consistent Backups (BETA)

You can configure the Application processing options after the Select Virtual Machines step of the Hyper-V backup wizard. These options can be configured separately for each virtual machine.

By default, the Try application processing setting is set. you can change it, if necessary.

The following options are available:

• Try application processing. Back up virtual machines 'as is' if failed. Once this option is selected, virtual machines are backed up one by one. The state of applications running on virtual machines is checked, then a recovery consistent checkpoint is made and an application-consistent backup is performed. In case an recovery consistent checkpoint cannot be not made for some reason, this virtual machine will be backed up 'as is'.
• Require successful application processing. Skip virtual machines if failed. Once this option is selected, virtual machines with applications that did not flush pending I/O operations from memory to disks, are skipped and an appropriate warning is displayed for a user.
• Disable application processing. Back up virtual machines 'as is'. Once this option is selected, regular VM snapshots are done without quiescing.

Select Virtual Disks

If you selected the Back up selected Virtual Machines option on the previous step, you can select required disks of selected virtual machines.

• To back up all virtual machine disks, select Backup all disks option.
• To select particular VM disks for the backup plan, select Backup selected disks only option. Use the tree to expand or collapse virtual machine items.

Click Next.

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Compression and Encryption Options

Compression

Managed Backup offers compression to reduce the storage space required for your backup and to speed up the upload process to the target storage.

Encryption

You can protect your backup by encrypting its contents. Managed Backup supports AES encryption with key sizes of 128, 192, and 256 bits. A larger key size provides stronger encryption but may increase the time required for processing your backup. For more details on AES encryption, refer to the Advanced Encryption Standard.

If you choose to save your backup plan configuration to the destination storage, be aware that the encryption password is not stored in the configuration file for security reasons. Ensure that you save this password securely, as it will be required to restore the backup's contents.

Click Next.

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Consistency Check

Enable the full consistency check if required.

Click Next.

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Schedule

Specify the backup plan schedule settings.

The following options are available:

• Select the No schedule option to run the backup plan manually.
• Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to apply the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI) schedule.
• Select the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to apply the recurring schedule and, if necessary, use Grandfather-Father-Son and Object Lock (Immutability).
• To set the time limit for plan execution, select the Stop the plan if it runs for checkbox, then specify the backup plan duration limit.
• To run the backup plan after the computer is on in case the backup plan run has been missed, select the Run missed scheduled backup immediately when computer starts up checkbox.

Click Next.

Simple Schedule

Select the Simple (Forever Forward) option to use the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI). This schedule offers one full backup followed by a limited number of incrementals. Once the limit is exceeded, a new full backup is created using in-cloud copying (synthetic full backup. Once you select this option, specify the FFI schedule for the backup plan. You can select the Daily or Monthly schedule type, depending on how often the incremental backups will be performed.

This schedule is unavailable if the selected storage account does not support synthetic full backups.

Advanced Schedule

Select the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) option to set up a flexible, recurring schedule with generations. Every generation contains one full backup followed by incrementals.

The advanced schedule allows configuring a flexible schedule according to your requirements. To use this schedule you should add schedules for full and incremental backup runs:

• To create incremental backups by schedule, select the Recurring (Incremental) checkbox, then configure the schedule for incremental backups on a daily or monthly basis.
• To create full backups by schedule, select the Execute full backup (Synthetic full if possible) checkbox, then configure the schedule for full backups on a daily or monthly basis.

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Retention Policy, GFS and Object Lock

Specify the retention policy settings for the backup plan. The retention policy depends on the schedule selected on the previous step.

Retention Policy with Simple Schedule

If you selected the Simple (Forever Forward Incremental) schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the number of restore points. The Keep backup for value defines the period Restore Points with the Forever Forward Incremental schedule are kept. If their retention period expires, these restore points are merged into a full backup (with Forever Forward Incremental only one full backup is kept on the backup storage).

• Intelligent Retention: Each time the backup plan is executed, the backup storage parameters are analyzed automatically, setting the retention period based on storage provider data deletion conditions. This feature is enabled by default.

Retention Policy with Advanced Schedule / No Schedule

If you selected the Advanced (GFS, Object Lock) schedule or to run backup manually without the schedule, the Retention Policy step offers the following settings:

• Do not purge (Keep backup forever). Select this option to keep all your backup runs.
• Keep backup for. Select this option to limit the period while backup contents are kept in the backup storage, then specify the period.

To apply the GFS retention policy for the backup plan, select the Enable GFS checkbox, then customize the GFS retention policy by enabling the required keeping periods (weekly, monthly and yearly purge delays).

If backup data is required to be locked, enable the Object Lock (Immutability) checkbox. Before enabling Object Lock, you need to allow this feature for the backup destination.

Click Next.

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Edit a Backup Plan

To edit the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the backup plan you want to edit by expanding it, then click Edit.
3. Proceed through the Backup Wizard steps to adjust settings as needed.
4. If the plan is currently running, you'll need to select one of the following options:
   • Apply changes after the backup plan completes
   • Stop the plan and apply changes.
5. After choosing the desired option for the running backup plan, click Apply.
6. Save the edited plan configuration.

Delete a Backup Plan

To delete the backup plan, proceed as follows:

1. Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
2. Open the plan to delete, expand it, then click Delete.
3. Click Yes to confirm the backup plan deletion.