Hyper-V Failover Cluster Backup
Last updated
Last updated
TrueSecure Backup VM edition supports Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster backup and restore. Hyper-V cluster backup is available in the new backup format only.
For now, Backup for Windows VM Edition supports only local Failover Cluster backup. This means that the Backup for Windows instance must be installed on the Hyper-V host with a Failover Cluster to be backed up.
Operating System
Windows Server 2008 R2/2012/2012 R2/2016/2019 with Hyper-V role
TrueSecure Backup
VM Edition
This chapter cover the following topics:
To create a new Hyper-V backup plan, click the Hyper-V action in the horizontal menu bar and select Hyper-V Backup. To use legacy Hyper-V backup, select Hyper-V Backup (Legacy).
The Create Hyper-V Backup Plan Wizard starts.
Learn Backup Wizard steps:
Summary
Select a storage account for the backup plan from the list of available backup storages. If no storage is available, click Add new Storage Account. You can select any of the supported backup storages. Check whether you have enough free storage capacity for backup. Once you selected backup storage, click Next.
Specify the name for the backup plan.
Click Next.
Specify connection settings to back up a Hyper-V Cluster and local Hyper-V host.
Select Back up the Hyper-V cluster and local Hyper-V host or Back up the local Hyper-V host only. Consider the Back up the local Hyper-V host only option is intended for virtual machines of the Hyper-V server backup. It is not recommended to use this option in case you want to back up the Hyper-V failover cluster.
Provide administrative account credentials with Hyper-V role enabled and check whether you want to keep this password in the backup plan configuration.
Select Remember password to keep the specified password for future use.
Select Skip credentials validation in case you have no doubts in the provided credentials. Credential validation takes a while.
In case you are planning to back up specified virtual machines, select virtual machines for the backup plan.
The following options are available:
Back up all Virtual Machines. Select this option to include all virtual machines of the Hyper-V cluster in the backup plan
Back up only running Virtual Machines
Back up selected Virtual Machines.
Consider that clustered virtual machines are marked by specific icons.
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.
Note that if you switch the backup option from the Back up selected Virtual Machines to any other, the previously made selection is kept for the case if you change your mind and select back the Back up selected Virtual Machines option, but the selected option will be applied regardless of the virtual machine selection
Click Next.
You can configure the application processing settings on the Select Virtual Machines step of the Hyper-V backup wizard.
By default, the Try application processing setting is set. Click on the setting to 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. Using the installed VMware Tools, the state of applications running on virtual machines is checked, then a snapshot is made and an application-consistent backup is performed. In case an application-consistent snapshot is not made for some reason, a regular snapshot is done for this virtual machine.
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.
Click Next.
In case you selected the Back up selected Virtual Machines option on the previous step, you can select disks on these machines.
To back up all virtual machine disks, select the Back up all disks option.
To select particular VM disks for the backup plan, select the Back up selected disks only option. Use the tree to expand or collapse virtual machine disks or volumes.
You can expand selected NTFS disks to exclude some objects. Non-NTFS disks can only be included or excluded as a whole.
Click Next.
Specify compression and encryption options for the backup plan.
The following options are available:
Select Enable compression check box to compress backup source contents for optimal backup storage space usage
To protect your backup contents with encryption, select Enable encryption check box. TrueSecure Backup supports AES encryption of 128, 192 and 256 bit key length. Select the appropriate key length in Algorithm drop-down menu
Specify the encryption password in the Password field, then confirm the password in the Confirm field. To display password, select Display password check box
Note that the encryption password will NOT be stored in the backup plan configuration for security reasons. Keep this password in a safe place to be able to restore the backup contents afterward
Click Next.
Specify the full consistency check and restore verification options.
To learn more about consistency checks, refer to the Consistency Checks chapter
Select the restore verification running options:
Do not Run Restore Verification. Select this option to run restore verification manually
Run for Full only. Select this option to run restore verification for full backups only. You can manage a schedule for full and incremental backups on the Schedule step of the Backup Wizard
Run for Incremental only. Select this option to run restore verification for incremental backups only. You can manage a schedule for full and incremental backups on the Schedule step of the Backup Wizard
Run for Full and Incremental. Select this option to run restore verification for both backup types.
Click Next.
The following options are available:
If you intend to run the backup plan manually, select No schedule option
If you intend the backup plan to run on a particular date and time, select Specific date option, then specify the date and time you want your backup plan to be run
Select the Forever Forward Incremental option to apply the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI)
If you want the backup plan to run on a constant periodic basis, select Recurring (Incremental) option
To stop the backup plan in case if it continues suspiciously long, select Stop the plan if it runs for check box, then specify the backup plan maximum duration.
Forever Forward Incremental Schedule
To apply the Forever Forward Incremental (FFI) select the Forever Forward Incremental option.
Once you select this option, specify the FFI schedule for the backup plan:
Click Next.
Recurring (Incremental) Schedule
The Schedule Recurring Options dialog help you to configure backup frequency:
The following schedule options are available:
The Repeat Every option allows configuring flexible schedule according to your requirements. The example on the drawings shows the incremental backups schedule executed every week on Wednesdays starting from 30 March, 2022 or every 3 months starting from 30 March, 2022. You can create a schedule with multiple days of week and specify the desired period measured in weeks or months.
To create full backups by schedule, select the Execute full backup (Synthetic full if possible) check box, then configure the schedule for full backups
To set the time limit for plan execution, select Stop the plan if it runs for check box, 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 Run missed scheduled backup immediately when computer starts up check box
Click Next.
Specify the retention policy settings for the backup plan. This step depends on selection made on the Schedule step. In case you have selected the recurring schedule, the following option will be available:
The following options are available:
Do not purge. 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
Learn more about the retention policy in the Retention Policy chapter
To apply the GFS retention policy for the backup plan, select the Enable GFS check box, then customize the GFS retention policy by enabling the required keeping periods (weekly, monthly and yearly purge delays).
To learn more about the GFS retention policy, refer to the About GFS chapter
If backup data is required to be locked, enable the Immutability check box.
To learn more about the Immutability feature, refer to the Immutability chapter
In case you have selected the Forever Forward Incremental schedule, select the number of restore points to keep with Keep backup for. For backup storages with minimum storage duration policy this value will be used in combination with Intelligent Retention to avoid early deletion fees. This means you will have specified number of restore points + restore points that are required to meet the minimum storage duration policy requirements.
Click Next.
Customize actions before and/or after the backup plan run.
Custom Scripts
You can execute custom scripts before or after running the backup plan.
To specify the script execution before the backup plan starts, select the Pre-backup action check box, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button
Select the pre-backup script execution options:
Exit backup plan if pre-backup action failed. Select this option to cancel the backup plan in case the specified script fails
Continue backup plan if pre-backup action failed. Select this option to run the backup plan regardless the specified script execution results
To specify the script execution after the backup plan terminates, select the Post-backup action check box, then specify the path to the script in the field below. To open a standard Windows dialog box, click the ... button
Select the post-backup script execution options:
Execute post-backup action only if backup plan has been successfully completed. Select this option to execute the post-backup script only in case of a backup plan success
Execute post-backup action regardless of the backup result. Select this option to execute the post-backup script in any case
Note that an absolute path to a script is required, i.e. if you specify the path to a script, it should be as follows:
In case the absolute path to a script file is not specified, the default directory for script is "C:\Windows\System32"
The following script formats are supported: EXE, COM, BAT, CMD, or PIF
Mind that TrueSecure Backup supports EXE files have several restrictions: EXE files must not use GUI and must close automatically upon termination.
For example, the following script will not succeed:
In this case, this command must be used with the /C parameter, as shown below:
The same restriction applies to applications executed by PowerShell scripts:
It is highly recommended to perform a test run for the created backup plan to ensure that TrueSecure properly executes specified scripts
Backup Plan Chains
In case you need to run another backup or restore plan once the backup plan is finished, use the Backup Chain feature. To create a backup chain, select the Backup chain check box, then select a backup or restore plan to be chained.
Execute the specified backup plan only if backup plan has been successfully completed. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan only in case of a backup plan success
Execute the specified backup plan regardless of the backup result. Select this option to execute the chained backup plan in any case
In case you chained a backup plan, you can enable the full backup for it regardless the contents in the backup storage. To do this, select the Force full backup for the chained plan.
To learn more about the full backup type, refer to the Full Backup chapter
Click Next.
Specify notification and logging settings.
To receive the notification after the backup plan completion, select I want to receive notification email check box.
Select When backup fails or finished with warnings option if you want to receive the notification message in case of the backup plan failure or in case of some warnings
Select In all cases option if you want to receive the notification message in any case.
In the fields Email, Use name, Email subject specify the notification email details. You can specify one or more email recipients. Separate them by semicolon or comma, the recipient name (one for all of them). The email subject that can also contain any of the following variables:
%COMPUTER_NAME%. Displays the instance name on which the backup plan was executed
%RESULT%. Displays the result of the backup plan. Possible values: Success, Finished with warnings, Failed
%PLAN_NAME%. Displays the name of the backup plan.
If you want to use own SMPT server for notification emails, select the Use custom SMTP server for email notifications check box, then specify the settings for the SMTP server
If you want the backup plan record to be added to Windows Event Log, select on Add entry to Windows Event Log when backup completes check box
Select When backup fails or finished with warnings option if you want to receive the notification message in case of the backup plan failure or in case of some warnings
Select In all cases option if you want the entry to be put in Windows Event Log in any case.
Click Next.
To edit the backup plan, proceed as follows:
Switch to the Backup Plans tab.
Open the plan to edit, expand it, then click Edit.
Follow the Backup Wizard steps to save the backup plan configuration.
