Backup Hyper-V environment:
Backup your VMs in Hyper-V is not a simple task as we backup VMware environments. Environments and technology are different and the way to create a backup from your VMs work a little bit different.
The backup process is more complex in Hyper-V even Hyper-V has inbuilt snapshot functionality, but it doesn’t work as simple as in VMware. Mainly due to lack of comprehensive backup APIs from Microsoft.
Vembu with their proprietary driver to backup Hyper-V environment made the process easier and more reliable. Vembu driver uses Microsoft VSS technology to efficiently backup Hyper-V VMs and performance can go up to 5x over other backup software in the market.
With latest Hyper-V release (in Windows 2016) the product has some improvements in the hypervisor and some new features (some already exists in VMware for some time now).
Hyper-v Windows 2016 new features ( list of new features, no update features):
- Compatible with Connected Standby
- Discrete device assignment
- Encryption support for the operating system disk in generation 1 virtual machines
- Host resource protection
- Hot-add and remove for network adapters and memory
- Linux Secure Boot
- Nested virtualization
- Networking features
- Remote direct memory access (RDMA) and switch embedded teaming (SET).
- Virtual machine multi queues (VMMQ).
- Quality of service (QoS) for software-defined networks.
- Production checkpoints
- Rolling Hyper-V Cluster upgrade
- Shielded virtual machines
- Start order priority for clustered virtual machines
- Virtualization-based security for generation 2 virtual machines
- Windows Containers
- Windows PowerShell Direct
One of the reasons that Vembu stands out from other backups tools in Hyper-V is their features. Some are own proprietary that makes backup easier to manage and faster.
Main features in Vembu Backup Hyper-V are:
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Host-level Hyper-V backup is designed to protect the VMs on Microsoft Hyper-V Servers
- Supports the backing up of Hyper-V VMs located in Hyper-V Cluster Shared Volumes and Windows SMB share
- Inbuilt compression and deduplication will reduce the storage requirements of the backup data
- Hyper-V backups use application-specific Hyper-V VSS writers to take consistent snapshots of highly transactional applications like Exchange Server, SQL Server
- Easy replication of the backed up data to an offsite or cloud location for Disaster recovery
- Agentless Hyper-V Backup
- Supports Windows Server 2016
- Supports Cluster Shared Volumes and SMB Share
- Application-aware image processing and Transaction log truncations
Feature Highlights of Vembu Hyper-V Backup
(click on each section for more details)
- Automated Backup Verification
Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs) backups are not worthy if you are unable to restore them during a disaster. So, you should have the ability to run backup verification for all backed up Hyper VMs automatically. In such process, VMBackup automatically boots the backed up Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs), and the screenshot details will be sent to admins through e-mail.
- Quick VM Recovery
You can instantly launch the backed up Hyper-V virtual machines on VMware ESXi host, Hyper-V, and KVM environment. In the case of Windows-based backup servers, VMs can be recovered instantly with Hyper-V or VMware Environment. For Linux based backup servers, the instant boot is done with the help of KVM.
- Instant File Recovery
Individual files and folders can be instantly recovered from the backed up VMs without processing entire backup data.
- Vembu Universal Explorer
Vembu Universal Explorer allows you to instantly restore individual items from Microsoft Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, and SharePoint.
- VMware Disk Level Restore
VMware disk level restore allows you to restore only required disks during recovery instead of the entire VM. You can essentially restore any specific disks to the same VM or a different one.
- Failover & Failback
During a disaster in a production environment, the replicated VMs will automatically get started on DR Host. Vembu VMBackup will maintain a temporary state for failover VM’s to keep the changes after starting the replica VMs. Also, you can either failover a Replica VM temporarily or permanently. VMBackup allows you to automatically map your production host network and IP address with the DR host network to avoid manual work while you are in the middle of a disaster.You can later failback the failover VM to the production host from the DR host. Also, you can either failback to an entirely new host/location or the same host.
- Cross Hypervisor Migration (V2V)
Vembu allows you to have an in-built plan for your P2V and V2V migration so that you can easily migrate a physical Windows machine to VMware or Hyper-V with minimal downtime. Also, you can migrate VMs from VMware to Hyper-V and vice versa.With Vembu VMBackup, a backed up VMware, or Hyper-V virtual machine can be instantly migrated to any hypervisors like Hyper-V or KVM.
- Efficient Storage Management
Vembu developed VembuHIVE – an efficient file system designed for large-scale backup and disaster recovery applications with support for inbuilt compression, encryption & deduplication. Since every incremental is a self-sufficient snapshots with pointers to the blocks in the VembuHIVE file system, any incremental is instantaneously available as a full backup. There is no extra processing to restore an incremental backup compared to a full backup (no need for a merge).
- OffsiteDR Seed Migration
Offsite seed migration makes use of local storage drive to migrate the backup data from the local BDR server to an offsite server for the purpose of disaster recovery. As transferring the data using a local storage medium will reduce the bandwidth requirement and also the time required to transfer the data.
- Building Virtual Labs from Storage Repositories
You could create your own virtual lab for testing virtual/physical machines without disturbing the production environment and that too without using any additional storage space. VMBackup allows you to launch the backed up machines directly from storage repositories without initiating the restore process. By using instant boot option, you can instantly launch the backed up VM on Hyper-V or ESXi host
Vembu supports the following Microsoft Hyper-V Servers versions.
Supported Hyper-V Environments
Hosts
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V 2016
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V 2012 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V 2012
- Microsoft Windows Server Hyper-V 2008 R2
Platforms
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 Core
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Core
Backup Hyper-V: Why Vembu?
There are different backup tools on the market that we can use to Backup Hyper-V, Vembu stands out with some of their features and also the affordable price. Suitable for SMBs market, but also for Enterprise companies.
Vembu BDR Suite v3.8 is one of the best Backup, Recover and Disaster Recovery solution in the market. Is very simple to use, high performance, with a price that is very affordable for small & medium businesses. With Vembu BDR customers can have an all-in solution for different environments (Hyper-V, VMware, physical servers, etc.). All can be configured in your Vembu management GUI without the need using various tools, or installation for a different environment (some backup features may need extra agents).
For Hyper-V in my opinion where Vembu stands-out is in some of the unique backup features like Failover & Failback, Cross Hypervisor Migration (V2V), OffsiteDR Seed Migration. These are some of the unique features from Vembu that stands-out from other backup tools. Particularly one of my favorites, migration V2V.
More information and download for Vembu BDR suite for Hyper-V you can find it HERE.
You can read some of Vembu whitepapers to have more details about Vembu products and features HERE.
For download Vembu BDR Suite you can click the Vembu banner in right upper corner, or you can download directly from Vembu HERE.
Check also previous articles regarding Vembu:
Note: In the next weeks plan to write an article how to backup Hyper-V using Vembu with new features.
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