8.3. Managing Backups on Physical Server Level¶

8.3.1. Defining per-Physical Server Backup Settings¶

This screen is available on choosing the physical server and clicking Configure > Backup Settings option from the upper toolbar.

On the Configure Backup Settings screen displayed individually for each physical server registered in Virtuozzo Automator, you can configure:

1. The backup settings that will be used by default during the backing up of the virtual environments belonging to the current physical server. These settings are defined in the Default Backup Options and Incremental Backup Settings groups.

2. The location for virtual environment backups that will be used during the backing up of the virtual environments from any physical server (including this one) provided the current physical server is set as the Backup physical server for the corresponding backup operation. This setting is defined in the Local Backups Location Settings group.

First, decide whether you want to have the physical server inherit the global Backup Settings or define custom settings. In the latter case, select the Use local settings for backing up Virtual Environment of this Node radiobutton in the Backup Settings section.

After that you can:

In the Default Backup Options section, define the level of compression and the type of the backup:

• On the Backup Type drop-down menu, select one of the following types of backup:

  • Full backup. This type is recommended when doing a backup job for the first time and contains all the data selected for the backup. A full backup storage space and completion time requirements are the highest. Note, the physical server where you choose to store a full backup may have limitation on the allowed number of full backups. If it is so, the Wizard will delete the oldest backup with all its incremental backups on the physical server in order to create a new one. For more details, see Defining per-Physical Server Backup Settings.

  • Incremental backup affects only those files and data which have changed since the last backup and takes less storage space and creation time.

  • (Virtuozzo 6 containers only) Differential backup includes only the data modified since the last full backup (as opposed to incremental backups which save the data changed after any last backup, be it full, incremental, or differential).

• (Virtuozzo 6 containers only) On the Compression Level drop-down menu, choose one of the possible levels:

  • None, no compression at all, recommended if you need to perform a fast backup and do not need to save disk space.

  • Normal, the compression takes a longer time and saves some disk space.

  • High, takes an even longer time and saves even more disk space.

  • Maximum, takes the longest time and saves the most disk space.

  Note

  It is recommended to choose the backup compression level according to the type of the data the virtual environment stores. The Virtuozzo virtual environment software will try to compress the backup regardless of the data type, but some data are worth spending time for compression (such as text files and databases) and some, such as already compressed archives are not. Therefore, select the None checkbox when the virtual environment you are backing up stores no data that suggest or need compressing.

• Select the Backup Node for storing the backups of the virtual environments of this physical server. If you choose to store the backups on this very physical server, their exact location will be determined by the local backup location settings below. If you select another physical server, the exact location of the virtual environments will be determined by the local backups location settings of the corresponding physical server.

  Note

  When choosing the backup node, keep in mind the following:

  1. Virtuozzo Hybrid Server 7 virtual environments can be backed up only to Virtuozzo Hybrid Server 7.

  2. Virtuozzo 6 containers can be backed up only to Virtuozzo 6 servers.

  3. Virtuozzo 6 virtual machines can be backed up to both Virtuozzo 6 and 7 servers.

• Use the Number of full backups to keep field to specify the maximum number of the full container backups that will be stored on the physical server.

  Important

  In case, the specified number is exceeded, the oldest backup and all its incremental backups will be deleted from the physical server, thus freeing the space for a new full backup.

Enable backup rotation with the help of the settings in the Incremental Backup Settings group. Use the provided checkboxes to specify the number of incremental backups and/or days after which Virtuozzo Automator should create a new full backup, thus annulling the previous incremental backups.

The Local Backups Location Settings group defines the backup location of those virtual environments that are backed up to the current physical server, irrespective of their source physical server. The virtual environment backups made from different source physical servers will be always stored in one and the same specified path. That is, the path cannot be diversified into several paths according to the source physical server name. You may select either a local drive with a local path or a network share path with the corresponding network credentials.

8.3.2. Creating Virtual Environment Backups¶

The New Virtual Environment Backups screen is accessible by clicking New Backups on the physical server Backups page or on the infrastructure Backups page.

Click the Add Virtual Environments button to choose the virtual environments that you plan to back up.

The virtual environments to be backed up on this screen can be selected by clicking Add Virtual Environment in the Virtual Environment section.

In the Backup Description section, enter any commentary you think can be practical for further backup operations.

In the Backup Options section, set the Backup Type, Backup Node, and Number of full backups to keep parameters. For details, see Defining per-Physical Server Backup Settings. You can also leave the default Use Hardware Node Settings value. In this case, every virtual environment will be backed up with the default backup parameters of the physical server.

You can also delay the backup operation until the time specified in the Backup Start group of options.

To start performing the backup, click Backup, otherwise, click Cancel.