NAME

vzdump - backup utility for virtual machine

SYNOPSIS

 vzdump help

 vzdump {<vmid>} [OPTIONS]
   <vmid>     string
 
             The ID of the VM you want to backup.
 
   -all      boolean   (default=0)
 
             Backup all known VMs on this host.
 
   -bwlimit   integer (0 - N)
 
             Limit I/O bandwidth (KBytes per second).
 
   -compress  (0 | 1 | gzip | lzo)   (default=lzo)
 
             Compress dump file.
 
   -dumpdir   string
 
             Store resulting files to specified directory.
 
   -exclude   string
 
             exclude specified VMs (assumes --all)
 
   -exclude-path string
 
             exclude certain files/directories (shell globs).
 
   -ionice    integer (0 - 8)
 
             Set CFQ ionice priority.
 
   -lockwait  integer (0 - N)
 
             Maximal time to wait for the global lock (minutes).
 
   -mailnotification (always | failure)  (default=always)
 
             Specify when to send an email
 
   -mailto    string
 
             no description available
 
   -maxfiles  integer (1 - N)
 
             Maximal number of backup files per VM.
 
   -mode      (snapshot | stop | suspend)   (default=stop)
 
             Backup mode.
 
   -node      string
 
             Only run if executed on this node.
 
   -pigz      integer   (default=0)
 
             Uses pigz instead of gzip when N>0. N=1 uses half of cores,
             N>1 uses N as thread count.
 
   -quiet     boolean   (default=0)
 
             Be quiet.
 
   -remove    boolean   (default=1)
 
             Remove old backup files if there are more than 'maxfiles'
             backup files.
 
   -script    string
 
             Use specified hook script.
 
   -size      integer (500 - N)
 
             LVM snapshot size in MB.
 
   -stdexcludes boolean  (default=1)
 
             Exclude temorary files and logs.
 
   -stdout    boolean
 
             Write tar to stdout, not to a file.
 
   -stop      boolean   (default=0)
 
             Stop runnig backup jobs on this host.
 
   -stopwait  integer (0 - N)
 
             Maximal time to wait until a VM is stopped (minutes).
 
   -storage   string
 
             Store resulting file to this storage.
 
   -tmpdir    string
 
             Store temporary files to specified directory.
 
 

DESCRIPTION

vzdump is an utility to make consistent snapshots of running virtual machines (VMs). It basically creates an archive of the VM private area, which also includes the VM configuration files. vzdump currently supports LXC containers and QemuServer VMs.

There are several ways to provide consistency (option mode):

stop mode

Stop the VM during backup. This results in a very long downtime.

suspend mode

For containers, this mode uses rsync to copy the VM to a temporary location (see option --tmpdir). Then the VM is suspended and a second rsync copies changed files. After that, the VM is started (resume) again. This results in a minimal downtime, but needs additional space to hold the VM copy.

For QemuServer, this mode will suspend the VM, start a live backup, and resume the VM.

snapshot mode

For containers, this mode uses the snapshotting facilities of the underlying storage. A snapshot will be made of the container volume, and the snapshot content will be archived in a tar file.

For QemuServer, this mode will do a live backup similar to the snaphost mode, but without suspending/resuming the VM.

A technical overview of the Proxmox VE live backup for QemuServer can be found online at: https://git.proxmox.com/?p=pve-qemu-kvm.git;a=blob;f=backup.txt

BACKUP FILE NAMES

Newer version of vzdump encodes the virtual machine type and the backup time into the filename, for example

 vzdump-lxc-105-2009_10_09-11_04_43.tar

That way it is possible to store several backup into the same directory. The parameter maxfiles can be used to specify the maximal number of backups to keep.

RESTORE

The resulting archive files can be restored with the following programs.

pct restore: Containers restore utility
qmrestore: QemuServer restore utility

For details see the corresponding manual pages.

CONFIGURATION

Global configuration is stored in /etc/vzdump.conf.

 tmpdir: DIR
 dumpdir: DIR
 storage: STORAGE_ID
 mode: snapshot|suspend|stop
 bwlimit: KBPS
 ionize: PRI
 lockwait: MINUTES
 stopwait: MINUTES
 size: MB
 maxfiles: N
 script: FILENAME
 exclude-path: PATHLIST

HOOK SCRIPT

You can specify a hook script with option --script. This script is called at various phases of the backup process, with parameters accordingly set. You can find an example in the documentation directory (vzdump-hook-script.pl).

EXCLUSIONS (Containers only)

vzdump skips the following files wit option --stdexcludes

 /var/log/.+
 /tmp/.+
 /var/tmp/.+
 /var/run/.+pid

You can manually specify exclude paths, for example:

 # vzdump 777 --exclude-path C</tmp/.+> --exclude-path C</var/tmp/.+>

(only excludes tmp directories)

Configuration files are also stored inside the backup archive (/etc/vzdump), and will be correctly restored.

LIMITATIONS

VZDump does not save ACLs.

EXAMPLES

Simply dump VM 777 - no snapshot, just archive the VM private area and configuration files to the default dump directory (usually /vz/dump/).

 # vzdump 777

Use rsync and suspend/resume to create an snapshot (minimal downtime).

 # vzdump 777 --mode suspend

Backup all VMs and send notification mails to root and admin.

 # vzdump --all --mode suspend --mailto root --mailto admin

Use LVM2 to create snapshots (no downtime).

 # vzdump 777 --dumpdir /mnt/backup --mode snapshot

Backup more than one VM (selectively)

 # vzdump 101 102 103 --mailto root

Backup all VMs excluding VM 101 and 102

 # vzdump --mode suspend --exclude 101,102

Restore a container to a new VM 600

 # pct restore 600 /mnt/backup/vzdump-lxc-777.tar

Restore a Qemu/KVM machine to VM 601

 # qmrestore /mnt/backup/vzdump-qemu-888.vma 601

Clone an existing container 101 to a new container 300 with a 4GB root file system, using pipes

 # vzdump 101 --stdout | pct restore --rootfs 4 300 -

SEE ALSO

pct(1), qmrestore(1)

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

Copyright (C) 2007-2015 Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Affero General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU Affero General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.