Hyper-V restore virtual hard disks

MSP360 Backup
1

Hello,

I can only restore the complete virtual machine, or do a item level restore. Is there a way to restore only one drive? Let’s say, I have a virtual server installed like:

  • C: System
  • D: Data

Now my system is broken, and I want to restore my server. The data drive is correct, so I only want to restore the system drive. Is this possible? Or maybe you can implement this, because item level restore must be more difficult than restoring a single drive.

Greets

2

[reply=“QiQQ;d263”] The file-level restore from Hyper-V backup is supported in CloudBerry Backup 5.6 and higher. Please check out the video for mode details.

3

Let say we always setup our servers like

  • Drive 1: C:\ System
  • Drive 2: D:\ Data

The system drive will always be only 60 GB, and the data drive can be what needed, lets say 500 GB.

At the moment we use a other back-up solution, and what we do some times when a system is broken. We restore only the C:\ drive from the back-up, because the data is drive is still correct. And then we can simply replace the virtual hard drive, with the C:\ drive from the day before.

I can get my C:\ partition from a backup, but this is also restoring the D:\ drive wath I don’t need. So it takes to much time with restoring. And a item level recovery will not work, on a broken system. Because you don’t know what files are broken and you need that restored partition inclusive the NTFS rights on that server.

I hope you can add an option by restore, to select what drives to restore.

4

Let say we always setup our servers like

  • Drive 1: C:\ System
  • Drive 2: D:\ Data

The system drive will always be only 60 GB, and the data drive can be what needed, lets say 500 GB.

At the moment we use a other back-up solution, and what we do some times when a system is broken. We restore only the C:\ drive from the back-up, because the data is drive is still correct. And then we can simply replace the virtual hard drive, with the C:\ drive from the day before.

With Cloudberry I can get my C:\ partition from a backup, but this need to restore the complete virtual machine, with all hard disks. So it also restore the D:\ drive, what I don’t need. So it takes to much time with restoring.

And a item level recovery will not work, on a broken system. Because you don’t know what files are broken and what NTFS rights are needed. For us, the fastest way to get a broken system back-up up is to:

  1. Download the system drive back-up
  2. Shutdown the virtual machine
  3. Rename the drive to .old
  4. Copy the backup VHDX to the location
  5. Startup the server, and check whats the fuck happend why it was broken,

Just takes 60 GB data of you’re time. I hope you can add an option by restore, to select what drives to restore.

5

[reply=“QiQQ;794”] Thank you for the details of your scenario. I have submitted the feature request for a granular restore by hard drives. We continue collecting customers requests so that it will allow us to prioritize the feature.

6

[reply=“Julia;799”] Also thanks, this is just one of the simple examples I can give. Item level restore is something totally different than restoring a complete drive. Also if you separate some data on some virtual drives, you can simply export a single drive and mount it to do a data comparison “with” NTFS permissions.

The funy thing is that the image software of Cloudberry supports exporting to VHDX and the file level restore option in the Hyper-V module of Cloudberry back-up also shows the virtual hard disk filename. Only the export button is missing :wink:

7

I would also like to see this option. In addition would like to see an option to exclude folders or partions and st bocksize for hyper v backups like these options in imagebased backups.

Greetings

ds2

8

[reply=“ds2;817”] Thanks for your request - we raise a priority of the feature with every new customer. Talking about your second wish, it is coming very soon - within CloudBerry Backup 5.9 that is expected in 1-2 weeks.

9

[reply=“ds2;817”]
Yes, I forget that. Needed the ability to exclude virtual disks from the backup.

[reply=“Julia;818”]
Sounds good, i’m very interested in whats new.

10

If possible on file level restore also a option to restore NTFS permissions, that will be the most perfect option. To backup Hyper-V, and when needed restore on file level inside the VM with Cloudberry client, and have a option to restore NTFS permissions. Like here, but I don’t know if it’s technicaly possible.

11

Version 5.9 is now available and I can’t find such a feature you have promised above.

12

I also see and tested “Backup Virtual Machine Edition (5.9.0.313)” and can’t see any of this options.

13

A suggestion for you, if you need to exclude drives now. The workaround i’m using now, is a lot far from ideal but it works. Some clients from me don’t want to upload some shares to the cloud to save in the costs.

So what I do now is:

  1. Having a VM with 3 VHDX files
  • C: System
  • D: Data
  • E: Data no cloud
  1. The virtual machine is created and mounting
  • C: System
  • D: Data
  1. This virtual machine is backed up to the cloud
  2. Drive E is a VHDX on a share \%hyper-v-host%\vhdx$%virtual_machine_name%%virtual_machine_name%-E.vhdx
  3. I have a script inside the VM to:
  • Get Hyper-V host variable
    – Powershell: $VMHost = (Get-ItemProperty -path ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtual Machine\Guest\Parameters’).Hostname
  • Get Hyper-V client variable
    – Powershell: $VMClient = (Get-ItemProperty -path ‘HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Virtual Machine\Guest\Parameters’).VirtualMachineName
    – If you like more to open share host IP adres: $HVIP = ([system.net.dns]::gethostaddresses($VMHost) | Select-Object IPaddressToString).IPaddresstostring
  1. Inside the virtual machine I create a scheduled task to auto mount the file: \%hyper-v-host%\vhdx$%virtual_machine_name%%virtual_machine_name%-E.vhdx
  2. Now only drive this is in the Hyper-V backup
  • C: System
  • D: Data
  1. I backup drive E inside the virtual machine to a network share and because this drive is mounted inside the virtual machine, it;s not backed up by Virtual Machine backup

I know it’s long workaround, but sometimes clients don’t want to pay for a lot of cloud back-up. And when using image back-up inside the virtual machine is a lot slower (and I mean a lot) then backing up the virtual machines on Hyper-V host level.

This workaround doesn’t mean that we don’t need the promised feature anymore, because when using Hyper-V replication the E drive is not there :wink:

14

[reply=“QiQQ;869”] Sorry for the misinformation - we were able to support exlcude disks feature for VMware backup. The Hyper-V is coming next. Thanks a lot for providing the workaround here! We really appreaciate your input!
Btw, for VMware backup, it looks this way - see attached.

[reply=“ds2;867”]

15

Thanks for information. Next means in 6.0 in a half year or so?

16

[reply=“ds2;867”] I will double-check in order to be sure and let you know. Thanks for understanding!

17

In case anyone else encountered this issue: it was fixed in the newest 5.9 version. Let us know if it still occurs after update.

18

Hi Matt, you are wrong. It is fixed for vmware not for hyper v. Take a look at the feedtitle.

19

[reply=“ds2;1051”] Yeah, my mistake, sorry. Stay tuned for future updates regarding that, we’ll provide the info here as soon as anything comes up.

20

Hi,

the feature of excluding vhdx files (disks) in HyperV VM Backups is really important and needed. You actually misleading promote even of your landing page of “CloudBerry Backup for Hyper-V” that this feature is supported, what actually and sadly is not the case. See : https://www.cloudberrylab.com/backup/vm/hyper-v.aspx

“Use Backup Plan wizard to specify which files, folders or disks you’d like to exclude from the Hyper-V backup.”

Are you planning to release this feature soon?

Thank You for your feedback!