Hyper-V Server Backup Options

Two options are available for Hyper-V, one is as a support system of the Windows server Release or another is the free description of Windows Server with limited functionality.  For both these options, Microsoft has added a data protection feature in Hyper-V and that will work with VMware vSphere.

One can manage Hyper-V directly from the Windows 2008/2012, and most of its features will be supported by a centralized management tool. According to the current release of the Microsoft System Center Virtual Manager (SCVMM), the back-up of Hyper-V guests will be managed by the use of the Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS).

VSS, mostly the Hyper-V VSS is able to suspend the input and puts both in the guest lists and on the hypervisor when there is a backup for the VM. Third-party backups are also available for the integration of the Hyper-V and VSS and they are able to restore data from the VM as well.  But the Hyper-V integration with the VSS is limited to Microsoft Platform only.  It is not that effective for non-Microsoft platforms. So, this feature is only effective for Microsoft platforms.

The major difference between the Hyper-V snapshots and VSS snapshots is that a Hyper-V snapshot is able to take the snapshot images from an operating virtual machine and that can be redirected to a secondary file and can allow the VM to return to the previous state.  Hyper-V is also capable of offering support to VM Migration with the use of the Live Migration feature that is accessible on Windows 2008 R2. This feature does the fast Migration and allows the virtual machines to move quickly.

For using Live Migration in Windows Server2008 R2, each server needs to be configured with the use of shared storage and MS Failover Clustering.  There is also networking restrictions and the hosts need to be present on that subnet should present and a dedicated network is preferred for migration traffic.

With the introduction of Windows Server 2012, the substantial position of virtual machine is able to be changed with the support of the Storage Live Migration.  This feature manages the movements of guest files and allows the files to move from one platform to any other.  Storage Live Migration works either on a Hyper-V Cluster or on a separate Hyper-V server.

After the release of Windows Server 2012, the use of the clustered configuration is not required if the machine is placed on a SMB file and now migration can also be done involving separate Hyper-V instances.

The performance ability of a network and storage and the level of the action on a virtual machine will determine which migration tool will be used. The resiliency issue also needs to be considered. Live Migration is more helpful than “shared nothing” migration if the shared storage is placed properly and all the VM data and Updates remain in one place. In this situation, Live Migration will work quicker than Storage Migration since just the configuration details and the memory will be migrated during this process.

Hyper-V offers the high availability with the use of a failover cluster position and cluster shared volumes in server.  Shared storage can be available with the use of either a LUN or iSCSI with the use of 3.0 storage. Though Hyper-V does not offer any alternative to Fault Tolerance, but it offers Hyper-V Replica.  Microsoft introduced a new feature Hyper-V Replica in Windows Server 2012 that enables the effective machine picture to be copied to an another location and the functioning of the Replica has improved after the release of the Windows server 2012 R2. With this extended facility now it can be copied to the third place, called extended Replica. Moreover, the 2012 R2 has come with a new feature of 30-second RPO for simulated VMs.

Hyper-V VMs comes with VHDX and VHD implicit disks with other files. These files can be imitated to any other location and also can be imported into a hyper-V configuration to recover data in case of any disaster. This process might need some manual work. Microsoft also operates Azure Cloud as the secondary location and for the safe recovery of the data.

Microsoft declares that RPO value is 30 seconds low, but it needs to be dictated by the latency and bandwidth. Many third-party replication systems can be applied to backup Hyper-V.  Zerto and Datto are two useful backup systems.