How can I back up the virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager?
How can I back up the virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager?
Details
There are two ways to back up the virtual machines in Virtual Machine Manager. We recommend exporting them first and then backing them up to other devices with Hyper Backup.
Resolution
1. Back up exported virtual machines to other devices with Hyper Backup
You cannot see virtual machine files in shared folders unless you export the virtual machines. Also, Hyper Backup does not support backing up Virtual Machine Manager and its configuration. Therefore, go to Virtual Machine Manager > Virtual Machine and click Action > Export to export the virtual machines to a shared folder.
After you export the virtual machines, you can back them up to other devices with Hyper Backup.
2. Create protection plans in Virtual Machine Manager
Local snapshots are not backups but are instead multiple restore points that help you protect your virtual machines.
To create a Local Snapshot plan:
- Go to Virtual Machine Manager > Protection and click Create.
- Select Local Snapshot.
- Select the virtual machines you want to protect with the plan.
- Configure the snapshot schedule and retention policy on the local host.
2.2 Local Snapshot with Remote Replication
This type of plan requires a VMM Pro license and a remote Synology NAS as the replication destination.
To create a Local Snapshot with Remote Replication plan:
- Go to Virtual Machine Manager > Protection and click Create.
- Select Local Snapshot with Remote Replication to automatically replicate scheduled snapshots to the replication destination. The system will retain the snapshots based on the retention policies on the source and destination hosts.
- Select the virtual machines you want to protect with the plan.
- Configure the snapshot schedule on the local host and the retention policy on the local or remote host.
- The plan includes replications, so you need to select a destination and decide whether you want to sync data immediately after the replication task is created. For advanced settings, you can check Enable transfer encryption to secure the connection between the replication source and destination.
Notes:
- Only virtual machines created on Btrfs volumes support the snapshot feature.
- The Synology NAS where the virtual machine storage is located must be powered on to use the snapshot feature.
- Virtual DSM must be created on DSM 6.1 or above to support the snapshot feature.
- There can be a maximum of 32 protection plans in a cluster.
- The remote replication destination has to be a different Synology NAS.
- The source and destination of the replication task must be on Btrfs volumes.
- There must be at least two hosts in a cluster to run remote replications because you cannot replicate snapshots to another volume on the same host.
- The remaining space on the destination should not be less than the allocated size of the virtual machine to be replicated. Otherwise, the synchronization may fail if there is not enough space.