When you configure a backup for your VM, the platform will display the backup symbol in the lower right-hand corner of the VM icon.
The platform uses backup systems, such as Veeam or Avamar, and it creates backups for VMs that are deployed on the hypervisor. In some environments the backup system may support restore for VMs that were previously deployed and are now undeployed. If you delete the VM, you cannot access the backup system through the platform.
Create a manual backup now
If manual backups are enabled for the datacenter, when the User edits the VM configuration, the platform will display the Backup now button in the top right-hand corner of the of the Backup tab.
Privilege: Manage virtual machine backup configuration
When the user clicks this button, the platform will request request an immediate backup through the API.
Configure backup type
To configure your VM backup by selecting the backup policy and the disks, do these steps:
Privilege: Manage virtual machine backup disks, Manage virtual machine backup configuration
- Open the Backup tab to the Backup policies page
- Select from the list of backup policies
- Click Show details
Select disks
To select disks for a complete backup, do these steps:
Privilege: Manage virtual machine backup configuration, Manage virtual machine backup disks
Some backup systems will ignore your disk selection and create a backup of all disks. Check your cloud provider's documentation for more information
- Click Select Disks
- Select the disks for backup
- The disks are shown in sequence order
- The system disk is the first one in the list
For a snapshot backup, you can select disks, as shown above for the complete backup.
Enter a path
For a filesystem backup, enter the folder or directory path to back up.
Configure backup schedule
The administrator can set the date and time in the backup policy or they can require the user to set the date and time.
Privilege: Manage virtual machine backup configuration, Manage virtual machine backup schedule
To enter backup date(s) and time(s), you must have the privilege to Manage virtual machine backup schedule, and you must configure the exact date and time of a backup.
Backup Times
Abiquo uses ISO 8601 and datacenter owners should inform users of the time standard used in the datacenter
Time zones in ISO 8601 are represented as local time (with the location unspecified), as UTC, or as an offset from UTC
Screenshot: The administrator has configured backup schedule
Screenshot: The user must configure the backup schedule
Backup results
The results shown may vary depending on your datacenter's backup system. Backups with a status of "done" or "completed" will have a Restore link enabled in the Action column.
Restore a Backup
If you have the Restore virtual machine backups privilege privilege, the platform displays the Restore requests section.
After you restore a backup, the VM disks are under the control of the backup system, not the platform. So when you undeploy after restoring a VM, the platform will display a warning popup and delete and remove the VM's disks.
Privilege: Restore virtual machine backups
To create a restore request:
- Open the Backup results tab
- Click Restore beside a completed backup
To display the details of the restore, click on the backup in the Backups list. After the restore is completed, the status is displayed, for example, "done" or "failed".
Request a Consecutive Restore
If your environment allows, you may request that a backup be restored more than once. If the Restore requests Status is success or failed, Abiquo will reactivate the Restore link and you can click the Restore link to request a new restore of the same backup.
Backup events
For users the backup feature will produce the events described in the Events View#Virtualmachine under METADATA_MODIFIED and RESTORE_BACKUP.
The Events page on the Backup tab will display events from backup integrations.
To view the details of an event, click on the event.
Events page
Event details