VMware Communities: Message List - Can I backup with Acronis, VM Live?

Re: Can I backup with Acronis, VM Live?

asatoran — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 00:34:50 GMT

You can install Trueimage inside of the guest, just like you would any other machine. Alternatively, you can have a scheduled task to shutdown the guest and backup the flat files that way. Take a look at this post .It's not for a Mac but you may have any idea how to convert it to Appliescript (or whatever OSX uses now.) Time Machine, like any other backup app, has to be "aware" of the particular app in order to backup a running app. (e.g.: Exchange, SQL.) So since Time Machine is almost certainly not VMWware aware, you'll want to either shut down the VM or run Trueimage inside the guest.

Can I backup with Acronis, VM Live?

guruuno — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:55:03 GMT

Host, Windows 2003 Server R2 X64, running Acronis True Image.

VMware client, XP Pro.

Can I back up the VMware image "live" as it is in use, or do I need to shut it down, then backup the VM image file?

If so, can it be automated, to shut down, backup, restart daily?

Am I dreaming?

Or, should I backup the running VMware client from within the client to storage on the server.....?

Reasoning, as I know this is pertaining to VMware Server & XP Pro, I DO backup "live" via TIme Machine on my Leopard iMac, no issues, but I do get a crash/blue screen from Server 2003 when verifying the backup after it is done doing so live.