Backup - Restore - Live Migration
From Proxmox VE
Contents |
Introduction
Backup is one of the most important integrated features of Proxmox VE. Currently only available on the command line.
Backup with vzdump
Vzdump is an utility to make consistent snapshots of running container Virtual Machines. It basically creates a tar archive of the Virtual Machines private area, which also includes the configuration files.
There are several ways to provide consistency:
- Stop the VE during backup (very long downtime)
- Use rsync and suspend/resume (minimal downtime)
- Use LVM2 (no downtime, online)
Vzdump stores the backup on the disk in a single file. This file should go to a tape backup for archiving. The next version of vzdump include the possibility to copy the file directly to a remote storage for easy tape backup (e.g. on a windows file server).
For details see Backup of a running container with vzdump
Restore with vzdump
To restore a Virtual Machine, just copy the tar file to the host where you want to restore.
Example: Restore the backup of container CT 777 (backup file: vzdump-777.tar) to CT 600
vzdump --restore vzdump-777.tar 600
Live Migration
Proxmox VE support live migration of Virtual Machines via web interface. To migrate from one physical host to another, you need at least two Proxmox VE servers, see Proxmox_VE_Cluster.
Currently live migration does not work due to Kernel issue (just use off line migration instead - with minimal downtime)
