From Proxmox VE

Introduction

vzdump - backup utility for virtual machine

The hook-script.pl is available from ProxMox v1.4 onwards and an example is at:

/usr/share/doc/vzdump/examples/hook-script.pl

Manual Page (man vzdump)

vzdump: 1.2-8

vzdump(1)				Proxmox Documentation			vzdump(1)

NAME
		vzdump - backup utility for virtual machine

SYNOPSIS
		vzdump OPTIONS [--all | <VMID>]

		--exclude VMID		exclude VMID (assumes --all)

		--exclude-path REGEX	exclude certain files/directories. You
					can use this option more than once to specify
					multiple exclude paths

		--stdexcludes		exclude temporary files and logs
		
		--compress		compress dump file (gzip)

		--storage STORAGE_ID	store resulting files to STORAGE_ID (PVE only)

		--script		execute hook script

		--dumpdir DIR		store resulting files in DIR

		--maxfiles N		maximal number of backup files per VM.

		--tmpdir DIR		store temporary files in DIR. --suspend and --stop
					are using this directory to store a copy of the VM.

		--mailto EMAIL		send notification mail to EMAIL. You can use
					this option more than once to specify multiple
					receivers

		--stop			stop/start VM if running

		--suspend		suspend/resume VM when running

		--snapshot		use LVM snapshot when running

		--size MB		LVM snapshot size (default 1024)

		--bwlimit KBPS		limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second

		--ionice PRI		set ionice priority (0-7). default is 7
					(lowest priority).

		--lockwait MINUTES	maximal time to wait for the global
					lock. vzdump uses a global lock file to make
					sure that only one instance is running
					(running several instance puts too much load
					on a server). Default is 180 (3 hours).

		--stopwait MINUTES	maximal time to wait until a VM is stopped.

DESCRIPTION
		vzdump is an utility to make consistent snapshots of running virtual machines (VMs).
		It basically creates a tar archive of the VM private area, which also includes the VM
		configuration files. vzdump currently supports OpenVZ and QemuServer VMs.

 Manual page vzdump(1) line 1
		There are several ways to provide consistency:

		"stop" mode
		 Stop the VM during backup. This results in a very long downtime.

		"suspend" mode
		 For OpenVZ, this mode uses rsync to copy the VM to a temporary location
		 (see option --tmpdir). Then the VM is suspended and a second rsync copies changed
		 files. After that, the VM is started (resume) again. This results in a minimal
		 downtime, but needs additional space to hold the VM copy.

		 For QemuServer, this mode work like "stop" mode, but uses suspend/resume instead
		 of stop/start.

		"snapshot" mode
		 This mode uses LVM2 snapshots. There is no downtime, but snapshot mode needs LVM2
		 and some free space on the corresponding volume group to create the LVM snapshot.

BACKUP FILE NAMES
		Newer version of vzdump encodes the virtual machine type and the backup time into the
		filename, for example

		   vzdump-openvz-105-2009_10_09-11_04_43.tar

		That way it is possible to store several backup into the same directory. The parameter
		"maxfiles" can be used to specify the maximal number of backups to keep.

RESTORE
		The resulting tar files can be restored with the following programs.

		vzrestore: OpenVZ restore utility
		qmrestore: QemuServer restore utility

		For details see the corresponding manual pages.

CONFIGURATION
		Global configuration is stored in /etc/vzdump.conf.

		 tmpdir: DIR
		 dumpdir: DIR
		 storage: STORAGE_ID
		 mode: snapshot|suspend|stop
		 bwlimit: KBPS
		 ionize: PRI
		 lockwait: MINUTES
		 stopwait: MINUTES
		 size: MB
		 maxfiles: N
		 script: FILENAME

HOOK SCRIPT
		You can specify a hook script with option "--script". This script is called at various
		phases of the backup process, with parameters accordingly set. You can find an example
		in the documentation directory ("hook-script.pl").

EXCLUSIONS (OpenVZ only)
		vzdump skips the following files wit option --stdexcludes

		 /var/log/.+
		 /tmp/.+
		 /var/tmp/.+
		 /var/run/.+pid

		You can manually specify exclude paths, for example:

		   > vzdump --exclude-path "/tmp/.+" --exclude-path "/var/tmp/.+" 777

		(only excludes tmp directories)

		Configuration files are also stored inside the backup archive (/etc/vzdump), and will
		be correctly restored.

LIMITATIONS
		VZDump does not save ACLs.

EXAMPLES
		Simply dump VM 777 - no snapshot, just archive the VM private area and configuration
		files to the default dump directory (usually /vz/dump/).

		 > vzdump 777

		Use rsync and suspend/resume to create an snapshot (minimal downtime).

		 > vzdump --suspend 777

		Backup all VMs and send notification mails to root.

		 > vzdump --suspend --all --mailto root

		Use LVM2 to create snapshots (no downtime).

		 > vzdump --dumpdir /mnt/backup --snapshot 777

		Backup all VMs excluding VM 101 and 102

		 > vzdump --suspend --exclude 101 --exclude 102

		Restore an OpenVZ machine to VM 600

		 > vzrestore /mnt/backup/vzdump-openvz-777.tar 600

		Restore an Qemu/KVM machine to VM 601

		 > qmrestore /mnt/backup/vzdump-qemu-888.tar 601

SEE ALSO
		   vzrestore(1) qmrestore(1)

AUTHOR
		Dietmar Maurer <dietmar@proxmox.com>

		Many thanks to Proxmox Server Solutions (www.proxmox.com) for sponsoring this work.

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER
		Copyright (C) 2007-2009 Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH

		Copyright: vzdump is under GNU GPL, the GNU General Public License.

		This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the
		terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation;
		version 2 dated June, 1991.

		This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
		WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
		PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for more details.

		You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this
		program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor,
		Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.

1.2							2010-10-04					vzdump(1)