Note

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Hyper-V Backup

Bacula Enterprise Only

This solution is only available for Bacula Enterprise. For subscription inquiries, please reach out to sales@baculasystems.com.

Note

Remember to read the Best Practices chapter common for all of our hypervisor plugins.

Bacula Enterprise offers three ways to backup your Hyper-V virtual machines:

Important

The HyperV WinAPI plugin is the newest and most advanced plugin available for backing up Hyper-V environments. It offers the most comprehensive set of features, ensuring seamless integration and efficient backups. Due to its robust functionality and extensive capabilities, this plugin is now the recommended solution for all Hyper-V backup needs.

Hyper-V Win API

The HyperV WinAPI plugin allows for full, differential, and incremental backups of Hyper-V virtual machines, supporting migration of VMs in cluster environments without requiring local snapshots. Single Item Restore is supported.

Warning

The Hyper-V VSS and Hyper-V WMI backup methods are deprecated and must not be used for backing up Hyper-V environments. The articles for these plugins are retained primarily for archival reference.

Hyper-V VSS Plugin (DEPRECATED)
Hyper-V WMI Plugin (DEPRECATED)

Hyper-V Plugins to Cover All Backup Needs

Microsoft provides several technologies for backing up Hyper-V virtual machines. Bacula Enterprise plugins were developed to support these technologies. The Hyper-V Winapi Plugin is the recommended solution. The Hyper-V VSS Plugin and Hyper-V WMI Plugin are deprecated and must not be used. Their articles are retained primarily for archival reference.

The Hyper-V Winapi Plugin uses the Microsoft Virtual Disk Service (VDS) to back up and restore Hyper-V virtual machines. It supports incremental and differential backups and was the recommended solution for Hyper-V environments, including standalone servers and multi-node Failover Clusters where local disk space is limited. Depending on how virtual machines move within a cluster, backup operations may need to follow them to the appropriate nodes.

The original Bacula Hyper-V Plugin, also known as the Hyper-V VSS Plugin, uses the Hyper-V VSS writer and the Windows VSS infrastructure to back up virtual machines. It does not support incremental or differential backups or more granular VM-based backup options. This plugin is deprecated; previous recommendations to use it for small standalone servers or older Hyper-V versions no longer apply.

The Hyper-V WMI Plugin uses the Hyper-V WMI API to back up and restore individual virtual machines, with support for incremental backups. It uses the Microsoft snapshot format and requires sufficient local disk space to stage backup and restore data. This plugin is also deprecated and is no longer a recommended backup solution.

Backups created with the Hyper-V Winapi Plugin, Hyper-V VSS Plugin, and Hyper-V WMI Plugin are not compatible with one another.