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
--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.
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
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 2012-04-07 vzdump(1)