Backing Up Virtual Machines

Table Of Contents

 Are you ready to provide necessary drivers for Universal Restore?

When Acronis creates a virtual machine on its own and deploys an image to it, the necessary

drivers are installed automatically because the software knows what drivers or modules are

required for the machine. When you create a machine and boot it using bootable media, Acronis

treats it as a physical machine. This is why you need to explicitly apply Universal Restore and

specify the path to the necessary drivers. The ISO of the floppy disk with the drivers can be found

in the RHEV ISO domain. Its default name is virtio*.iso.

4.1.4.2 Migration methods

Based on the considerations described in the previous section, we suggest the following methods of

migration. Choose the one that best suits your needs.

Cold imaging + recovery to a new machine

This is the simplest method. It fits most cases and does not require software installation. It allows

you to modify basic settings of the virtual machine, including disk size.

Step-by-step instructions (p. 43)

Hot imaging + conversion to a virtual machine

This is a simple method. It requires software installation unless the machine is already protected with

an Acronis agent. The virtual machine settings cannot be modified on the fly. The method is useful in

the "stand-by server" scenario when you create a spare virtual machine and update it from time to

time. Also, you can easily back it up using Acronis Backup because the virtual machine contains an

Acronis agent.

Step-by-step instructions (p. 47)

Hot imaging + recovery to a new machine

This is a combination of the previous two methods. It is useful for migrating a machine already

protected with an Acronis agent. It allows you to modify basic settings of the virtual machine,

including disk size.

Step-by-step instructions can be combined from the ones of the previous two methods.

Recovery to an existing virtual machine booted with bootable media

This is the most advanced and flexible method. This is the only way to reproduce LVMs or software

RAID on the resulting virtual machine. With this method, you can use all the functionality available at

a physical machine recovery and create whatever volume layout you wish. The imaging method can

be either cold or hot. It does not influence the recovery.

Step-by-step instructions (p. 48)

4.1.4.3 Cold imaging + recovery to a new machine

Preparation

Configuring an NFS export domain

1. Make sure that an NFS export domain is attached to the data center where you want to save the

virtual machine.