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VM's snapshots

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+1

Still struggling to understand why this is not already a feature? How is everyone dealing with backups of their VM's without this feature?

  • Replies 71
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  • I'm talking about the VM snapshot's!  If not possible in real time, shutdown -> take snapshot -> boot the VM...  

  • would be lovely have option for snapshoots like in proxmox  

  • jeremy.markel
    jeremy.markel

    I as well would like to have a way to manage snapshots natively in Unraid.   Just as an FYI, for those who don't know, you can use virsh from the cli, or install virt-manager on another comp

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On 3/18/2023 at 6:42 PM, wacko37 said:

+1

Still struggling to understand why this is not already a feature? How is everyone dealing with backups of their VM's without this feature?

Client / server based backups.

 

If you install a proper backup software inside the VM, it can do valid backups without taking down the VM. I personally use UrBackup, there is a container for it in the app section of Unraid, but you can just as easily use the built in windows backup if you are using microsoft products, or acronis, or any number of proper backup softwares.

 

Doing it this way instead of trying to do a live image snapshot ensures you will have a valid backup instead of a crash consistent one. If you restore a snapshot that was taken of a running VM, you risk the snapshot not containing a valid backup, because there is no way for the VM client to know that it needs to commit changes from RAM to disk.

 

Snapshots of VM's are only a good backup if you are willing to properly shut down the VM before taking the snapshot, or have some other feature in the VM to allow a live snapshot to work 100% of the time. Much easier to not reinvent the wheel and use good backup software in the VM.

On 3/20/2023 at 1:24 AM, JonathanM said:

Client / server based backups.

 

If you install a proper backup software inside the VM, it can do valid backups without taking down the VM. I personally use UrBackup, there is a container for it in the app section of Unraid, but you can just as easily use the built in windows backup if you are using microsoft products, or acronis, or any number of proper backup softwares.

 

Doing it this way instead of trying to do a live image snapshot ensures you will have a valid backup instead of a crash consistent one. If you restore a snapshot that was taken of a running VM, you risk the snapshot not containing a valid backup, because there is no way for the VM client to know that it needs to commit changes from RAM to disk.

 

Snapshots of VM's are only a good backup if you are willing to properly shut down the VM before taking the snapshot, or have some other feature in the VM to allow a live snapshot to work 100% of the time. Much easier to not reinvent the wheel and use good backup software in the VM.

 

Is there anything planned in the direction of VM-Snapshots like it's done in proxmox? This feature there is so simple and reliable... you just have to add a backup plan or you can do the snapshot manually with one click!- even when the VM is running. Restoring is super easy too... choose the snapshot you like and hit the restore button.

 

Please! 🥲

Edited by enJOyIT

36 minutes ago, enJOyIT said:

Is there anything planned in the direction of VM-Snapshots

 

10 minutes ago, ChatNoir said:

 

 

Hopefully it's not a poll where only the first place is the winner 🤪

1 minute ago, enJOyIT said:

Hopefully it's not a poll where only the first place is the winner 🤪

The team is limited a has to focus to be efficient.

Or the next version adds both and is available in 3 years. 😅

8 hours ago, enJOyIT said:

 

Is there anything planned in the direction of VM-Snapshots like it's done in proxmox? This feature there is so simple and reliable... you just have to add a backup plan or you can do the snapshot manually with one click!- even when the VM is running. Restoring is super easy too... choose the snapshot you like and hit the restore button.

 

Please! 🥲

Unraid does support internal snaps shots which I believe prox uses. 

 

  • 3 months later...

Completely agree! I feel its a very important function that is missing in unraid GUI. The CLI version doesnt work it seems, but a snapshot before a big update is extremely handy!

Yes please, just doing a reinstall when a snapshot could have easily saved me... 

  • 1 month later...

+1

+1 for me also!

  • 2 weeks later...

+1 we absolutely need a simple snapshot option in the GUI

  • 2 weeks later...

Please please can this be added - I'm just about to splash out on better hardware to use VM's more with my UNRaid set up.
Snapshots are one of 'THE' benefits of VM management.  🙏

  • 2 months later...

I found this comment in reddit.

 

"You can snapshot VMs as unraid provides them default by navigating to the storage device it exists on, and doing cp --reflink=always vdisk1.img vidks1_snapshot.img"

 

 

 

 

Regarding refllink:

 

 

"The reflink is typically meant for whole files but a partial file range can be also copied, though there are no ready-made tools for that.

cp --reflink=always source target"

 

https://btrfs.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Reflink.html

  • 1 month later...

+1 YES! and for the APP (I know there is a script/way to do this but native funct. is much better) 

Edited by casperse

  • 1 month later...

I've been using Virtualbox and Proxmox for a while and having snapshots is a must have for virtualisation. Not having it on Unraid is not a deal-breaker but it's a bit frustrating.

Edited by s1l3nce

+1

Currently using virt-manager to connect to unraid's backend, creating a snapshot:

“Error creating snapshot: Operation not supported: internal snapshots of a VM with pflash based firmware are not supported“

+1

I am coming from Proxmox and this feature is really needed!

  • 9 months later...

Recently suffered a power outage while I was away for the Thanksgiving weekend. While most of my machines came back up without issue, my Win10 VM on unraid was hosed. I just finished creating a new Win10 VM and Googled "unraid vm snapshot" which brought me here.

 

In my eyes, VMs are a core feature of unraid, along with mass storage and dockers. Please make this feature a higher priority. 

14 minutes ago, rhodo said:

Recently suffered a power outage while I was away for the Thanksgiving weekend. While most of my machines came back up without issue, my Win10 VM on unraid was hosed. I just finished creating a new Win10 VM and Googled "unraid vm snapshot" which brought me here.

 

In my eyes, VMs are a core feature of unraid, along with mass storage and dockers. Please make this feature a higher priority. 

Snapshots are in 7.

  • 2 weeks later...

But how do your restore one?

37 minutes ago, MyKroFt said:

But how do your restore one?

Have a look at this thread to see if it is answered there. 

 

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