How can I restore VM

[Keene Scouser]

I have re-built my unraid server. I urgently need to restore a Windows Server VM I backed up previously. I have the vdisk, XML and fd files but I can't find any info on how to correctly restore these. 

I have re-created the folder in the domains share and placed the backup vdisk1.img file in there, I've edited the XML file and pasted in the original details. I can get the VM to boot but none of my original data is there, it just looks like a fresh install of Windows.

 

Any help would be appreciated 

[JorgeB]

Are you sure it's pointing to the original vdisk? All VM data is inside it.

[Keene Scouser]

Pretty sure yes, I'm just copying the original backup into the domains folder now just to be sure

[JorgeB]

Then likely the backup is not from the vdisk/time you think, data either is there or is not, don't see other option.

[Keene Scouser]

Thanks for your input JorgeB, seems like I'll need to start from scratch on this one. I only have one VM which has been running fine for over 6 months with a small web application and a SQL Serve database. I did my first back of the vdisk just a few days ago before I re-built my unraid server and yet it simply doesn't contain any of my data, very concerning

[JorgeB]

What did you use to make a copy of the vdisk? And was the VM shutdown?

[Keene Scouser]

I used Squids User Scripts which backed up the xml and fd files but it didn't do the vdisk, I manually copied that to a network drive. The VM was shutdown

[JorgeB]

If the file was correctly copied and the VM shutdown don't see how you can have missing data, the vdisk either is complete and it works with all data that was there or if it was incorrectly copied it shouldn't even work, not just have some missing data.

[Keene Scouser]

I agree, I guess this comes down to human error, it's always possible that I had thought the vm was shutdown when I copied but it wasn't, but you're statement still stands, it would either work, or not work. Lesson learned for me

 

thanks again for help

[Keene Scouser]

Quick question for you: Is there a better way to backup the entire VM (vdisk, XML, fd etc.) rather than the method I used?

[JorgeB]

If cache is btrfs or zfs you can also use snapshots and then send/receive to another disk, VM should still be shutdown, but only for the snapshot, so it's quicker.

[Keene Scouser]

It is btrfs, I'll look into doing snapshots. I'm pretty new to unraid so still learning

thank you

[JorgeB]

Look for the snapshots plugin.