12 hours ago, peewee67 said:

I have to restore a VM backup made with this plugin, but i only find two files per backup in the backup folder:

- 20250208_0500_VMname.xml

- 20250208_0500_disk1.qcow2

 

so no files with an .img extension. How can i restore my VM based on these two files?

Update, well that was easy:

 

- Add a 'Custom' VM and paste the contents of the xml file

- Put the qcow2 file in the spot mentioned in the xml file

- start the VM

qcow2 is the extension used for qcow2 images, so that is your image file, should be easy to see with the size.

I had troubles with the plugin on unraid Version 6.12.14 2024-11-26.

In the tab upload scripts I was not able to save any script, it was forever loading when hitting the button save pre-script.

 

I found the following workaround.

 

1) make sure you create a new config in the gui and not use the default one

e.g. homeassistant

 

2) create a new script named pre-script.sh in the following folder and put your content in there:

/boot/config/plugins/vmbackup/configs/homeassistant

3) edit the following file:

/boot/config/plugins/vmbackup/configs/homeassistant/user.cfg

add 2 new lines:

pre_script="pre-script.sh"
pre_timeout="300"

 

e.g. pre-script.sh:

#!/bin/bash

out=/mnt/user/backup/logs/pre-script.log

echo $(date) >> $out

echo stopping HomeAssistant_inabox >> $out
docker stop HomeAssistant_inabox

 

 

Edited March 1, 20251 yr by mastervol

On 1/11/2025 at 4:04 PM, Leaf Fan said:

Hi,

 

How do I only keep one backup? If I try an choose one it won't allow it. I have to select two or more.
 

 

I have mine set to 1. I believe if you go to Danger Zone and set Disable restrictive validation to Yes it allows it.

I have the VM backup scheduled to perform a backup of my only Windows 11 VM on Sunday mornings. So it'll do it's thing, it'll shut down the VM and once it's complete it starts it up. After that every time the USB devices need to be re-checked again in the VM settings. It's like it forgets to re-add those USB devices. 
I just tested it again with manually running that backup and exactly the same thing.

 

If I reboot the VM on it's own the USB devices are automatically started up and checkmarks are there but after VM backup the checkmarks are removed and of course it doesn't start up those USB devices. I have to go in after each backup is run and select them manually and save. then everything is fine until next Sunday

 

Any ideas why this happens? is it a bug?

I screwed up over the weekend when making modifications to my cache drive and lost my VM. Thankfully I was running this plugin and have a backup from the previous day. The problem is the script from github throws up an error, and the manual doesn't seem to apply anymore since I'm running Unraid 7.0.1.

 

My backup files look like this:

 

 

I've created a new VM using Custom and copy and pasted the XML info into it per the suggestion by @peewee67 at 

 

Now I'm getting this error when trying to start up the VM:

 

 

I'm not sure if this is an issue, but my cache set up was two 4TB btrfs set up as mirror. I changed it to zfs striped so I now have 8TB.

 

Can someone please help me get my VM back up and running? I would very much appreciate it.

Edited April 14, 20251 yr by thunderclap
Added info about cache set up

Good lord, trying to restore from this thing is an exercise in frustration. Trying to use the script from @petchav but it just doesn't work. Just says the Backup file not Found, even though I am following the instructions exactly. Seems others had this issue too in the past, as its an open issue in the github for the script. Not sure what I can do to get my linux VM back again...even though I have backups I am staring at.

Backup file not Found · Issue #8 · Emilien-Lambert/Unraid-VM-Backup-Plugin-Restoration-Script

I have one Windows 11 VM that I have the VM Backup running nightly on.

Looking back over the past week or so, it had been taking 1.5 - 3 hours or so. However, the past three nights it's been taking 5 - 5.5 hours.

It's a simple stripped down Windows 11 install using Atlas and the only thing I use it for is some web mail access. It has 4GB RAM allocated, two hyperthreaded cores (4 total), and the VDisk is 268GB.

Any ideas on where I need to look to find out what's going on?

In order to make this work in Unraid 7 and up you'll just need to change the following files in /usr/local/emhttp/plugins/vmbackup/

Vmbackup1Settings.page

from:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg[1]" value="update_user_script">

<input type="hidden" name="#args[1]" value="backup_now">

to:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg1"  value="update_user_script">

<input type="hidden" name="#args1" value="backup_now">

Vmbackup3OtherSettings.page

from:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg[1]" value="update_user_script">

To:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg1" value="update_user_script">

Vmbackup4DangerZone.page

From:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg[1]" value="update_user_script">

<input type="hidden" name="#args[1]" value="fix_snapshots">

<input type="hidden" name="#args[1]" value="abort_script">

To:

<input type="hidden" name="#arg1" value="update_user_script">

<input type="hidden" name="#args1" value="fix_snapshots">

<input type="hidden" name="#args1" value="abort_script">

22 minutes ago, gerrit117 said:

/usr/local/emhttp/plugins/vmbackup/

This path won't survive reboot

46 minutes ago, trurl said:

This path won't survive reboot

sorry, i forgot. But changing the plugin files directly solves the problem permanently. i attached the tarball with the modified files for installation

usr.txz

I backuped 2 of my VMs every month, the files are: ...vdisk1.img, ....pure-efi.fd, ....name.xml and the log.

since 2 months (don't know if after an pluginupdate, probably yes) there is no vdisk1.img anymore, just a 20250616_1840_vdisk1.S20250215153456qcow2 but much smaller as the old vdisk1.img which I don't changed.

Could someone tell me what happened?

20250616_1840_unraid-vmbackup.log20250210_0500_unraid-vmbackup.log
for troubleshooting, 2 logs (one from the old version, one from the actual)

You've been using snapshots. Once you take a snapshot the base image won't be touched anymore, only the overlaid file will.

This plugin was made way before snapshots were supported in unraid and hasn't been updated since, but at least here it seems to operate "safely" and retaining the desired number of base images, even though at some point anything but the latest is identical and redundant.

I'm a having a similar, but seemingly opposite problem. I have a HomeAssistant VM. I have a rtl_433 docker that I need to use a RTL-SDR usb dongle. Every time I backup the VM with this, after the backup, it grabs the RTL-SDR USB dongle. Then I have to go into the VM, uncheck it, and click ''update". Did you ever figure out a fix for your issue?

On 3/25/2025 at 12:45 PM, Sopranos said:

I have the VM backup scheduled to perform a backup of my only Windows 11 VM on Sunday mornings. So it'll do it's thing, it'll shut down the VM and once it's complete it starts it up. After that every time the USB devices need to be re-checked again in the VM settings. It's like it forgets to re-add those USB devices. 
I just tested it again with manually running that backup and exactly the same thing.

 

If I reboot the VM on it's own the USB devices are automatically started up and checkmarks are there but after VM backup the checkmarks are removed and of course it doesn't start up those USB devices. I have to go in after each backup is run and select them manually and save. then everything is fine until next Sunday

 

Edited October 7, 2025Oct 7 by dmtml

I have questions regarding my usecase,

I want to backup my vms, but one vm has a secondary vdisk mounted that is bypassed in unraid, i DO NOT want this disk to be part of the backup.

Looking at the configuration it seems i can only pick these vdisks that are pointed to a file on disk (qcow2)

But the disk i want to make sure is bypassed is like i said bypassed by unraid and mounted directly to the vm as such:

I have not yet tested the backup solution, but i am wondering if this vdisk2 will automatically be excluded? if no, how can i exclude it?

EDIT: I guess it exlucdes this vdisk with a warning, would be nice to be able to really exclude it though:

2025-10-23 21:35:31 warning: There's an empty vdisk_path on Server. This is mainly caused by an empty cdrom file path. skipping vdisk.

Edited October 23, 2025Oct 23 by je82

Its the Plugin working under 7.2?

Event: Unraid Status

Subject: unRAID VM Backup script

Description: copy failed

Importance: alert

2025-11-08 00:00:35 failure: copy of /mnt/user/domains/Linux/vdisk1.img to /mnt/user/Backup_Raster/VM Backup/Linux/20251108_0000_vdisk1.img failed.

Mine ran successfully today on 7.2.

Is this the “go-to” for VM backups still or is there a better supported option available?

I cannot believe that this isn't part of Unraid. Backups are vital and shouldn't need a degree!

Hi, can anyone tell me why my VM backup isn't working?

On 2/14/2026 at 6:14 AM, DrSpaldo said:

I cannot believe that this isn't part of Unraid.

It is. Snapshots have been a thing for the past couple releases.
You do read the changelogs, don't you?

20 minutes ago, Elmojo said:

It is. Snapshots have been a thing for the past couple releases.
You do read the changelogs, don't you?

Snapshots and backups are absolutely not the same thing.

11 minutes ago, Kilrah said:

Snapshots and backups are absolutely not the same thing.

Give me an example of how they are different, in practical terms.