VM Backup Plugin

[Elmojo]

3 hours ago, thestraycat said:

Anyone tried the 'Easy Backup' plugin for backing up unraid vm's?

I can find no such plugin on CA.  Do you have a link?

Edited October 25, 2023 by Elmojo

[Kilrah]

It entirely crashed the Unraid UI on 6.12.4 when I tried it, so...

 

4 hours ago, Elmojo said:

I can find no such plugin on CA.  Do you have a link?

Needs 6.12.3 minimum, you're probably on an old version.

[Elmojo]

19 hours ago, Kilrah said:

It entirely crashed the Unraid UI on 6.12.4 when I tried it, so...

 

Needs 6.12.3 minimum, you're probably on an old version.

Indeed. I'm on 6.11.x because there's another plugin I rely on that doesn't play nice with 6.12 yet.

[Green Dragon]

This morning I found that one of my VMs will not start following a backup failure.

Im using the 'VM Backup' plugin by JTok.

Previous days backups look complete but this mornings backup (.zst) of that vm is not there (only the .xml exists).

I did not take a screenshot of the backup failure error and cannot now access the vm backup log.  I get an 'undefined' error when trying. Probably because libvert will not start.

Restarting VM Manager results in a Libvert error:
"2023-10-31 13:44:08.174+0000: 24168: error : virQEMUFileOpenAs:11390 : Failed to open file '/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.snap': No such file or directory"

Libvert can only be started via a complete shutdown and restart of UnRaid.

'/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.img' exists '/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.snap' does not.  Is this a backup tmp file?

 

Not only do i need to fix, id like to understand what went wrong.  This system has been working flawlessly for a very log time and I don't see any other failures in the system.

[dja]

46 minutes ago, Green Dragon said:

This morning I found that one of my VMs will not start following a backup failure.

Im using the 'VM Backup' plugin by JTok.

Previous days backups look complete but this mornings backup (.zst) of that vm is not there (only the .xml exists).

I did not take a screenshot of the backup failure error and cannot now access the vm backup log.  I get an 'undefined' error when trying. Probably because libvert will not start.

Restarting VM Manager results in a Libvert error:
"2023-10-31 13:44:08.174+0000: 24168: error : virQEMUFileOpenAs:11390 : Failed to open file '/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.snap': No such file or directory"

Libvert can only be started via a complete shutdown and restart of UnRaid.

'/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.img' exists '/mnt/user/domains/W2K3_the_rock_bbs/vdisk1.snap' does not.  Is this a backup tmp file?

 

Not only do i need to fix, id like to understand what went wrong.  This system has been working flawlessly for a very log time and I don't see any other failures in the system.

Without logging, it is hard to know. I have seen issues with libvirt starting, your best bet (in my experience anyway) is to reboot Unraid, remove (DONT DELETE!) the existing VM and re-create the vm and point it to the .img file corresponding to the VM. If you don't have one or it is corrupted, hopefully you have a previous backup you can restore. As a rule, I keep 3 backups at a once a month interval.  Good luck!

Edit- try to start the VM one more time on re-boot to make sure it is still not working

Edited October 31, 2023 by dja

[Green Dragon]

1 hour ago, dja said:

Without logging, it is hard to know. I have seen issues with libvirt starting, your best bet (in my experience anyway) is to reboot Unraid, remove (DONT DELETE!) the existing VM and re-create the vm and point it to the .img file corresponding to the VM. If you don't have one or it is corrupted, hopefully you have a previous backup you can restore. As a rule, I keep 3 backups at a once a month interval.  Good luck!

Edit- try to start the VM one more time on re-boot to make sure it is still not working

I restored the VM from the previous day using the script.  Looked to go well but failed to start with "internal error: Failed to reserve port 5700".  Checking the restore xml it looks to be the display port.  Im not sure how to troubleshoot or work around that error.

 

Edited October 31, 2023 by Green Dragon

[dja]

1 hour ago, Green Dragon said:

I restored the VM from the previous day using the script.  Looked to go well but failed to start with "internal error: Failed to reserve port 5700".  Checking the restore xml it looks to be the display port.  Im not sure how to troubleshoot or work around that error.

 

That's easy, it has to do with the VNC port. (or Spice protocol if you use that) Go to the port section and change VM Console AutoPort from auto to 'no' and pick a new port NOT in conflict with an already assigned port. (VM)

Edited October 31, 2023 by dja

[Green Dragon]

All back to normal now.  Thanks!

BTW: I was told that the author of this plugin is no longer supporting it.

Is this true?

What alternative is out there?

 

Thanks again!

[dja]

58 minutes ago, Green Dragon said:

All back to normal now.  Thanks!

BTW: I was told that the author of this plugin is no longer supporting it.

Is this true?

What alternative is out there?

 

Thanks again!

Yeah, I don't think it is supported any more.  

"Easy Backup" seems to be pretty good. I've not really looked at it too much, but does seem to cover all the bases, including Docker backups. 

[Green Dragon]

38 minutes ago, dja said:

Yeah, I don't think it is supported any more.  

"Easy Backup" seems to be pretty good. I've not really looked at it too much, but does seem to cover all the bases, including Docker backups. 

So, you still run VM Backup?

[Kilrah]

I've tried Easy Backup some time ago but it crashed the whole Unraid UI, there have been several updates since but since the author doesn't even have a support thread to discuss the development and issues I'm quite wary while it's in beta.

So yes, still using VM Backup too. 

Edited November 1, 2023 by Kilrah

[dja]

6 hours ago, Kilrah said:

I've tried Easy Backup some time ago but it crashed the whole Unraid UI, there have been several updates since but since the author doesn't even have a support thread to discuss the development and issues I'm quite wary while it's in beta.

So yes, still using VM Backup too. 

That's some good info! Thanks for sharing. I'm weighing my luck to decide if I try it

[thestraycat]

On 11/1/2023 at 8:00 AM, Kilrah said:

I've tried Easy Backup some time ago but it crashed the whole Unraid UI, there have been several updates since but since the author doesn't even have a support thread to discuss the development and issues I'm quite wary while it's in beta.

So yes, still using VM Backup too. 

 

I believe it's coming, but for now he's very respondant on the github issues page.... https://github.com/EideardVMR/unraid-easybackup

[thestraycat]

hmmm..

 

Running the development build of this plugin, and whenever i try and save a pre-script or post-script it never finishes processing and never saves and just hangs for ever until i refresh to screen (and dosnt save the scripts) 

 

Anyone else have that issue?

 

Can anyone test there's by just typing something superficial like the below and hitting save?

 

tl;dr - Just want to know if you can save the info below into the vm_backup > 'upload scripts' > pre-script tab.

 

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello World" 

[ds1080]

On 11/6/2023 at 9:48 AM, thestraycat said:

hmmm..

 

Running the development build of this plugin, and whenever i try and save a pre-script or post-script it never finishes processing and never saves and just hangs for ever until i refresh to screen (and dosnt save the scripts) 

 

Anyone else have that issue?

 

Can anyone test there's by just typing something superficial like the below and hitting save?

 

tl;dr - Just want to know if you can save the info below into the vm_backup > 'upload scripts' > pre-script tab.

 

#!/bin/bash

echo "Hello World" 

Yeah, I have the same problem

[superloopy1]

Ok, whats the concensus here about which tool is best suited to backing up VM's in their entirety. I'm just about to setup a couple of vms and dont really have the expertise to 'fiddle' in the event i bork them. Is there something along the lines of Appdata backup/restore?

Edited January 5 by superloopy1

[leonlin]

i don't understand why my vmbackup plugin disappeared this morning

i try to re-install the plugin from CA

 

but the settings cannot be changed, nor can backups be executed manually

anybody know hot to fix it?

[leonlin]

On 8/4/2023 at 3:34 AM, CodeGlitcher said:

Is someone stil using this plugin? it has been in beta quite a while.
It works great for making backups of my vms. 

But i have noticed the plugin is uninstalled after I reboot my server.

Does else have this problem and is there something I can do to fix it?

(I used community application plugin to install the vm backup plugin)

i have the same issue, and then vm-backup can't backup anymore

[Elmojo]

Oh weird, I just noticed that mine is gone as well!  I wonder if it's because I recently upgraded to v6.12?

Perhaps it's just not compatible?

[leonlin]

On 8/4/2023 at 4:14 AM, rorton said:

sorry, I may have been assuming what @CodeGlitcher was experiencing was the same, is it is sort of uninstalling itself. 

 

My issue is that when I reboot, the box comes up and the plug-in sits in the Plugin file install errors (as image)

 

 

If I delete and then manually install again, it works. 

 

I have just rebooted to get the screenshot, if there are any logs I can provide from anywhere please let me know

 

Im using 6.12.3, and has been happening on all 6.12 versions

do you fix it? or just reinstall vmbackup every time

[CodeGlitcher]

Leonlin does your server a internet connection directly on boot?

Or do you relay on a vm or docker container to setup some proxy?

if so you wil indeed have the problem that the plugin cannot be installed/loaded on boot.

 

There is a work a round as i describe here:

it requires to manual install the plugin and not from the  community application store

 

[nice83]

Hi there,

 

anyone knows the problem that the VMs did not start after Backup ? 

2024-01-18 04:40:19 information: the extensions of the vdisks that were backed up are img.
2024-01-18 04:40:19 information: vm_state is running. start_vm_after_backup is 1. starting Windows 11 Rene.
2024-01-18 04:40:19 warning: vm_state is running. vm_original_state is running. unable to start Windows 11 Rene.
2024-01-18 04:40:20 information: backup of Windows 11 Rene to /mnt/remotes/U.../VM Backup Unraid/Windows 11 Rene completed.

Why is the Plugin thinking that the VMs already running ? 

I did not found any solution in this thread, perhaps anyone can help me with this

 

Edited January 18 by nice83
-

[l4kr411]

Why don't VMs shutdown on backup? Why is nobody talking about this? 

[Kilrah]

Because they do? Unless you've configured them not to that is.

 

2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: Alpine_SMB can be found on the system. attempting backup.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: creating local Alpine_SMB.xml to work with during backup.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: /mnt/user/backups/vm/Alpine_SMB exists. continuing.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: skip_vm_shutdown is false. beginning vm shutdown procedure.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: Alpine_SMB is running. vm desired state is shut off.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: performing 20 30 second cycles waiting for Alpine_SMB to shutdown cleanly.
2024-01-27 05:40:01 information: cycle 1 of 20: waiting 30 seconds before checking if the vm has entered the desired state.
2024-01-27 05:40:31 information: Alpine_SMB is shut off. vm desired state is shut off. can_backup_vm set to y.

 

 

 

[betaman]

On 1/5/2024 at 11:41 AM, superloopy1 said:

Ok, whats the concensus here about which tool is best suited to backing up VM's in their entirety. I'm just about to setup a couple of vms and dont really have the expertise to 'fiddle' in the event i bork them. Is there something along the lines of Appdata backup/restore?

+1 on this. Recently corrupted a vm and prefer not to go through having to set it up again.