A backup can be stored somewhere else and restored in case of complete failure of the main system/storage.

Edited June 12Jun 12 by Kilrah

I feel like in the event of a total server meltdown, VM backups are the least of your issues, but fair enough.
To be clear, I agree that backups are a good thing to have. I'm using URBackup, and I just used it 2 days ago to recover a failed VM that didn't survive a cache migration. I just wanted you to flesh out your claim a bit.
I think a combination of snapshots and backups are even better, but for most people, snapshots alone are enough.

hi i been noticing an issue i cant seem to figure out...

i orginally had it backing up to the cache drive but since it would fill my 1tb in no time and mover doesnt run till midnight and backp runs like 4am this was bad situation

so i set it to copy to the array directly

but i find issue with backing up voliumio vm and home assistant vm.. i guess it might backup but it never restarts it..

windows vms seem to start back up as i have it set once a week for a backup but HA and VOL will not restart

the show logs doesnt show everything.. just a small section.. but here is the log section for the home assistant

2026-10-26 06:05:14 information: 1. Home Assisant can be found on the system. attempting backup.
2026-10-26 06:05:14 information: creating local 1. Home Assisant.xml to work with during backup.
2026-10-26 06:05:14 information: /mnt/user/Backup Files/Unraid/Tardis/VMs/1. Home Assisant exists. continuing.
2026-10-26 06:05:14 information: skip_vm_shutdown is false. beginning vm shutdown procedure.
2026-10-26 06:05:14 information: 1. Home Assisant is running. vm desired state is shut off.
Domain '1. Home Assisant' is being shutdown

2026-10-26 06:05:29 information: performing 20 30 second cycles waiting for 1. Home Assisant to shutdown cleanly.
2026-10-26 06:05:29 information: cycle 1 of 20: waiting 30 seconds before checking if the vm has entered the desired state.
2026-10-26 06:05:59 information: 1. Home Assisant is running. vm desired state is shut off.
2026-10-26 06:05:59 information: cycle 2 of 20: waiting 30 seconds before checking if the vm has entered the desired state.
2026-10-26 06:06:29 information: 1. Home Assisant is running. vm desired state is shut off.
2026-10-26 06:06:29 information: cycle 3 of 20: waiting 30 seconds before checking if the vm has entered the desired state.
2026-10-26 06:06:59 information: 1. Home Assisant is running. vm desired state is shut off.
2026-10-26 06:06:59 information: cycle 4 of 20: waiting 30 seconds before checking if the vm has entered the desired state.
2026-10-26 06:07:29 information: 1. Home Assisant is shut off. vm desired state is shut off. can_backup_vm set to y.
2026-10-26 06:07:29 information: actually_copy_files is 1.
2026-10-26 06:07:29 information: can_backup_vm flag is y. starting backup of 1. Home Assisant configuration, nvram, and vdisk(s).
sending incremental file list
1. Home Assisant.xml

sent 9,045 bytes received 35 bytes 18,160.00 bytes/sec
total size is 8,928 speedup is 0.98
2026-10-26 06:07:29 information: copy of 1. Home Assisant.xml to /mnt/user/Backup Files/Unraid/Tardis/VMs/1. Home Assisant/20261026_0400_1. Home Assisant.xml complete.
sending incremental file list
e1d9a5b2-2b0d-6ec0-8eca-dc5c20d6fad5_VARS-pure-efi.fd

sent 131,246 bytes received 35 bytes 262,562.00 bytes/sec
total size is 131,072 speedup is 1.00
2026-10-26 06:07:29 information: copy of /etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/e1d9a5b2-2b0d-6ec0-8eca-dc5c20d6fad5_VARS-pure-efi.fd to /mnt/user/Backup Files/Unraid/Tardis/VMs/1. Home Assisant/20261026_0400_e1d9a5b2-2b0d-6ec0-8eca-dc5c20d6fad5_VARS-pure-efi.fd complete.