Is there a way to automatically create backup images of non-array drives?

[joebot]

I have two daily driver VMs that run off of dedicated NVMe's that are passed through.  Is there a way (preferably by docker app) to have my machine periodically create images of these drives (and possibly the VM configs) on my array?  Both of these NVMe disks are bare-metal bootable, and I'd like the backup images to be such that I can just dd them to new drives in an emergency. Thanks!

Edited May 13, 2020 by joebot

[testdasi]

18 minutes ago, joebot said:

I have two daily driver VMs that run off of dedicated NVMe's that are passed through.  Is there a way (preferably by docker app) to have my machine periodically create images of these drives (and possibly the VM configs) on my array?  Both of these NVMe disks are bare-metal bootable, and I'd like the backup images to be such that I can just dd them to new drives in an emergency. Thanks!

 

Are the NVMe passed through to the VM as PCIe device?

If so:

1. The tool to create image needs to be run on the guest VM. If it's Linux then I would imagine it to be simple to dd /dev/something to your array share. If it's Windows then I'm not aware of any tool that can do a raw image. No clue about Mac.
2. While it's theoretically possible to pass a PCIe device back to the host (Unraid - so you can use the host to create the raw image), I have never seen any proof of its working. Hence, go back to point (1) about needing to do it from within the guest.

 

If the NVMe is passed through to the VM using the ata-id method then it is possible dd it /dev/something to the array to create raw image.

The ata-id method, however, is not the best way to get the max out of your NVMe.

 

 

 

[joebot]

Thanks for the reply!  Yeah, the NVMe's are passed as PCIe devices.  So, wouldn't I need to unmount the drive in the VM to dd it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but that means that I would need to boot the VM off of something like a bootable gparted USB drive/image and then make the copy out to the array? ...Not sure if I can access the array via network share in that case - maybe I can.

 

Does your answer change if I mention that I am using unraid not as a server, but as a hypervisior (I have an unraid server as well, this is for my main PC)?  I have no problem with shutting down the VM's occasionally (and maybe forgo the automatic backup aspects) to copy the disks.

Edited May 13, 2020 by joebot