backup only poweredOn vms

[ThinkGrid]

Hi

As title suggests is it possible to backup only the VMs that are powered On and excluding the powered off VMs. I can't atm separate them on different folders

Thanks

[foggy]

Could you please elaborate a bit on the actual use case? Do you mean just the initial backup or constantly backing up only those VMs that are powered on at the moment of the job start (the number can vary between the job runs)?

[veremin]

Do you mean just the initial backup or constantly backing up only those VMs that are powered on at the moment of the job start (the number can vary between the job runs)?

In case of second scenario, the task can be achieved by using Veeam Powershell Snap-in in conjunction with PowerCLI. The algorithm should be as the following:

1) Check the state of Virtual Machines. (PowerCLI)
2) Get a list of power-off ones. (PowerCLI)
3) Exclude them from being backed up. (Veeam PSSnapin)
4) Initiate job execution. (Veeam PSSnapin)

Thanks.

[ThinkGrid]

Foggy, pretty much that, it checks the Power state at beginning of job and backs it up and yes the number would vary between jobs

Issue is lack of disk space and there is a lot of poweredoff VMs created by customers through a cloud orchestration layer

Thanks Eremin

[ThinkGrid]

Thinking over this, it's probably a good idea to add it as a Feature, it's quite useful

[dellock6]

I'm not getting the usefullness of this: powered off VMs have NO changed blocks, so they do not consume additional backup space.

But if a VMs was powered on during the day and only powered off before backup started, it has new data in it, so it needs to be created. If you ask me, avoid to backup VMs because of lack of backup space is not a solution.

Luca.

[foggy]

Luca is spot on, that is exactly why I asked about the particular scenario, since it does not look solid to me.

[ThinkGrid]

I agree about the incrementals not having blocks changed but would like to exclude them on the first backup as well

Anyways....

[Vitaliy S.]

I agree about the incrementals not having blocks changed but would like to exclude them on the first backup as well

I might be off base, but this means that when something happens to the powered off VMs, it will not be possible to restore them.

How should the job behave if VM was powered on for some time, and at the job start time your customer has shut it down? Should the backup job pick this VM up or it should skip it? Just trying to understand the recovery scenarios in this case.

[ThinkGrid]

Yea, the powered Off VMs wouldn't have backups so no restores for them

The backup should skip the powered Off VM if it's been powered ON for a while, but as agreed it doesn't matter even it's backedup as no blocks would have changed

[dellock6]

Also, even if you delay the backup of a VM because it is powered off, the first time you would have to backup it, it would obviously be a full backup, there is no alternative to it.

You said the reason is lack of space on the repository, we maybe could work on this topic more than the exclusion of powered off VMs, if you want. Maybe in a new thread.

Luca.

[foggy]

The backup should skip the powered Off VM if it's been powered ON for a while, but as agreed it doesn't matter even it's backedup as no blocks would have changed

There might be a situation when some VM is started, used, and then stopped between backup cycles. Such VM will never be backed up.