VM backup is crucial for Business continuity. In Hyper-V environment, IT administrators can extract VHD from Hyper-V VM to save the applications and other data.
Updated by Nick Zhao on 2023/11/09
Virtualization is very popular in deploying IT environment. By creating virtual machines on physical servers, the hardware resources can be utilized more efficiently, saving companies’ budgets and improving the work efficiency of IT environment.
Hyper-V is one of the popular virtualization solutions provided by Microsoft. IT administrators often install Windows Server operating system on physical server and then enable Hyper-V feature on the machine. Then, Hyper-V Manager can be used to create and manage virtual machines.
There are many virtual machines in production environment and they are supporting all kinds of business systems. Virtual machines are required to be always online because they might be accessed at any time so business continuity is important and VM backup is the assurance of business continuity.
One of the methods of backing up VM is carefully saving the virtual hard disk. Virtual hard disks are saved with different formats in different virtual environment. They are saved as .vmdk files in VMware and .vhd files in Hyper-V.
Generally speaking, all the data of Hyper-V VM is saved in a folder, including virtual hard disks, configuration, snapshots, etc., located in datastore. One VM can have multiple virtual hard disks and every virtual hard disk represents a hard drive.
Therefore, you can manually check the directory of Hyper-V VM to copy and backup the VHD file, or export the entire VM and then find the VHD file. Of course, you can also have Vinchin Backup & Recovery to backup VM professionally.
The way to export Hyper-V VHD file is often using Hyper-V Manager.
1. Open Hyper-V Manager, right-click the VM needed to be protected > select Export
2. Specify the destination to store the folder of the VM > click Export
3. Open the folder of the VM > open the folder Virtual Hard Disks > find the VHD file to backup
You might see some .avhd files in the folder Virtual Hard Disks. They are the snapshots of the VM, working like the differencing disks. If necessary, you can merge Hyper-V snapshot and then export VHD file again.
Microsoft products have formed an integrated ecosphere so you can find a proper application for backing up Hyper-V VHD. System Center Data Protection Manager is such an application for protecting business continuity. It will help you systematically backup the entire Hyper-V VM.
1. In DPM, click Protection at the bottom and then click New on the top to create a protection group
2. New Protection Group Wizard will be opened. Read how data protection works and click Next
3. Select Servers as protection group type > click Next
4. Select the host or VMs to backup > click Next
5. Give a name to the job and select backup storage type > click Next
6. Select backup strategies > click Next
7. Select the destination to store VM backup > click Next
8. Choose replica creation method > click Next
9. Choose consistency check options > click Next
10. Review the summary of the job > click Create Group
Saving every single VHD file is a complicated procedure because it requires carefully archiving VHD files. This will also make VM recovery slow and affect the efficiency of disaster recovery. To protect business continuity, you need the professional backup and disaster recovery solution, Vinchin Backup & Recovery.
To simplify the procedure of Hyper-V VM backup, Vinchin Backup & Recovery allows you to add Hyper-V hosts to backup system to backup Hyper-V VM agentlessly. With the professional system, VM data will be carefully saved and conveniently used. You just need to select the VM recovery point and destination host to recover VM. This means you can move VM to another Hyper-V host with Vinchin Backup & Recovery. If you would like to perform V2V migration, you can also add another hypervisor to this backup system and easily restore Hyper-V VM on the new host.
You can easily create the backup job on a user-friendly web console.
1. Select the Hyper-V VM
2. Select the storage for data backup
3. Select backup strategies
4. Submit the job
Compared with DPM and Windows Server Backup, you can backup Hyper-V VM with more strategies, like incremental backup, data deduplication and compression, off-site backup copy, etc.
You will easily begin with Vinchin Backup & Recovery because there is a user-friendly web console to let you backup and recover Hyper-V VM. Take this 60-day full-featured free trial and download the installation package to deploy this system in just a few minutes.
There are many Hyper-V virtual machines needed to be protected in production environment. One of the methods of protecting virtual machines is making VHD files backup, saving the virtual hard disks.
In this post, you can learn the ways to extract and backup Hyper-V VHD files with Hyper-V Manager and backup the entire Hyper-V VM with System Center Data Protection Manager.
Of course, you can have the professional backup and disaster recovery solution Vinchin Backup & Recovery to easily protect Hyper-V virtual environment. Don’t miss the free trial.
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