How to enable Windows Server Backup support for the Hyper-V VSS Writer
Technorati Tags: Hyper-V,Windows Backup,Virtual Machine
In order to enable VSS based backups of Hyper-V VMs using Windows Server Backup, you must add the following registry keys to register the Hyper-V VSS Writer with Windows Server Backup. Note that the WindowsServerBackup key is not created when installing the Windows Server Backup feature. This key must be created manually.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT
\CurrentVersion\WindowsServerBackup\Application Support\{66841CD4-6DED-4F4B-8F17-FD23F8DDC3DE}
Once you have the keys listed above created, you will need to create a String Value with the following.
Name: Application Identifier
Type: REG_SZ
Value: Hyper-V
When complete, the keys should resemble the following:
Windows Server Backup only supports volume based backups. When backing up virtual machines, you must select all volumes where VM related files are present.
For example, if you are using the default location for storing virtual machine configuration (C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Virtual Machines) yet the VHD is stored on another volume, you must select both volumes in the backup.
When initiating recovery, select “Application Restore” and choose Hyper-V. You must use this method otherwise you will not be allowed to replace files for running VMs. As part of the restore, existing VMs will be turned off and deleted. The VMs that you restore will be registered with Hyper-V.
There are some limitations and expected behavior that you should be aware of.
1: Virtual machines that contain dynamic disks in the guest operating system cannot be backed up using VSS. Only offline backups are supported. The other alternative is to backup the virtual machine using backup software inside the guest operating system as you would with a physical machine.
2: Virtual machines that do not have support for VSS Backups, such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, or virtual machines without Integration Services installed, will enter a saved state while the snapshot is taken and restore once the snapshot is complete. You will also experience the same behavior if the backup component from Hyper-V Integration Services is disabled as shown below.
3: When performing a recovery from backup, the entire volume(s) must be restored. Individual VM restores are not supported with Windows Server Backup.
4: If the virtual machine contains 2 or more snapshots, the restore will fail. To workaround this issue:
A. If the VM is running, turn off and delete the virtual machine.
B. Select the “Files and Folder” recovery option to restore the snapshots folder.
By default, this is located at
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Hyper-V\Snapshots,
but is configurable per VM.
C. Select the individual snapshot folders to restore.
D. Once this is complete, initiate the “Application” recovery option to restore the volume.
Rob Hefner
Support Escalation Engineer
Microsoft Enterprise Platforms Support
Comments
- Anonymous
January 01, 2003
In deze blogpost van Rob Hefner wordt uitgelegd hoe je via een registry instelling de Hyper-V VSS Writer - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Snapshots in Hyper-V, checkpoints in SCVMM, diff-disks in VPC, undo in Office… can’t we all just get - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Over the last few months I have gotten a lot of questions about backing up Hyper-V virtual machines… - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Is it needed to provide a backuptype (FULL or COPY) required by VSS while taking backup of a HyperV Virtual machines using HyperV VSS Writer? as its needed in case of backing up Exchange/SQL databases.Thanks - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
On Windows 2008 R2 you dont need to add the registry Key. - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
The matrix of considerations for backup and DR for Hyper-V is not simple, for example there are several - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Non, je ne vais pas parler Rugby mais revenir sur le TOP 14 des problèmes Hyper-V , un article de ... - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hyper-V Beta released as part Windows Server 2008. The final release of Hyper-V happened shortly after - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
You told: "Individual VM restores are not supported with Windows Server Backup"Can you please check this case?:I have 3 free RAID1 logical drives on my Hyper-V host.I format every logical drive as NTFS, D: E: F:I create 3 new VMs: ServerD, ServerE, ServerFI export ServerD on D:, ServerE on E:, ServerF on F:I delete every VMs then I import exported VMs.(in this way every VM's files still stored on individual drives, related NTFS links too).Can I restore individual VM?Thanks and best regards,Andrea - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Tony Soper: The matrix of considerations for backup and DR for Hyper-V is not simple, for example there are several methods to backup running VMs such as Windows Server Backup, DPM, diskshadow.exe, as well as non-Microsoft solutions such as Symantec Backup - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
  Top Issues for Microsoft Support for Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V Hyper-V Beta released as part - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Hola a todos, Una de las nuevas tecnologías que tenemos con Windows Server 2008 es la de virtualización - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Quelques mois après la mise à disposition de Hyper-V en version RTM, nous disposons déjà de quelques - Anonymous
January 01, 2003
Einer der Standardfragen bei der Microsoft Server Virtualisierung mit Hyper-V ist wie man eine Sicherung - Anonymous
July 05, 2010
Can it be more disfunctional? Backup and restore all or none? I can't see how this is helpful. With a little forethought to data protection and recovery, indiviual machines should be able to restore. I have a problem with one VMD file corrupted. Now I have to overwrite ALL the VM's to the last backup to get it back? I wish the developers would give some thought to real world application of this utility. - Anonymous
July 12, 2010
How to backup a running virtual machine.........? - Anonymous
January 27, 2011
Hello,Above you had said,"2: Virtual machines that do not have support for VSS Backups, such as Windows 2000, Windows XP, or virtual machines without Integration Services installed, will enter a saved state while the snapshot is taken and restore once the snapshot is complete."When you say "...and restore once the snapshot is complete.", did you mean "restart" when the snapshot is complete or is there something more going after the snapshot finishes than one might guess?Thank You - Anonymous
April 25, 2013
i have a host server with hyper-v role containing 5 VMs.i ran a full host server backup using wbadmin..is there any way to restore just one specific VM? or i have to restore the whole host server contaning all VMs using Installation DVD? - Anonymous
July 31, 2013
Does this article by chance happen to still apply to Windows Server 2012? - Anonymous
August 21, 2013
Would this process be required for other backup software like COMMVAULT? Everytime we attempt to back up Hyper-V 2012 we get "Hyper-V VSS Writer" retryable errors. - Anonymous
April 01, 2014
What is the name of this forum? "ASK THE CORE TEAM? "
I love the way MS will create a blog, post it, then forget it.
What about answering the subscribers questions?
" Is this reg-edit process still required for Server 2012 and Essentials? " - Anonymous
June 03, 2014
Microsoft fixed the limitation in Windows Server 2012. You can backup all or a subset of your VMs and restore them individually. - Anonymous
December 04, 2015
is this necessary for Windows Server 2012 R2 data center edition???