Question Backup Recommendation for VMs + Physical Machines

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I have a mix of Hyper-V VMs and physical machines that I'd like to backup to an Unraid server on the network. I don't mind using different software for VMs and physical machines.

I did some research online and found Veeam Backup & Replication Community Edition, its free for up to 10 VMs which I guess would work for my use case. I haven't yet installed it or played around with it.

I wanted to ask community for advice, what would you guys recommend for backups? Any other solutions I should look into besides Veeam?

 

[sdifox]

Home or work evironment?

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I personally love Veeam backup and have bought it and it works very well. I'd go for that one even if you use the free version.

 

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Home or work evironment?

Home / home office environment.

 

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I personally love Veeam backup and have bought it and it works very well. I'd go for that one even if you use the free version.

Would you mind sharing your setup? Veeam has a number of backup products, so curious which edition you use and how its setup.

 

[sdifox]

Home / home office environment.

err, as in home office? then you can just use windows backup. powershell script shutdown vm, backup vhdx, start vm. you can use client computer backup for other PCs.

 

[Collider]

err, as in home office? then you can just use windows backup. powershell script shutdown vm, backup vhdx, start vm. you can back. Use client computer backup for other PCs.

Windows backup was the first option I tried, but quickly found out that host level VM backup w/o VM shut down was not possible. Shutting down VMs isn't really an option in my use case as my network depends on some of those VMs.

 

[sdifox]

Windows backup was the first option I tried, but quickly found out that host level VM backup w/o VM shut down was not possible. Shutting down VMs isn't really an option in my use case as my network depends on some of those VMs.

Pfsense? Just export the settings xml, that is the important part. I keep an instance as a cold spare and update the config once prod config is stable.

Give Veeam a whirl if you want a more robust solution.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

I use the Enterprise edition since it is for work. I'm in the middle of setting up a new VM server so with that I am going to get a new server for backup since my current one is old and is actually a regular PC with windows server installed on it with some extra storage added on to it. The new server should be faster and more stable.

So it's a pretty basic set up right now but it works for now and hopefully I will get a Poweredge Dell server for my new backup server.

Would you mind sharing your setup? Veeam has a number of backup products, so curious which edition you use and how its setup.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

I personally use Nakivo termed out to 4 years of support (largest discount on licensing) for my Home Lab. It's not the power house that Veeam is, but supports all of my environments, lets me create as many Proxies as I like (for remote backups), and the interface is easy to use.

Nakivo also has a free edition good for up to 10 VMs, as well as 1 physical server, and 3 workstations.

 

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Nakivo also has a free edition good for up to 10 VMs, as well as 1 physical server, and 3 workstations.

Thanks for recommending, will have to take a look.