Difference between revisions of "Backup of a running container with vzdump"

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(Bugs)
(Bugs)
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One possible workaround is to rename the logical volume in question thus it doesn't contain any hyphen.
 
One possible workaround is to rename the logical volume in question thus it doesn't contain any hyphen.
 
A bug report was sent to proxmox on 02 June 2008.
 
A bug report was sent to proxmox on 02 June 2008.
Other Distributions or Versions may be affected to.
+
Other distributions or versions may be affected to.
  
 
[[Category: HOWTO]]
 
[[Category: HOWTO]]

Revision as of 11:25, 6 June 2008

Vzdump is a utility to make consistent snapshots of running OpenVZ containers. It basically creates a tar archive of the container's private area, which also includes the CT configuration files.

There are several ways to provide consistency:

  • Stop the CT during backup (very long downtime)
  • Use rsync and suspend/resume (minimal downtime)
  • Use LVM2 (no downtime)

Vzdump stores the backup on the disk in a single file. This file should go to a tape backup for archiving.

Download

Download vzdump rpm or deb packages from http://download.openvz.org/contrib/utils/vzdump/ or for newest version, check http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/en/technology/oss-software/openvz/

For rpm based systems:

wget http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/cms/upload/vzdump/vzdump-1.0-2.noarch.rpm

For Debian based systems:

wget http://www.proxmox.com/cms_proxmox/cms/upload/vzdump/vzdump_1.0-2_all.deb

Installation

For rpm based systems:

rpm -i vzdump-1.0-2.noarch.rpm

For Debian based systems:

dpkg -i vzdump_1.0-2_all.deb

Synopsis

vzdump OPTIONS [--all | <CTID>]
      --compress              compress dump file (gzip)
      --dumpdir DIR           store resulting files in DIR
      --xdelta                create a differential backup using xdelta
      --mailto EMAIL          send notification mail to EMAIL
      --stop                  stop/start container if running
      --suspend               suspend/resume container when running
      --snapshot              use LVM snapshot when running
      --restore FILENAME      restore FILENAME

Examples

Use a running container, for example install this: Proxmox Mail Gateway in container.

Backup

Simply dump CT 777 — no snapshot, just archive the container private area and configuration files to the default dump directory (usually /vz/dump/).

vzdump 777

Use rsync and suspend/resume to create a snapshot (minimal downtime).

vzdump --suspend 777

Backup all containers and send notification mails to root.

vzdump --suspend --all --mailto root

Use LVM2 to create snapshots (no downtime).

vzdump --dumpdir /space/backup --snapshot 777

Note that using LVM2 and vzdump to create snapshots requires 512Mb of free space in your VG as described here.

Restore

Restore the above backup to CT 600:

vzdump --restore /space/backup/vzdump-777.tar 600

Bugs

vzdump will fail under Debian Etch in version 1.0-2 if it is invoked with parameter "--snapshot" and if the logical volume name contains a hyphen. One possible workaround is to rename the logical volume in question thus it doesn't contain any hyphen. A bug report was sent to proxmox on 02 June 2008. Other distributions or versions may be affected to.