NAME

       vzdump - backup utility for virtual machine

SYNOPSIS

       vzdump OPTIONS [--all | <VMID>]

       --exclude VMID          exclude VMID (assumes --all)

       --exclude-path REGEX    exclude certain files/directories. You
                               can use this option more than once to specify
                               multiple exclude paths

       --stdexcludes           exclude temporary files and logs

       --compress              compress dump file (gzip)

       --storage STORAGE_ID    store resulting files to STORAGE_ID (PVE only)

       --script                execute hook script

       --dumpdir DIR           store resulting files in DIR

       --maxfiles N            maximal number of backup files per VM.

       --tmpdir DIR            store temporary files in DIR. --suspend and --stop
                               are using this directory to store a copy of the VM.

       --mailto EMAIL          send notification mail to EMAIL. You can use
                               this option more than once to specify multiple
                               receivers

       --stop                  stop/start VM if running

       --suspend               suspend/resume VM when running

       --snapshot              use LVM snapshot when running

       --size MB               LVM snapshot size (default 1024)

       --bwlimit KBPS          limit I/O bandwidth; KBytes per second

       --lockwait MINUTES      maximal time to wait for the global
                               lock. vzdump uses a global lock file to make
                               sure that only one instance is running
                               (running several instance puts too much load
                               on a server). Default is 180 (3 hours).

       --stopwait MINUTES      maximal time to wait until a VM is stopped.

DESCRIPTION

       vzdump is an utility to make consistent snapshots of running virtual machines (VMs). It
       basically creates a tar archive of the VM private area, which also includes the VM
       configuration files. vzdump currently supports OpenVZ and QemuServer VMs.

       There are several ways to provide consistency:

       "stop" mode
         Stop the VM during backup. This results in a very long downtime.

       "suspend" mode
         For OpenVZ, this mode uses rsync to copy the VM to a temporary location (see option
         --tmpdir). Then the VM is suspended and a second rsync copies changed files. After that,
         the VM is started (resume) again. This results in a minimal downtime, but needs
         additional space to hold the VM copy.

         For QemuServer, this mode work like "stop" mode, but uses suspend/resume instead of
         stop/start.

       "snapshot" mode
         This mode uses LVM2 snapshots. There is no downtime, but snapshot mode needs LVM2 and
         some free space on the corresponding volume group to create the LVM snapshot.

BACKUP FILE NAMES

       Newer version of vzdump encodes the virtual machine type and the backup time into the
       filename, for example

        vzdump-openvz-105-2009_10_09-11_04_43.tar

       That way it is possible to store several backup into the same directory. The parameter
       "maxfiles" can be used to specify the maximal number of backups to keep.

RESTORE

       The resulting tar files can be restored with the following programs.

       vzrestore: OpenVZ restore utility
       qmrestore: QemuServer restore utility

       For details see the corresponding manual pages.

CONFIGURATION

       Global configuration is stored in /etc/vzdump.conf.

        tmpdir: DIR
        dumpdir: DIR
        storage: STORAGE_ID
        mode: snapshot|suspend|stop
        bwlimit: KBPS
        lockwait: MINUTES
        stopwait: MINUTES
        size: MB
        maxfiles: N
        script: FILENAME

HOOK SCRIPT

       You can specify a hook script with option "--script". This script is called at various
       phases of the backup process, with parameters accordingly set. You can find an example in
       the documentation directory ("hook-script.pl").

EXCLUSIONS (OpenVZ only)

       vzdump skips the following files wit option --stdexcludes

        /var/log/.+
        /tmp/.+
        /var/tmp/.+
        /var/run/.+pid

       You can manually specify exclude paths, for example:

       > vzdump --exclude-path "/tmp/.+" --exclude-path "/var/tmp/.+" 777

       (only excludes tmp directories)

       Configuration files are also stored inside the backup archive (/etc/vzdump), and will be
       correctly restored.

LIMITATIONS

       VZDump does not save ACLs.

EXAMPLES

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

       > vzdump 777

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

       > vzdump --suspend 777

       Backup all VMs and send notification mails to root.

       > vzdump --suspend --all --mailto root

       Use LVM2 to create snapshots (no downtime).

       > vzdump --dumpdir /mnt/backup --snapshot 777

       Backup all VMs excluding VM 101 and 102

       > vzdump --suspend --exclude 101 --exclude 102

       Restore an OpenVZ machine to VM 600

       > vzrestore /mnt/backup/vzdump-openvz-777.tar 600

       Restore an Qemu/KVM machine to VM 601

       > qmrestore /mnt/backup/vzdump-qemu-888.tar 601

SEE ALSO

           vzrestore(1) qmrestore(1)

AUTHOR

       Dietmar Maurer <dietmar@proxmox.com>

       Many thanks to Proxmox Server Solutions (www.proxmox.com) for sponsoring this work.

COPYRIGHT AND DISCLAIMER

       Copyright (C) 2007-2009 Proxmox Server Solutions GmbH

       Copyright: vzdump is under GNU GPL, the GNU General Public License.

       This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of
       the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2
       dated June, 1991.

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
       without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
       See the GNU General Public License for more details.

       You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program;
       if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston,
       MA 02110-1301, USA.