Xen Orchestra Delta Restore
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So after running a script to make some changes to a VM running on my Production Hypervisor for about 48 hours. I have this VM configured in Xen Orchestra to be Delta'd every 4 hours for simple testing purposes. (Plus it gives me many points to test with). I also have this Delta Depth set to 8 (delta's to keep)
In this picture note the target VM UUID
In this picture you can see I have two VM's with the same name, the powered off VM is the original which the Delta's were built from
Here you can note the UUID of the original VM (it matches what XO has, also note I'm selecting the Powered Off VM)
Here is the Restored Delta VM, note the uptime and the UUID.
So this means when the 9th delta is performed it will delete the first Delta.
Anyways here are some screenshots of the VM (and the files I scripted for generation on a folder on the desktop)
Here is a screenshot of the restored Delta to the 6th of the month (when I started the Delta Backup)
So comparing the last two pictures you can see that the restore went as expected. I'll try a more current Delta for a restore and see what happens.
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So below is the most recent Delta (the last I made) note the UUID, the Name of the VM (and how there are 3 of them) and the files within the VM.
So for 100% free, I have delta functionality to restore my choosen VM's on whatever schedule I need. All that is needed is enough capacity to store the Delta backups.
Which is pretty awesome!
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Now my biggest complaint is, from what I can see within XC and XO is there is no easy way to identify when the "restore" has been completed. This is obviously a pain in the ass, but I did notice that when restoring the delta, you can check XC to see if the vDisk has been restored.
Which is one of the last items to be created from what I've noticed.
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Very cool.
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Are the deltas from the the previous delta or from the last full backup?
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@Dashrender from multiple points during the process. Fulls and Partials result in a restore to that backup. Here's a picture of the CentOS NFS Share that list all that I created for the system.
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Very cool, thank you for sharing. I still haven't had enough time to sit down and spin up a XO vm at home yet, but your threads on here have been eating away at me to get it done.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@Dashrender from multiple points during the process. Fulls and Partials result in a restore to that backup. Here's a picture of the CentOS NFS Share that list all that I created for the system.
I'm not sure this answers my question.
If you took a baseline image/backup 4 hours ago, then took a partial 2 hours ago, then another partial now, would the the second partial backup all of the changes since the baseline 4 hours ago, or from the partial from 2 hours ago?
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@Dashrender You can see in the screenshot above that there are delta's and full backup's created.
The partials copy the changes from whenever the full was last created.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@Dashrender You can see in the screenshot above that there are delta's and full backup's created.
The partials copy the changes from whenever the full was last created.
OK - thanks.
I really like the incremental forever solution I currently have.
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@scottalanmiller maybe I misunderstand it, so I'm asking for your expertise.
Wouldn't "Rolling Snapshots" in XO be the Forever incremental that @Dashrender is looking for?
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@DustinB3403 said:
@Dashrender You can see in the screenshot above that there are delta's and full backup's created.
The partials copy the changes from whenever the full was last created.
Calling them partials is really confusing. The industry terms are incrementals and differentials. These would be differentials then. If we use the right terms, there is no ambiguity.
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@DustinB3403 said:
@scottalanmiller maybe I misunderstand it, so I'm asking for your expertise.
Wouldn't "Rolling Snapshots" in XO be the Forever incremental that @Dashrender is looking for?
I've not looked at that feature. Do you have a link to their documentation on it?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@DustinB3403 said:
@Dashrender You can see in the screenshot above that there are delta's and full backup's created.
The partials copy the changes from whenever the full was last created.
Calling them partials is really confusing. The industry terms are incrementals and differentials. These would be differentials then. If we use the right terms, there is no ambiguity.
I used the term partial because until Dustin's post in the XO thread if they were incrementals or differentials.
though as usual, you're right
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Here it is. https://xen-orchestra.com/docs/rolling_snapshots.html
This is really what it sounds like and not backups at all. You could use it to build your own backup solution, but on its own it isn't one. It is just snapshots for version rollback locally.
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Guys,
You should ping me or create GitHub issues when you have concerns, bug report or questions about XO
For the restore without knowing what's happening: I just updated this yesterday, now the VM is named "[Importing...] VMname" until the restore is completed. See https://github.com/vatesfr/xo-web/issues/641
Already closed, so out for 4.12 around Jan 15
About "Forever forward incremental backup", allowing you to avoid any full export after the initial one, it consists of:
- merging offline (ie: without Xen, by ourselves) the original full backup with its contiguous snaphot
- doing step each time, step by step
So you never need to re-export the full stuff after the first time. A good illustration here, from VEEAM:
This should be out in 4.13 (end of Jan.), 4.12 with some luck.
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@olivier sorry Olivier we know you're busy, and I'm the defacto "XS Fan here...." so I play with a lot of the fun stuff and post some cool topics.
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LOL, just ask and ye shall receive.
Awesome @olivier
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Though a question to Scott's point - are vib files backup files or are they Xen image snaps?
