Introduction

This repo is used to perform "Hyper-V WMI Based Backup with resilient change tracking" that was introduced in Windows Server 2016. It's designed to be ran in a lab setting where backup of VMs can be scheduled via Task Scheduler with this script.

This repository contains a submodule of "machv" who improved Taylor Brown's original xHyper-VBackup Powershell Module. The PowerShell script "LabBackup.ps1" uses machv's script to do all the heavy lifting. This script uses JSON as "database" storage of configuration information and state tracking for VMs.

I consider the state of this script to be "alpha" as i'm still developing core functionality, but am i'm currently using it for my own lab backup :)

Requirements

Windows Server 2016 with Hyper-V installed
Hyper-V PowerShell Module
Locally ran on Hyper-V Server

Quick Start

DBFilePath, when used for install is path to folder, when used for Backup operations is full path to db.json file location

Install

The script uses JSON PowerShell objects as database reference for tracking purposes. The install just bootstraps config information to be used by this script. It's installed by running:

.\LabBackup.ps1 -DBFilePath "B:\Backup" -Operation Install

By default all VMs get backed up, optionally if you want to exclude VMs from being backed-up, add an array of VM Names:

.\LabBackup.ps1 -DBFilePath "B:\Backup" -Operation Install -excludeVMList @("VMName1", "VMName2", "VMName3")

To later add VMs to the exclude list just edit the db.json manually and add them.

Full & Diff Backup

New VMs will have full backup, while existing backed up VMs will have differential backup performed:

.\LabBackup.ps1 -DBFilePath "B:\Backup\db.json" -Operation Backup

New Only

If you want to perform full backup of new VMs only

.\LabBackup.ps1 -DBFilePath "B:\Backup\db.json" -Operation BackupNewOnly

TODOs

Known issues and potential roadmap of tasks I'm thinking of implementing:

Allow concurrent backup executions
Better command controls like modify exclude list
Implement restore backup commands
Program better failure and error logic handling
Implement file logging and better logging events
Logic to detect deduplicated target storage and trigger deduplication
Allow for per VM backup destinations on different volumes\drives
Fix issues with RCT & Checkpoints not being cleaned up on script failure
Logic to handling status
Fix Parameter naming convention and usage
Logic to detect sufficient drive space prior to backup
Notification and alerting