VirtualBox Clone Backup (VBCB) is a script for creating Oracle VirtualBox VM backups in Windows host environments with as little downtime as possible.
VBCB is a fork of the excellent https://github.com/niro1987/VirtualBox-Backup (VBB) project, the key being the use of clonevm command instead of robocopy to create backups.
The main advantage of using clonevm is that fewer files and no live data are copied. clonevm is also configured to create a new UUID for the backup, which means the backup is immediately bootable without having to unregister the original VM.
Additional changes from VBB include:
- Re-organization of backup directory by sub-directory based on VM names and timestamps.
- Added
--backupmode startoptions which starts the VM immediately after snapshotting.
VBB is great, but one of the issues that I have with it is that in order to ensure a stable backup of a live VM, the VM had to be taken offline for the duration of the backup.
When I make a backup of a live VM, I first shutdown it down then execute a script that launches VBCB with the --backupmode start option. With this option enabled, VBCB does the following:
- Takes a snapshot of the VM.
- Starts a clone of the VM from the snapshot.
- Restarts the VM while the clone is executing.
Because the snapshot is taken while the VM is offline, it is both fast and stable. And, because the clone is made from a snapshot, there is nothing preventing the VM from restarting immediately. Backups of a live VM take only as long to shutdown and restart.
- Clone or copy this repository to the desired location.
- Edit and rename (optional) Example Start.bat according to your needs. See below Usage
- Create a basic task to periodically start Example Start.bat (or whatever you named it) with Task Scheduler.
Using Example Start.bat from Task Scheduler makes editing the parameters a bit more user friendly and easier to duplicate.
VBCP starts by taking a snapshot of a target vm. The backupmode param lets you choose between taking live snapshots or snapshots from stopped or saved states.
If backupdir is specified, the snapshot is also cloned to the specified directory as follows:
<backupdir>/
├─ <vm>/
│ ├─ <prefix><vm_name>-YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM<suffix>/
│ │ ├─ <prefix>YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM<suffix>.vbox
│ │ ├─ <prefix>YYYY.MM.DD-HH.MM<suffix>.vdi
│ │ ├─ Snapshots/
Where <backupdir>, <vm>, <prefix> and <suffix> are specified by options.
Additional features:
- Save or remove the backup snapshot in the target VM.
- Set the number of backups to keep.
- Compress backups.
- Include or exclude source VMs and backup more than one VM at a time.
- Stop or save VM state before taking snapshots and resume them afterward.
- Take live snapshots.
- Clone snapshots while the VM is running.
Since each VBCP backup is created using vboxmanage clonevm with a new UUID, each backup is immediately available to be added in VirtualBox Manager by tapping Machine > Add....
If you do not pass a parameter it will revert to it's default behavior as documented below.
[ --backupdir ] { PATH }
Pass this parameter along with a valid path to set the target folder. A subfolder is automatically created for each VM. Your can use Windows default variables like %USERPROFILE% and %ONEDRIVE%. The custom variable %_CURRENTDIR% will set the target folder to where you save the .bat files.
Leaving the backupdir parameter out will create a snapshot of the VM without copying any files. This setting automatically sets Backup Mode to snapshot and enables Stack. Keep is currently not supported in combination with this setting. Compress does not apply and is ignored.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--backupdir "%_CURRENTDIR%" |
Parent folder, see above description. |
--backupdir "%USERPROFILE%" |
C:\Users\YourUsername |
--backupdir "C:\Backup" |
C:\Backup |
[ --backupmode ] [ acpipowerbutton | savestate | snapshot | start ]
In order to successfully create a backup, the VM needs to be in a stable (not changing) state. To reduce downtime, a snapshot is created and the VM is restarted (if it was running in the first place).
To restore a backup you simply copy/extract the files to your desired location, add (add, not new) VM to OracleBox and restore the latest snapshot. Be aware that you will not be able to restore a backup while the original VM still exists in the same instance of VirtualBox because the drives will have identical UUID's.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--backupmode acpipowerbutton |
The VM is completely shut down and boots normally after the snapshot is created. Not ideal if login is required after boot. Booting a restored backup is like normal booting the VM. |
--backupmode savestate |
The VM's state is frozen and saved, VM resumes normally after the snapshot is created. Not all operating systems can handle this gap in time. Booting a restored backup is like unfreezing time, the same gap applies. You might need to restart your VM to fix any time gap issues. |
--backupmode snapshot |
The VM is saved in a live snapshot without any downtime. Booting a restored backup is as if the VM experienced a power failure. It the best suboptimal solution to prevent downtime. |
--backupmode start |
The VM is started immediately after snapshotting. |
[ --prefix ] { PREFIX }
[ --suffix ] { SUFFIX }
Each backup is saved to a subfolder inside the target folder named after the VM. The backup is named [prefix ]YYYY.MM.DD-HH24.MM[ suffix]. Pass one or both parameters to append an additional string to the backup name.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--prefix "Automated Backup" |
Prefix the backup name with "Automated Backup" |
--suffix="Daily" |
Suffix (append) the backup name with "Daily" |
[ --include ] { VM-Name }
[ --exclude ] { VM-Name }
Set one of the above parameters to exclude or explicitly include a single VM from backup. Does not accept wildcards and is case sensitive.
Explicitly excluding a single VM will still run backups for all other VMs. Explicitly including a single VM will exclude all other VMs.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--include "Remi" |
Will include only the VM named Remi from the backup rotation and ignores the rest. |
--exclude "Not Me" |
Will exclude only the VM named Not Me from the backup rotation but does backup the rest. |
[ --compress ] [ -1 - 9 ]
!!! In order to enable data compression you need to install 7-Zip to the default path C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z.exe. To disable compression, leave this parameter out or explicitly set it to -1.
The VM Backup Files can be compressed to a single 7-Zip file to save some diskspace and to make them easier to move around.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--compress -1 |
(default) Disable compression. |
--compress 0 |
No compression rate. While this does not actually reduce filesize, it does reduce the backup to a single file. |
--compress [1 - 9] |
Set compression level: 1 (fastest) ... 9 (ultra). |
[ --keep ] [ 0 - ~ ]
Delete old backups with the same prefix and/or suffix and retaines the last [x]. If no Prefix and/or Suffix is set, all files and folders in the VM's backup subfolder are validated and possibly removed.
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--keep 0 |
(default) No cleanup. Keep all backups. |
--keep [x] |
Retain the [x] latest created backups. |
[ --stack ]
A snapshot is always created before the files are copied. This uses some disk space because VirtualBox saves the new state on top of the latest snapshot. To save disk space, the snapshot is deleted after the backup is created (unless you're using Snapshot Only). Add this flag to retaun the snapshots, stacking each snapshot on top of the previous one (uses a lot of disk space).
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
--stack |
Retain all snapshots. |
You will need to create and schedule multiple Example Start.bat files, one for each generation. Make sure you use a different prefix, suffix or even target folder for each generation to prevent unintended deletion of backups.
| Rotation | Parameters | Description |
|---|---|---|
Daily Son.bat |
--keep=2 |
Scheduled to run at 02:00 daily. |
Weekly Father.bat |
--keep=4 |
Scheduled to run at 02:15 on every Monday of every week. |
Monthly Grandfather.bat |
--keep=3 |
Scheduled to run at 02:30 on the first Monday of every month. |
By the end of June 2020 it would look like this.
| Day | 1-4 | 1-5 | 1-6 | 8-6 | 15-6 | 22-6 | 28-6 | 29-6 | 30-6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Son | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | X |
| Father | - | - | - | X | X | X | - | X | - |
| Grandfather | X | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - |
Should work with VB 6.1.x and VB 7.0.x. I'm personally have used it with 6.1.40+ and 7.0.14+.
| Date | Changes |
|---|---|
| 2023-03-05 | Initial release with support for VB 6.1.x. |
| 2024-02-04 | Update and clean up with support for VB 7.0.14. |
VirtualBox.org team for obvious reasons. niro1987 for kindly developing and making VirtualBox-Backup available.