Hyper-V Failover Cluster Backup
As of version 7.4, Backup for Windows VM edition supports Microsoft Hyper-V Failover Cluster backup and restore. Backup VM edition is shipped with a two-processor socket license included in the subscription by default. This license allows you to back up cluster that has no more than two physical processors. If your cluster has three or more physical processors, an extra processor socket license will be required for one or more processors.
For now, Backup for Windows VM Edition supports only local Failover Cluster backup. This means that the Backup for Windows instance must be installed on the Hyper-V host with a Failover Cluster to be backed up.
About Hyper-V Failover Cluster
A Failover Cluster is a solution that consists of similar Hyper-V nodes that are bound to a collective work for balancing the computing loads and redundancy purposes.
Learn more about Hyper-V clustering in the Manage virtualization servers section at docs.microsoft.com.
System Requirements for Failover Cluster Backup
The following requirements apply to Hyper-V Failover Cluster backup:
| Component | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Operating System | Windows Server 2008 R2/2012/2012 R2/2016/2019 with Hyper-V role |
| Backup for Windows | VM Edition |
How It Works
The Failover Cluster backup is similar to the Hyper-V backup with small differences:
- Once a Hyper-V backup plan with clustered VMs in the backup source is run, a Hyper-V cluster is accessed
- New checkpoints are created for virtual machines specified in a backup plan. Virtual machines are always backed up sequentially. The new checkpoint is created while a virtual machine is being processed
- Cluster Shared Volume (CSV) is the only supported shared storage
- Once checkpoints are read, they are uploaded to backup storage along with required virtual machine configurations
- As the checkpoint is uploaded to backup storage, it is deleted on a Hyper-V host side