Test of Altaro Backup v4 for Hyper-V

There are some backup vendors that nowadays have support for Hyper-V and host level backup. I have been testing some of them but also wanted to check how the Altaro Hyper-V Backup solution works.

I cannot complain about the ease of installing and getting started on the Altaro solution. I like the install wizard that directly recognises if I am trying to install on a cluster node or a single hyper-v instance.

 

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It is fully supported to install on a core or full version of Hyper-V 2012 and also 2012 R2.

When I tested to install on my one-node Hyper-V 2012 R2 cluster it found and promoted the node as a master controller.

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It was really easy to configure the VM´s that should be included in the backup and then schedule a backup job.

Some really nice features in the Altaro are:

  • Offsite backup with wan acceleration
  • Exchange Item Level restore
  • Remote Management Console
  • Fast Hyper-V backup/restore
  • Compression/Encryption
  • Live Backup of Linux VM´s
  • Instant-Boot from backup

If you register then you get a trial that works in 30 days and have the full feature-set. You can also download the free version and that gives you the possibility to do backups on two VM´s forever 🙂 but with some limitations..

 

SCVMM 2012 R2 and deploying VM´s with altered name on vhdx

I observed a question on the technet forums regarding if it was possible to change name of the virtual hard disk when deploying a virtual machine or template from System Center Virtual Machine Manager, and the answer is yes.

Having a few hundred VM´s and all of them having the same name of the vhdx as the template might not look so good.

So how to solve this then, first of is when deploying new VM´s you should change the name and that can only be done in the VMM GUI when deploying to a host and not to a cloud. Notice that I create the VM from the template in the library view of the console.

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When using this way the console automatically fills in the guest os name. When creating a VM from a template in the VM´s and Services view that has to be filled in manually.

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So how to get the name of the VM also on the vhdx that holds the VM´s operating system, as I described above, you have to select deploy to a host and not a cloud (of course, when the VM has been created it can be updated with a cloud)

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Then when you come to the configure settings view in the wizard, the option to change the vhdx name appears,

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Surely you find that having vhdx that has the same name as the VM instead of the generic library vhdx name of win2012-std.vhdx more suitable?

In the next post I will show you how to change the names of the disks on already deployed VM´s.

 

VMM Configuration Analyzer for 2012 R2

In the upgrading of a VMM 2012 Sp1 to R2 I wanted to test and run the Configuration Analyzer. When clicking on the link from the VMM R2 GA media you should be observant that it points you to the wrong place though, as you can see on the following screendump there is a link on the splash screen.

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And when pressing that link you will arrive at the following site, which is wrong! So do not start downloading the stuff from this as these files are for the VMM 2012.

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The right site is at the following link:  http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=41555 and looks like this, do also notice that it is an analyzer for the whole System Center suite so you can do analyzing of all your different SysCtr servers.

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You can also at this technet site read more about how it works and what prerequisites you have to install first.