how do i automatically back up Citrix Xen server VMs to a backup server?

Question

I want to backup the VMs on a Xen server to a backup repository automatically using a script. I have a windows and a Linux backup server so which ever one is easier to do would be great. Is there a way to do this for Xen server? I want to make a script that automatically logs into the xen server, backs up the VMs while it is still running, and exports it to a back up repository. is this possible? thank you

Answer 1

You can do better than this: the CLI command (from outside your VM)

xe vm-export vm=(UUID-of-VM) full-path-to-output-file

will export the whole image of your VM in XVA format, and this is perfectly suitable for backup. Also, it can be exported to different machines, to different hypervisors, and so on. It carries not just all of your disk contents, but the whole settings of your VM, network cards, multiple disks (if any) and so on.

Just remember that saving by means of CLI can only save to XVA format, which will need to be converted to OVF format via Xenconverter (read here). You can save directly to OVA from the Xencenter but, for some reasons I do not know, that can only be done via GUI, not CLI.