I have (2) Hyper-V Hosts with several VM's running on a cluster. I want to backup the hosts on a routine basis. Knowing the vm's are periodically and randomly moved between the hosts, I'm not entirely certain how these movements will affect the restore of a host should one be needed.
I use Veeam to back up my virtual machines with great success, but nothing to backup my hosts. Am I thinking\worrying too much about backing up my hosts? I was thinking of using Windows Server Backup, but I can't get a solid answer pertaining to what will happen with my running vm's at time of backup. Do my VM's will need to be stopped, moved to another Host while backup is running? I'm not sure and would like to know for sure before risking a catastrophic experiment. I'm in a 24X7X365 environment so downtime is out of the question.
I'm looking to my fellow professionals to provide me with understanding on my following questions:
1. - Can I use Windows Server Backup to backup my Hyper-V hosts in a clustered environment?
2. - If I can use Windows Server Backup, can my VM's be running at the time of the backup? Keep in mind my domain controllers are in this clustered environment.
3. - If I can't use Windows Server Backup, or is ill-advised to do so, what are your recommendations for a backup solution?
3. - I'm not sold out on the Windows Server Backup, I think it has become a solid tool and included with my 2012 R2, and VSS friendly, why not use it? However, if you have knowledge of a better solution to my dilemma, I would be very appreciative of your professional advice.
Much thanks in advance for you help.