How to backup and restore Virtual machine OS? - backup

In VM ware Virtual machine i have installed the Centos in Window 7.Now i want to re install my Window 7 but i do not want to loose my virtual machine Centos. I Google many time for this topic but did not find any helpful information.
Any help?
Thanks

Your virtual machine is saved under the form of multiple files, which you can easily back-up on an external hard-drive, or in the cloud. If you are using VMWare, then your machine will be split into .vmdk, .vmx, .vmxf, .vmsd and .nvram files, depending on your VM configuration.
Just check where you store the VM files, and back them up before re-installing the host system. Afterwards, just import the .vmx file back into VMWare.
In VMWare Player right-click on your VM, go to Settings, then Options, and under Working Directory you should see where your VM files are stored. Just back-up that entire folder before reinstalling.

Related

How to load package to openwrt in virtualbox

I have created an image of OpenWRT(x86-64) which I am running on Virtualbox. I have created a custom package and build it for my Virtual Machine. The thing is that I can not figure out how to copy the package file to the virtual machine's disk space.
I tried using using Guest Additions for Virtualbox but I think OpenWRT does not support it because I can not mount the file to install Guest Additions.
Is there any other way or am I doing something wrong?
To answer my own question, you can use Secure Copy (scp) to transfer your files.
Here is the link. SCP Example
SCP uses ssh to transfer files. Make sure that you have root password enabled in your remote host as this is needed to make a connection.
I hope that this may help someone in the future.

Where does the Host store the documents used in a Virtual Machine?

Is there a folder in the Host where the files used in the Guest are stored? Specifically, I refer to documents, text files et similia.
I found several posts about file sharing between the two OSs, but they do not answer this question. Actually, on the Host I found only the VM configuration files.
I mean, it is a VM, ok, but they have to physically stay somewhere on the Host HD! What if I want to access them without starting the WM?
My usual config:
W10 - Host;
Lubuntu - Guest.
It really depends on what kind of virtual disk you use VDI, VMDK, VHD, or HDD.
VDI is an issue. The only way i've found so far is to use a USB drive to copy things off and on, or create a network share.
If you're using VMDK, Vmware has a tool I believe is called VMware disk mount as a part of their VDDK, and you should be able to use it to mount VMDK disks as hard drives. https://developercenter.vmware.com/web/dp/sdk/55/vddk
Windows VHD is the easiest one to work with. You can use "Computer Management" on your windows PC to mount the VHD as an external drive using this tutorial. http://notebooks.com/2011/02/25/how-to-browse-and-copy-files-from-a-vhd-system-image-backup/
I'm really not sure about HDD.

Is it possible to have Vagrant box running on USB?

I want to creatre portable dev environment inside a Vagrant box. But faced a problem with ssh key access rights. On some target machines I haven't got enough rights to change them. Is it possible to configure Vagrant to have access maybe only with password to make box fully rights-independent?
You can have vagrant box running from USB (I do that a lot and its nice to take hard drive with you and go on another computer and everything is running the same)
If you run VMWare provider, this is all set as all the vagrant file and the VM files are within the .vagrant directory from your project so just run Vagrant init and vagrant up within your USB and all the files are there, you can take the USB drive with you and connect to another computer running vagrant/VMWare and you're good
When you run VirtualBox provider, its a bit different as the vagrant files will be stored within your vagrant directory but your VM files will likely be stored with your My Documents folder.
You can overcome that by forcing VirtualBox to store the files on the USB as well - see this answer https://stackoverflow.com/a/36343325/4296747 to have multiple options how you can do that

How to copy a file from windows7 to Virtual Machine ubuntu

I have installed Virtual Machine in my windows and inside VM, added Ubuntu.
So I need to copy a file from my windows machine to VM Ubuntu.
How can i do it?
If you have sshd enables on your Ubuntu guest and host and guest are able to communicate via LAN with each other, you could use the scp to copy files. On your windows host you can use WinSCP.
There are many methods to do it: (i recommend Method 3)
Method 1:
Mount a shared folder that's on the Windows host onto Ubuntu. That way you don't even need to copy them.
Go to Virtual Machine » Virtual Machine Settings » Shared Folders.
Method 2
The easiest way to do is to install the VMware Tools in Ubuntu, then you are able to drag the file into the Ubuntu VM.
To install VMware Tools, you need to switch to Ubuntu, then go to the VMware menu VM » Install VMware Tools, and then follow the instructions to finish the installation.
Method 3
Login to your linux machine (ubuntu) in vmware.
Click on "Places" and go to "Network" .
Go inside "Windows Network" and go deeper and you will find "user" and then "Public" .
This folder is nothing but your windows "Public" folder.
You can use this folder as a shared folder between host and guest machine.
Refer: For detailed description

How can I create virtual machines as part of a build process using MSBuild and MS Virtual Server and/or Hyper-V Server Virtualization?

What I would like to do is create a clean virtual machine image as the output of a build of an application.
So a new virtual machine would be created (from a template is fine, with the OS installed, and some base software installed) --- a new web site would be created in IIS, and the web app build output copied to a location on the virtual machine hard disk, and IIS configured correctly, the VM would start up and run.
I know there are MSBuild tasks to script all the administrative actions in IIS, but how do you script all the actions with Virtual machines? Specifically, creating a new virtual machine from a template, naming it uniquely, starting it, configuring it, etc...
Specifically I was wondering if anyone has successfully implemented any VM scripting as part of a build process.
Update: I assume with Hyper-V, there is a different set of libraries/APIs to script virtual machines, anyone played around with this? And anyone with real practical experience of doing something like this?
Checkout Powershell Management library for Hyper-V on CodePlex. Some features:
Finding a VM
Connecting to a VM
Discovering and manipulating Machine states
Backing up, exporting and snapshotting VMs
Adding and removing VMs, configuring motherboard settings.
Manipulating Disk controllers, drives and disk images
Manipluating Network Interface Cards
Working with VHD files
You can actually script a fair number of tasks in MS Virtual Server:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/scriptcenter/scripts/vs/default.mspx?mfr=true
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa368876(VS.85).aspx
Also Virtual PC guy has got a ton of stuff on his blog about scripting Virtual Server/PC and now Hyper-V here:
http://blogs.msdn.com/virtual_pc_guy/default.aspx
VMware has similar capabilities:
http://www.vmware.com/support/developer/scripting-API/