Is it possible to back up virtual machines from the inside?

Question

Active Directory

There are a couple of virtual machines:
Domain controller, terminal server.
To backup virtual machines, you need to stop them.
Is it possible to back up virtual machines from the inside, using the built-in Windows Server backup utility, without stopping the server??

Answer 1

Yes

Answer 2

Veeam B&R is in your hands.
Up to 10 VM it is free!

Answer 3

Virtual machines in this regard are no different from ordinary machines.
You can even backup from the inside, even from the outside.

Answer 4

What for? Isn't it easier to take snapshots of virtual machines, or at worst, backup a virtual machine disk (in the Hyper-V version, these are vhd files)?

Answer 5

1.What hypervisor are you using?
2.Usually you don't need to stop the virtual machine for a backup, just take a snapshot and backup the snapshot. This is how most virtual machine backup software works.
3. In many cases, you can’t just take and backup a snapshot of a virtual machine, because the contents of the snapshot may not be consistent (and if you have to restore the snapshot, you risk losing data). For example, if a database is spinning in a virtual machine, then it must be backed up using the database, not the hypervisor. The same HELL is essentially a database. In fact, you can backup snapshots only for some file dump or for an application server, where there are only installed applications that do not change often.

Answer 6

Can.
And in the case of a domain controller, it is also necessary, since Windows Backup makes a backup copy of the system state, which is convenient to work with to restore AD data.
Well, plus Windows Server Backup cuts off swollen logs of all kinds of databases - jet, MS SQL, exchange, etc. during operation.

Answer 7

Veeam backup is the coolest thing. Stable and reliable. Better not seen.