Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2007 will perform virtual machines live backup

Quoting from Windows IT Pro:

The current version of the Data Protection Manager disk-based backup solution is targeted at file servers only, but the upcoming version, (2.0) reaches a much broader audience. It will work with both disk and tape storage devices and will back up Exchange Server 2007 and Exchange Server 2003, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000, and Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePpoint Server 2007, in addition to Windows Server 2003 and Longhorn Server file servers and Windows Vista and Windows X-based file shares. But the big news is that Data Protection Manager 2.0 will also back up Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 R2-based virtual servers as well. Beta 2 is expected publicly in April with the final release expected in late summer…

Read the whole article at source.

Bink.nu provides more details:

  • No downtime
  • VSS consistant inside VM
  • VSS outside (VHD vss writer)
  • For non win2k3 VHDs: Offline backups: pause VM, VSS shadow copy of VHD, unpause, copy blocks to VM replica

This capability depends on new Virtual Server 2005 R2 Service Pack 1, which provides a Volume Shadow Service (VSS) Writer. The interface is not usable by Windows native NTBackup but can be fully exploited by third party backup solutions, including Microsoft DPM 2007 itself.