1.3. Integrated Backup and Restore

The integrated backup tool (vzdump) creates consistent snapshots of running Containers and KVM guests. It basically creates an archive of the VM or CT data which includes the VM/CT configuration files.

KVM live backup works for all storage types including VM images on NFS, CIFS, iSCSI LUN, Ceph RBD. The new backup format is optimized for storing VM backups fast and effective (sparse files, out of order data, minimized I/O).