vzdump is an utility to make consistent snapshots of running OpenVZ VEs. It basically creates a tar archive of the VE private area, which also includes the VE configuration files.. BACKUP FILE NAMES Newer version of vzdump encodes the virtual machine type and the backup time into the filename, for example vzdump-openvz-105-2009_10_09-11_04_43.tar That way it is possible to store several backup into the same directory. The parameter "maxfiles" can be used to specify the maximal number of backups to keep.
When a backup for a VM is started, QEMU will install a "copy-before-write" filter in its block layer. This filter ensures that upon new guest writes, old data still needed for the backup is sent to the backup target first.. Learn how to back up and restore Proxmox virtual machines using vzdump and qmrestore. Step-by-step tutorial with examples for migration and disaster recovery.