Perhaps. This is in Hyper-V 2012. I am still on the fat part of that learning curve, so, perhaps. Is there a way to do a hot-clone?
The restore to sandbox is a clone, it's just a new vm made from a backup of the source. On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 10:58 PM, Damien Solodow < [email protected]> wrote: > Couldn't you have just cloned the existing VM to make your sandbox; no > VM backup required? > > DAMIEN SOLODOW > Systems Engineer > 317.447.6033 (office) > 317.447.6014 (fax) > HARRISON COLLEGE > ------------------------------ > *From:* [email protected] [[email protected]] > on behalf of Richard Stovall [[email protected]] > *Sent:* Wednesday, September 11, 2013 10:53 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [NTSysADM] In defense of image-based VM backups > > There was a discussion here a few weeks ago that centered on > image-based backups for entire VMs vs data-based backups of applications > only. My recollection is that most of us smaller guys prefer (or at least > lean toward) the image-based variety, and the bigger, more mature orgs > prefer data backups. > > I'm going to offer an example of the utility of image-based backups for > small shops. > > My IT department consists of one other admin and me. We support a > fairly complex IT environment for a company of our diminutive size. We > recently went whole hog into MSCRM (on-premises), and our developers (we > have more of them than IT staff) are working hard to customize it to suit > the company's needs. > > Today I had to roll back a CRM org database to an earlier point in time > for the devs, and at first blush it appeared to be a successful endeavor. > Some funky issues arose, however, so I was faced with a difficult problem > and no clear direction on how to solve it. (MSCRM is an enormous beast, > btw.) > > Long story short, having the ability to (almost) immediately spin up a > brand new, sandboxed copy of the CRM server allowed me to experiment and > figure out how to resolve the problem without touching the one the devs > actually use. This helped me document the proper fix and apply it in their > environment in (literally) a few minutes. I could not have done this > without the benefits of A) virtualization and B) the ability to create an > exact clone of the affected machine. > > There are lots of benefits to virtualization, and private clouds, and > all of the rest of the buzzwords currently on the IT bingo cards. But, to > me, the greatest of these accrue to rank and file admins when confronted > with the kind of situation I faced today. > > It's really cool stuff that could not have been accomplished quickly > without virtualization *and* image-based backups. > > PS Full disclosure. I also do native SQL backups of the CRM databases > within the VMs, and the restoration of one of these in SQL Management > Studio was an integral part of the final solution. I guess this is a > blended/hybrid solution, but it wouldn't have been easy without being able > to instantly create a sandbox to test in, and that's an example of the > power of image-based backups for the small IT shop. > > >
