6.10.2 Backing up the Oracle Linux KVM Guests

You can back up Oracle Linux KVM guests by using the following procedures.

There are three ways to back up the guests:

Table 6-5 Oracle Linux KVM guest backup approaches

Method	Description	Managed By	Best For
Method 1: Back Up All of the KVM Guests	From the KVM host, back up all guests in the /EXAVMIMAGES storage repository using XFS reflinks to get a consistent backup.	KVM host administrator	Recovering all guests after a compute node failure, which renders the guests unbootable.
Method 2: Back Up an Individual Guest	From the KVM host, selectively back up a guest in the /EXAVMIMAGES storage repository using XFS reflinks to get a consistent backup.	KVM host administrator	Selective recovery of a guest after a compute node failure that renders the guest unbootable but does not affect all of the other guests.
Method 3: Back Up a Guest Internally	Back up a guest using a snapshot-based backup procedure that is run inside the guest.	Guest administrator	Recovery of a guest after a failure where the guest is still bootable and allows root login. This method also enables selective recovery of specific files.

• Method 1: Back Up All of the KVM Guests
  You can back up all of the guests by backing up the storage repository under /EXAVMIMAGES.
• Method 2: Back Up an Individual Guest
  You can back up an individual guest by backing up its specific folder under /EXAVMIMAGES.
• Method 3: Back Up a Guest Internally
  You can take a snapshot-based backup of a guest from inside the guest.