{"id":2005,"date":"2018-01-03T00:38:48","date_gmt":"2018-01-03T00:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/obieta.com\/?p=2005"},"modified":"2018-01-03T00:38:48","modified_gmt":"2018-01-03T00:38:48","slug":"how-to-automatically-rotate-hyperv-snapshots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/?p=2005","title":{"rendered":"How to Automatically Rotate HyperV Snapshots"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The following instructions can be used to set up a rotating snapshot schedule for all the Virtual Machines that are running in Hyper-V on the server. The default rotation for this script is 7 days which can be modified depending on your preference.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Warning<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
In order for this script to run successfully, you will need to make sure you have additional space on your hard drive to hold the snapshot history.<\/span><\/div>\n
Each snapshot consists of RAM snapshots as well as changes made to the virtual hard drive since the last snapshot. \u00a0This means that if you have a VM with 4GB of RAM and you want 7 days of snapshots, you will need a minimum of 7days*4GB of RAM = 28GB of additional disk space in order to\u00a0<\/span>accommodate\u00a0a VM that has completely static data. \u00a0In actuality, it is not unreasonable to plan for up to 4 times this amount of disk space to\u00a0accommodate\u00a0hard drive data changes.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
Create the Snapshot Script<\/b><\/span><\/div>\n
    \n
  1. Log into your server through Remote Desktop. For instructions on how to login to your server,<\/li>\n
  2. Run\u00a0PowerShell\u00a0<\/b>from the Start menu or your desktop.<\/li>\n
  3. Run the following script.\n
      \n
    1. set<\/span>–<\/span>executionpolicy\u00a0<\/span>RemoteSigned<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
    2. When the Execution Policy Change warning is displayed enter\u00a0Y<\/b>.<\/li>\n
    3. Open Notepad and paste the following contents into it. (Note line 1 where you can change the number of days for your rotation):\n
        \n
      1. $Days\u00a0<\/span>=<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>7<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>#change this value to determine the number of days to rotate.<\/span><\/li>\n
      2. <\/li>\n
      3. $VMs\u00a0<\/span>=<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Get<\/span>–<\/span>VM<\/span><\/li>\n
      4. foreach<\/span>(<\/span>$VM\u00a0<\/span>in<\/span>\u00a0$VMs<\/span>){<\/span><\/li>\n
      5. \u00a0 \u00a0 $Snapshots\u00a0<\/span>=<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Get<\/span>–<\/span>VMSnapshot<\/span>\u00a0$VM<\/span><\/li>\n
      6. <\/li>\n
      7. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>foreach<\/span>(<\/span>$Snapshot\u00a0<\/span>in<\/span>\u00a0$Snapshots<\/span>){<\/span><\/li>\n
      8. <\/li>\n
      9. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>if<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>(<\/span>$snapshot<\/span>.<\/span>CreationTime<\/span>.<\/span>AddDays<\/span>(<\/span>$Days<\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>–<\/span>lt\u00a0<\/span>(<\/span>get<\/span>–<\/span>date<\/span>)){<\/span><\/li>\n
      10. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Remove<\/span>–<\/span>VMSnapshot<\/span>\u00a0$Snapshot<\/span><\/li>\n
      11. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>}<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
      12. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>}<\/span><\/li>\n
      13. <\/li>\n
      14. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Checkpoint<\/span>–<\/span>VM $VM<\/span><\/li>\n
      15. }<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
      16. \u00a0Save the file as\u00a0C:\\SnapshotVMs.ps1<\/b><\/li>\n
      17. Open\u00a0Task Scheduler\u00a0<\/b>(press your\u00a0Windows\u00a0<\/b>key and start typing\u00a0Task Scheduler<\/b>).<\/li>\n
      18. \n
        In the\u00a0Actions<\/b>\u00a0section click\u00a0Create Basic Task<\/b>\u00a0and follow the wizard to set up the following parameters:<\/span><\/div>\n
        \n
          \n
        • Name: \u00a0CUSTOM – SNAPSHOTVMS > Next<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Trigger: \u00a0Daily > Next<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Daily: select\u00a011:00:00 PM<\/b>\u00a0Recur every:\u00a01\u00a0days<\/b>\u00a0>\u00a0Next<\/b>.<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Action: \u00a0Start a program > Next.<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Program\/Script: \u00a0type\u00a0PowerShell<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Add Arguments: \u00a0type\u00a0C:\\SnapshotVMs.ps1\n

          <\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

        • Check the box for “Open the Properties dialog for this task when I click Finish<\/b>” and click\u00a0Finish<\/b>.<\/li>\n
        • In the\u00a0General<\/b>\u00a0tab, in the Security Options section, select the option to\u00a0Run whether user is logged on or not<\/b>.\u00a0<\/b>Click\u00a0OK<\/b><\/li>\n
        • Enter the\u00a0Administrator<\/b>\u00a0credentials that you use to log into your server. Click\u00a0OK.<\/b><\/li>\n
        • In\u00a0Task Scheduler<\/b>\u00a0click on\u00a0Task Scheduler Library<\/b>.<\/li>\n
        • Locate and right click on the\u00a0CUSTOM – SNAPSHOTVMS<\/b>\u00a0task you created.<\/li>\n
        • Run\u00a0<\/b>the scheduled task to verify that it executes correctly. If successful, you will see a PowerShell console open and a snapshot created for all servers in\u00a0Hyper-V Manager<\/b>.<\/li>\n
        • Log in the following day to verify that all VMs on the server have a snapshot on them in Hyper-V Manager.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          The following instructions can be used to set up a rotating snapshot schedule for all the Virtual Machines that are running in Hyper-V on the server. The default rotation for this script is 7 days which can be modified depending on your preference. \u00a0 Warning In order for this script to run successfully, you will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/obieta.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}