How to Backup Zabbix configuration running on Hyper-V Appliance

[stack888]

Does anyone have a solution for how to best backup the Zabbix config now that I've spent a good deal of time setting it all up and manually creating a lot of hosts.
All looks great now, but don't want to have to rebuild this if the Hyper-V Appliance falls over at some point.
many thanks

[provels]

I've thought about powering it down and just copying the VM to another location. Not at all elegant and would lose all subsequent history, but better than nothing.

[c1support]

Depends on your needs, means and abilities.

Option 1:
For a business critical mission, I would spend some money on hardware and software which perform the task frequently and automatically. From my understanding, this would be best achieved with a NAS (network attached storage) plus a backup software able to (incrementally) backup running Hyper-V machines. There are some products around, which would even allow to be monitored by Zabbix.
Upside of this is high visibility, low downtime, gets the job done - and if not, you have a vendor on your side.
Downside is more hardware (=space plus cost) and some proprietary software (=cost plus risk)

For other scenarios, you could ...
2. go with provels' method
3. backup your entire Windows Server with Windows Server Backup (also not very elegant: very costly in terms of storage, since the entire host OS is backed up - including all VM's)
4. manually select all the relevant files (e.g. all the config-Files plus your home-drive) in Ubuntu/CentOS and transfer these to a different drive (e.g. NAS)
5. manually export the hosts from Zabbix and transfer these files to a different drive (ideally in combination with #4)

4. could be done in a cron-job to be run daily.
5. probably you could access the hosts via API, which would allow you to also perform a cron-job

Personally, I would recommend ...
2. for a test infrastructure of temporary value
4. for anything more important and longer lasting than a few weeks (possibly combined with 2.)
1. for larger and/or more critical systems (i.e. how much worth is it to your bosses' boss?) (possibly combined with 4.)

[provels]

Altaro offers a Hyper-V backup solution, free use for up to 2 guests. No affiliation, just a home user. I don't often test, but when I do, it's in Production.

[c1support]

Option 6: Backup the VM via Powershell script: https://blogs.msmvps.com/ivansanders...tual-machines/

I have not tested it, but exporting a Hyper-V VM via 3 lines of PowerShell is not to be neglected (does not compete with dedicated backup as in Option 1 / post #4, but might be a strong alternative to 2-5)

Useful links for that:

https://www.altaro.com/hyper-v/install-hyper-v-powershell-module/

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/hyper-v/?view=win10-ps