[3 Ways] to Create Windows Sever Hyper-V Incremental Backup

Why Create Windows Sever Hyper-V Backup?

The Hyper-V environment offers excellent features like failover clusters, Live Migration, and replication, which provide high availability and fault tolerance for running virtual machines. These features are great for minimizing downtime in many situations.

However, they don’t fully protect against disaster recovery scenarios caused by human errors, virus attacks, or other unforeseen problems. That’s why it's important to set up an incremental backup for your Hyper-V virtual machines to ensure you can recover data in case of an emergency.

Windows Server Hyper-V Backup with Windows Server Backup

Windows Server Backup is not pre-installed in Windows Server, so you need to install it in Server Manager before you can create backups. It supports creating Windows Server backup hyper-v incremental by default if you run a scheduled backup. You can set the incremental backup in the Optimize Backup Performance if you find Windows Server Backup not doing an incremental backup. Then, check the following steps.

To Backup Hyper-V Virtual Machines in Server 2012:

1. Open Windows Server Backup, and click on Backup Schedule to create an automatic backup job.
2. Then it will bring you the Backup Schedule Wizard. In the Select Backup Configuration screen, select Custom to select the Hyper-V virtual machines and other files to backup.
3. In the Select Items screen, click the Hyper-V virtual machine to include it in the backup.

Note:✎...

You can exclude an individual hyper-V virtual machine if you don't want all of them.

4. After that, specify when you want the backup to run. You can schedule a daily backup or more frequent backup time.
5. Specify the backup destination drive. You can backup to a dedicated hard disk, a volume or shared network folder.

6. Confirm the backup schedule and click Finish.

Limitations of Windows Server Backup

Performing Windows Server Hyper-V backups in Windows Server 2012 and later is easy compared to previous systems. However, it still has some limitations that may slow down your experience.

Windows Server Hyper-V Backup with AOMEI Backupper Server

AOMEI Backupper Server is a powerful backup solution for Windows Server that supports virtual machine platforms like Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware, and VirtualBox. It works with a wide range of Windows Server versions (2003, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022) as well as Windows PC operating systems.

AOMEI Backupper Server simplifies the backup and recovery of Hyper-V virtual machines. You can install it directly on the Hyper-V server to manage your backups efficiently.

🧱 Multiple backup options: file, system, disk, partition, and email backup.
🧱 Automatic backups: schedule tasks daily, weekly, monthly, or based on Event triggers (e.g., USB insertion).
🧱 Flexible backup locations: save backups to internal and external hard drives, NAS, cloud storage, SD cards, USB drives, and more.
🧱 Advanced restore options: restore virtual machines to physical machines, and vice versa, or restore individual files.

To Perform Hyper-V Incremental Backup with AOMEI Backupper:

1. Download and run the backup software on the Hyper-V virtual machine. For IT technicians or small and medium companies who want to protect unlimited PCs and Servers within one company, it's suggested to use AOMEI Backupper TechPlus.

2. In the main interface, click Backup, and then System Backup. 

Note:✎...

You can also choose Disk Backup, File Backup, and Partition Backup as per your needs.

3. For system backup, the program will automatically choose the system-related partitions as the backup source. All you need to do is to specify the destination location for saving the backup image.

4. In order to create an automatic incremental backup, you need to click Schedule Backup in the lower left corner of the program. Then click on Enable Schedule Backup and select the backup frequency.

5. Then,  go to Backup Scheme, and you can see Incremental Backup is selected by default under the Backup Method tab.

✨ Tips:
❤ You can also select Differential Backup here. Each differential backup is independent. From a restore perspective, differential backup is a bit safer than either of the other two. You can also choose Enable Automatic Backup Cleanup to set up automatic cleanup of old backups to save space on the target disk.
❤ You can write a note for your task by clicking on "Options" to help you distinguish it from other backup tasks. In addition, you can enable encryption, compression, and email notifications for this task. 

6. When all settings are done, click Start Backup to finish creating this backup.

Centralized Backup Solution to backup multiple Hyper-V VMs

If you are an enterprise user who may have multiple VMs that need backing up. So you want an agentless way to perform it. Here we would like to recommend a professional Hyper-V backup solution for enterprises - AOMEI Cyber Backup. With this tool, you can easily backup all Hyper-V virtual machines and run incremental backups later times.

This professional tool excels at scheduling automated backup tasks for multiple virtual machines, bringing countless benefits to users looking for robust data protection.

· Set up a backup schedule to run full, incremental, or differential backups on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.
· Store Hyper-V backups in various locations, including local drives and external hard drives.
· Use role-based management to assign different permissions to your team members for easy access control.
· Quickly and easily restore entire Hyper-V virtual machines from any backup point.

3 steps to backup all Hyper-V virtual machines

Step 1. Add Hyper-V virtual machines

 Run AOMEI Cyber Backup and log in. Click the Source Devices tab on the left side of the window. Click Add Hyper V, then input the Hyper-V host information: IP address/device name, username, and password. Then click Confirm. Then all VMs on the host will be added. 

Step 2. Create backup task

Click  Backup Task >  Create New Task. and fill in Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, Schedule to setup the backup task.

Step 3. Execute backup task

Now you can click the Start Backup button. You can choose Add the Schedule Only or Add the Schedule and start backup now.

How Does Windows Server Backup Work with Virtual Machines?

In Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2, backing up Hyper-V virtual machines using the built-in Windows Server Backup can be tricky. The process is often complicated, with several limitations and compatibility issues. One way to back up Hyper-V VMs is through the parent partition, but this requires registering the Microsoft Hyper-V VSS writer with Windows Server Backup, which can be quite cumbersome. Alternatively, trying to back up the Hyper-V folder directly might lead to issues, such as virtual machines not functioning correctly after a restore.

Fortunately, in Windows Server 2012, backing up Hyper-V virtual machines is much simpler. The built-in Windows Server Backup tool now fully supports Hyper-V backups. You just need to select the Hyper-V items when setting up your backup. Additionally, you can create a scheduled backup to automatically back up your virtual machines regularly.

FAQs About Windows Server Backup Incremental Hyper-V

Q1: What is the difference between incremental and differential backups for Hyper-V?

A1: Incremental backups only capture changes since the last backup (full or incremental), while differential backups capture all changes since the last full backup. Incremental backups typically use less storage.

Q2: Can incremental backups be scheduled automatically?

A2: Yes, both Windows Server Backup and third-party tools like AOMEI Backupper allow for scheduled incremental backups, automating the process for continuous protection.

Q3: How can I verify my Hyper-V incremental backup?

A3: You can verify your backup by testing the restore process or by checking the backup logs for errors. Most backup tools, including AOMEI Backupper, provide verification options.

Conclusion

Now you know how to back up Hyper-V on Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, and 2012 using Windows Server Backup. If you’re looking for a simpler solution to set up incremental backups for Hyper-V, the AOMEI Backupper Server is the ideal choice. It offers more backup options, flexible scheduling, and the ability to back up to multiple locations (like network drives). Plus, it features an easy-to-use interface.

AOMEI Backupper is not just a backup tool; it also includes disk cloning and file syncing features. This means you can use it to clone hard drives on Windows Server 2022 or 2016, sync files between Windows Servers, sync files in real-time, etc.