Virtual Box Usage Question

[Velvis]

I recently virtualized a Windows XP install to run a specific LOB application thats not Windows 10 friendly.

Everything is up and running, but is there anyway for the VM to automatically be saved to the host machine?

Like lets say the guy works on the LOB app and saves his data, but then forgets to save the VM or close it out, or he leaves it open but the battery goes dead the next day. How does one insure the actual VM state is saved?

 

[glennd]

I recently virtualized a Windows XP install to run a specific LOB application thats not Windows 10 friendly.

Everything is up and running, but is there anyway for the VM to automatically be saved to the host machine?

Like lets say the guy works on the LOB app and saves his data, but then forgets to save the VM or close it out, or he leaves it open but the battery goes dead the next day. How does one insure the actual VM state is saved?

Virtual Box doesn't revert unless you make snapshots and consciously revert to one. You just do an orderly shutdown and when you next start it up it will continue from that point and your data will be there as you would expect from any normal computer.

Snapshots are a good restore point mechanism if the vm gets in a state and you need to revert to an earlier point in time. Otherwise it just carries on from where you left off.

 

[NJW]

You need to treat the VM as a real machine, for the most part. Backups are still necessary, especially for LOB-critical stuff.

An orderly shutdown of the host is generally not a problem: the VM will either pause and save state or be shut down by an ACPI call from the host (OS dependent – I can't remember what happens and in which host OSs).

A power-off crash stop will be as dangerous to a VM as a real machine. A discharging battery will usually put the host into hibernation before switching off, which is good.

While I agree that easy snapshots is one of the great features of VMs, having a lot of snapshots can impact VM performance quite dramatically.

 

[Velvis]

So in order to make sure is LOB changes are saved he needs to save them in the LOB app as well as power off the VM? For example if he made a change to the LOB on Monday saved the changes in the LOB app and then left the VM running all week and and on Friday the power went out and the VM hard shut down the changes on Monday would be lost, correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[coffee]

So in order to make sure is LOB changes are saved he needs to save them in the LOB app as well as power off the VM? For example if he made a change to the LOB on Monday saved the changes in the LOB app and then left the VM running all week and and on Friday the power went out and the VM hard shut down the changes on Monday would be lost, correct?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Whatever changes he makes to the LOB will be treated just like if it was running on a normal computer. The only issue you will find is if the OS crashes from loss of power you will be dealing with getting windows back up and running. All his saved data is there. Unless of course he was saving stuff as it crashed or something like that.

If you suspect there is going to be issues with him leaving it running and the computer crashing when running out of power I would then certainly export the guest OS to an appliance and save it on another drive. This way if the guest OS is damaged beyond being able to start you can just blow away the guest OS and import it from the appliance you saved.

 

[Velvis]

Can you explain more what an appliance is? I am unfamiliar.

 

[Markverhyden]

Can you explain more what an appliance is? I am unfamiliar.

In this case appliance=external backup location. NAS, USB drive, etc.

As far as the LOB, etc is concerned. Find out from the vendor how it works. Most of these are databases so changes are saved instantaneously. See if they have an automated back feature. As far as the VM. If you are worried about the state just set it up to automatically shutdown.

http://www.thespinningdonut.com/how-to-automatically-shut-down-your-windows-xp-computer/

 

[coffee]

In this case appliance=external backup location. NAS, USB drive, etc.

As far as the LOB, etc is concerned. Find out from the vendor how it works. Most of these are databases so changes are saved instantaneously. See if they have an automated back feature. As far as the VM. If you are worried about the state just set it up to automatically shutdown.

http://www.thespinningdonut.com/how-to-automatically-shut-down-your-windows-xp-computer/

I always thought its the actual backup of the bootable VM. I think that the appliance is actually an ISO type file. You just import it back into VB.

 

[brandonkick]

He has, lets say, quickbooks on the win XP virtual machine.


1st step is to ensure that he has an automated backup of his quickbooks data from within that win XP virtual machine.

For the sake of argument, lets say he puts his QB data into a dropbox folder on the virtual machine.... now any time that
file is changed, it gets synced to drop box. This is NOT a good way to do it, but you get the point. Implement a proper,
automated, backup solution on the Win XP virtual machine.

THEN create a snapshot, and a clone of the virtual machine. If you have a clone of the virtual machine, and it is stored on
a completely different computer (NOT the one this win XP virtual machine is on) then you can restore this clone to any
computer running the virutal machine software.


Computer A and Computer B are both in the same office.

Computer A is running Windows 10 and has the Windows XP virtual machine on it used for running QuickBooks

Computer B is running Windows 10 and does not currently have any virtual machine software on it.

Client takes a snapshot and clone of the virtual machine on Computer A and manually transfers them
over to Computer B.

Computer A is stolen, burned in a fire, blown away by a tornado, or struck by lightning....

Client can install the virtual machine software in Computer B, and then import the clone into the virtual machine
software on Computer B.

Client then replaces computer A, and transfers a copy of the snapshot / clone from Computer B back to Computer A,
so that if Computer B becomes stolen, burned in a fire, blown away, or struck by lightning, they can recover everything
back on to Computer A now.

You always want to have a restoreable copy of the data, and the virtual machine that can be imported onto a new system
at any time.


As long as he is saving his QB data, it doesn't matter if he properly shuts down his virtual machine or not. Especially if he has
a good backup system in place. Having said that, it's probably best that he DOES shut down the machine like normal. Just
make sure your rear end is covered in case things go wrong.

 

[Velvis]

He has, lets say, quickbooks on the win XP virtual machine.


1st step is to ensure that he has an automated backup of his quickbooks data from within that win XP virtual machine.

For the sake of argument, lets say he puts his QB data into a dropbox folder on the virtual machine.... now any time that
file is changed, it gets synced to drop box. This is NOT a good way to do it, but you get the point. Implement a proper,
automated, backup solution on the Win XP virtual machine.

THEN create a snapshot, and a clone of the virtual machine. If you have a clone of the virtual machine, and it is stored on
a completely different computer (NOT the one this win XP virtual machine is on) then you can restore this clone to any
computer running the virutal machine software.


Computer A and Computer B are both in the same office.

Computer A is running Windows 10 and has the Windows XP virtual machine on it used for running QuickBooks

Computer B is running Windows 10 and does not currently have any virtual machine software on it.

Client takes a snapshot and clone of the virtual machine on Computer A and manually transfers them
over to Computer B.

Computer A is stolen, burned in a fire, blown away by a tornado, or struck by lightning....

Client can install the virtual machine software in Computer B, and then import the clone into the virtual machine
software on Computer B.

Client then replaces computer A, and transfers a copy of the snapshot / clone from Computer B back to Computer A,
so that if Computer B becomes stolen, burned in a fire, blown away, or struck by lightning, they can recover everything
back on to Computer A now.

You always want to have a restoreable copy of the data, and the virtual machine that can be imported onto a new system
at any time.


As long as he is saving his QB data, it doesn't matter if he properly shuts down his virtual machine or not. Especially if he has
a good backup system in place. Having said that, it's probably best that he DOES shut down the machine like normal. Just
make sure your rear end is covered in case things go wrong.

Dropbox sounds like a good idea. That way there is a current copy of the database outside of the VM and the actual hardware. Thank you!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Markverhyden]

I always thought its the actual backup of the bootable VM. I think that the appliance is actually an ISO type file. You just import it back into VB.

I actually re-read your post and saw you had export. My procedure is to just make a copy of the VM. Do that all the time on my Macbook with fusion VM's as well as my ESXi boxes. Not sure why an export would be needed unless someone needs a different format.

 

[Velvis]

Dropbox sounds like a good idea. That way there is a current copy of the database outside of the VM and the actual hardware. Thank you!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Actually Dropbox doesn't support XP and neither does box. Any other suggestions?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

 

[Markverhyden]

Most have deprecated XP. Synology supports XP. Maybe look at Datto Drive. It's based on FreeNAS which also supports XP

 

[NviGate Systems]

Or you can simply write a script that will copy the exported file to the host's dropbox folder with the date appended to it, then the host will sync the file. That's probably the simplest option without going too crazy.

Also most VM's support shared folders, so you could share the dropbox folder from the host as a shared folder in the guest. Exported file goes to dropbox folder, host's dropbox app syncs it. Done.

 

[PCS]

I dont use Virtual box but VMware, could you save the data to a shared folder on the host and then backup that data to Dropbox if Dropbox dosn't support XP