Using Storware to backup Hyper-V using NAS

Background
This article was written on 04-Feb-25
For unknown reason/condition at the time of this writing, it is very challenging to find a free backup software for MS Hyper-V.
What? You must think I am short minded.
But what I found is most of these free backup software requires MS Windows license.
If you are short on budget and/or your enviroment is miniscule, purchasing an OS license would be overkill.
So I have to find a backup software which can run on open source operating system.
Two options arise to that challenge: 1. Nakivo; 2. Storware
Nakivo is excellent, but I had to find it the hard way that they only provide trial license. So that kills it.
Storware earlier provided only x2 objects backup license, but now they have community edition (https://storware.eu/licenses/free/)
- Backup up to 5 virtual machines and max. 10 Microsoft 365 users
- OS agent — file-level backup for Windows and Linux limited to 1 TB
- no support option available — please use the Community Forum
- no enterprise backup integration module (IBM, Dell EMC, Veritas, MicroFocus)
- no Endpoints backup module available

Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Community edition is available and
- It does work for Hyper-V and MS365 backup.
Cons:
- Community forum is slow, but hopefully with time, more people would build their skills.
- Challenging to setup as it need you to setup CentOS, iSCSI.
- There is no compression or deduplication, so it requires lots of storage space.
- Utilizes staging space; something which I have not heard for many years.
- Unable to use NAS shared folder, but instead need to setup iSCSI.
- Hyper-V backup requires agent; again this is unusual nowadays.
- On my initial setup, storware is unable to retrieve my virtual machine list * see below

Precautions
I would suggest to set up a separate empty folder or virtual disk or iSCSI as the process involves formatting.

Prerequisites
Physical server running Windows, either core or hyper-v edition.
Virtual Machines running on top of MS Hyper-V.
CentOS 9 Stream installed (I use server with GUI)
and updated (this is important as Storware might not work if you miss certain updates).
NAS device (I use QNAP).
iSCSI host already setup (https://www.qnap.com/en/how-to/tutorial/article/how-to-create-and-use-the-iscsi-target-service-on-a-qnap-nas)
and iSCSI target mounted (https://www.server-world.info/en/note?os=CentOS_Stream_9&p=iscsi&f=2)
Storware community edition license file (you can obtain by registering).
Storware agent (https://repo.storware.eu/storware/addons/hyperv/ HyperV-Agent-Installer.zip)

Setting Up
I tried using the virtual app, but somehow it does not work for me.
Even converting .vmdk to .vhdx does not work.
So I end up setting up CentOS 9 Stream (as per reference) and running the all in one script.
I followed their guide (https://storware.gitbook.io).
What I did is download https://repo.storware.eu/storware/sbr-local-install.sh
Lucky that I have GUI, so I can right click on that script and set it as executable.

Set script as executable

If you are lucky enough, the script will setup server and node.
But do not rush to open the web interface yet. You need to setup your iSCSI as staging space by following the guide (https://storware.gitbook.io/backup-and-recovery/deployment/common-tasks/staging-space-configuration).

• Tips: if you need to edit fstab, run text editor using “sudo gedit”

I assume that setting up agent on hyper-v host should be smooth, so I am not discussing it here.

Once Staging space setup and agent installation completed, you can open your browser and go to storware web app (https://[ip/dns]).

Storware web interface

Login using your “Admin” user credential and you will be presented with Configuration Wizard.

First you need to upload your license file.

Upload license file

Select your timezone and language

Select Microsoft Hyper-V as source

Specify your hyper-v host address

Yes, you need to specify hyper-v host address in https because it will use the agent that you installed earlier.
And since we are not using CA certificate, then we need to specify to trust the certificate.

Scroll down to see inventory synchronization in process

If inventory synchronization failed, then check whether “trust certificate” option is already active. Otherwise, you may need to reinstall the agent.

*Precaution: on my initial setup, Storware is unable to retrieve my virtual machine. I end up recreating the VM configuration. Restarting Hyper-V host did not help.

*Precaution2: if you are using hyper-v replication, then Storware will show only one VM. So if you want to show your source VM, then you can delete the replica VM.

Select “File System (Synthetic)” as backup destination

I assume that you already finished setting up staging space and mounting iSCSI.

Specify backup destination path

*Important: as backup are copied from source to staging space (/vprotect_data), then to speed up backup process, you need to specify backup destination path as sub folder of /vprotect.
Otherwise, backup files need to be copied again across network to a different device.

Select “backup” as virtualization provider policy

give name for the policy

Select virtual machine to be backed up

As this will be my daily and weekly backup, then I set 14 days retention

*Note: I still have not understood the backup version retention limit. Perhaps we should just disable it for now.
I can only assume that if I want to keep 2 copies of my daily backup (week 1 and week 2) then I should set limit number of versions = 2?

I just want to point out that you can specify your offsite backup as “secondary backup destination”

By default, two schedules are created

*Note: as we are using synthetic file system as our backup destination, then your policy rule schedule for incremental backup must be accompanied with schedule for full backup.

Review your setting and press finish

Operation
Check your configuration for hyper-V backup from left panel.

Virtual Environment Configuration

Adding other VM to backup policy
To add another virtual machine to your backup policy, select the VM and press assign policy

add other vm to backup policy

Create backup schedule
To create backup schedule, select backup policy, schedule and press create.

Create new backup schedule

Monthly on last day of the month, except December

*Tips: leave “Rules” alone, we will create after this

As we want to have different retention period for monthly (and maybe yearly), then we need to create separate rule.

Edit existing hyper-v backup policy

Scroll on left pane to see Rules and press the + button to create new backup rule

Specify longer retention for your monthly backup

Select your monthly backup schedule

Monitoring Backup
You can monitor backup in Dasboard or “Workflow Execution Console” lower screen.

Dashboard

Workflow execution console

Backup Restoration
Maybe I will update in the future if necessary.

Management
Storware all in one installation means both the node and server are installed on the same server.
They can be managed using below command:

sudo systemctl [start/stop/restart] vprotect-node.service
sudo systemctl [start/stop/restart] vprotect-server.service

I can only assume that node should be started before the server.

That’s it for now, let me know if I need to clarify things!