XenServer’s VM Protection and Recovery (VMPR) feature provides a simple backup and restore utility for your critical service VMs. Regular scheduled snapshots are taken automatically and can be used to restore individual VMs.

VMPR works by having pool-wide VM protection policies that define snapshot schedules for selected VMs in the pool. When a policy is enabled, snapshots are taken of the specified VMs at the scheduled time each hour, day or week. If configured, these snapshots can also be archived automatically to a remote CIFS or NFS share, providing an additional level of security.

Several VMPR policies may be enabled in a pool, covering different VMs and with different schedules. A VM can be assigned to only one policy at a time.

XenCenter provides a range of tools to help you use the VMPR feature:

• To define VMPR policies, use the New VM Protection Policy wizard.
• To enable, disable, edit and delete VMPR policies for a pool, you use the VM Protection Policies dialog box.
• To edit a policy, open its Properties dialog box from the VM Protection Policies dialog box.
• To recover a VM from a scheduled snapshot, you simply select the snapshot on the Snapshots tab and revert the VM to it.
• To recover a VM from an archived scheduled snapshot, you import the snapshot, creating a new custom VM template, and then create a new VM from the template.

Note: The VMPR feature is available in Citrix XenServer Advanced Edition or higher. To learn more about the features available in different XenServer Editions, click here.