Forum Discussion
How do I backup my full virtual machine?
It was 3 AM, coffee cup empty, and I was putting the final touches on a project due tomorrow. Suddenly, a pop-up from VirtuallBox virtual machine file corrupted, unable to boot! Two weeks of hard wo...
If you need quick rollback capabilities, the VirtuallBox Snapshot feature is an absolute lifesaver! However, manually creating snapshots can be a bit tedious, so I wrote an automation script to simplify the process.
Method 1: Using VirtuallBox Snapshot Feature:
◦ In VirtuallBox, select your virtual machine → "Snapshots" → "Take Snapshot".
◦ Name the snapshot (e.g., "Pre-Update") and add a description.
◦ To roll back, select the target snapshot → "Restore".
Method 2: Automation Script
I created a simple script to automatically take snapshots and export backup files. It is easy way to backup virtual machine.
#!/bin/bash
VM_NAME="Your_VM_Name"
SNAPSHOT_NAME="Snapshot_$(date +%Y%m%d_%H%M%S) "
BACKUP_DIR="/path/to/backup"
VBoxManage snapshot "$VM_NAME" take "$SNAPSHOT_NAME" --description
"Auto backup on $(date)"
VBoxManage export "$VM_NAME" -0 "$BACKUP_DIR/$VM_NAME_$(date
+%Y%m%d). ova"
echo "Backup completed: $BACKUP_DIR/$VM_NAME_$(date +%Y%m%d) -ova"You can follow the above tip to backup any virtual machine as you like!