I found to day that you can take a snapshot of your running server and then export that to an XVA file. This can then be used as a fully restorable VM back up of your server.

The process is not difficult nor is it hidden away only to be found in a script. It is part of the Snapshot tab in the XEN Center. Just right click on the completed Snapshot and choose export. Just like doing an export of a shut down VM.

I also found some info on how you can setup a scheduled scripted backup system that takes advantage of the general ability to Export a Snapshot for backup. The best script I found on this is on SysAdminNotebook.blogspot.com.

I know this is a departure from my normal DNN stuff and honestly my day job really has only small touch points with DNN so most of what I have to share these days is related to my day job, enjoy.

I recently moved into the world of virtualization in my production environments. Ya… I know this should be old hat given the time that VM tech has been around and in the main stream. In the past I was just not willing to deal with the additional new head aches that come with Production Level Virtualization.

Recently I found time to work with server Virtualization and I chose XEN Server from Cirtrix. I'm not a Linux Guru so I went with the most polished version of XEN I could find. I did not go with VMware mostly because I have had some bad experiences with an installation of ESXi installed in our development area.  I will leave it at that.

I was able to get XEN up and running very quickly on reasonable hardware. what I had on hand was all supported and things just fell into place.

The timing...