Free Hyper-V Backup Software to Protect Your VMs Continuously

How to offer reliable backup and restore for Hyper-V virtual machines? Besides the built-in features, this article will introduce a no license, no expiration date, no limits of host – Free Hyper-V backup software, which protects your Hyper-V VM data professionally.

Crystal

By Crystal / Updated on March 8, 2023

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Free VM Backup for Microsoft Hyper-V

Hyper-V VM backup is necessary since data protection is essential to business development. In practice, however, Hyper-V backups require high cost and complicated operation, which is not very friendly for SMBs or beginners. Many users may wonder, is there any free and easy backup solution for virtual machines?

There are actually some built-in features you can use as free Hyper-V backup solution.

Copying VM folder: Manually copy VM folder and attach VHD files to recreate a VM when needed.
Export and import feature: You can create an identical VM using export and import feature.
◆ Agent-based VM backup:  Perform file-based backup using the backup utility comes with Windows Guest OS, like Windows Server Backup or Backup and Restore.

These options are all free to use and can suit some of your Hyper-V data protection needs. But as you may notice. They all need to be done manually on a VM-by-VM basis, and are therefore not suitable for centralized management and batch operation situations.

If you want a more convenient and reliable backup solution for a long-term VM data protection, you may consider picking an agentless and free Hyper-V backup software, which offers centralized backups for multiple Hyper-V VMs.

Tips: Hyper-V checkpoints cannot replace backup, because they depend on the parent disks and will affect VM performance in the long-run. Making independent VM backup is more ideal for data protection.

Free Hyper-V Backup

Free Hyper-V VM Backup Software – AOMEI Cyber Backup

AOMEI Cyber Backup Free Edition is a reliable, powerful and easy-to-use tool for backing up Hyper-V VMs. This free Hyper-V backup tool is designed to protect virtual machines from security threats. AOMEI Cyber Backup supports Hyper-V in Microsoft Windows Server 2022 / 2019 / 2016 / 2012 R2, Microsoft Windows 11 / 10 / 8 / 8.1 and Hyper-V Server 2019 / 2016 / 2012 R2.

You can use the Free Edition to simplify Hyper-V backup and management with its intuitive web-based wizards, without time limit. With this free Hyper-V VM backup software, you can enjoy the following features:

 Easy-to-use: provides you with user-friendly interface to complete backup and restore process based on several clicks.
Perpetual Free: no time limit for AOMEI Cyber Backup Free Edition to protect up to multiple virtual machines.
Auto Backup Scheduling: schedule multiple VM backups at once and run the backup task automatically without having to stop VMs.
Centralized VM Backup: Create and manage Hyper-V VM backups from the central console without installing Agent on each VM.
Flexible Backup Strategy: offer various backup methods to flexibly track data and store VM backups to different locations.
Role Assignment: allows one administrator to create sub-accounts with limited privileges.
Email Notification: send email notification when the task is completed or abnormal.

Please hit the button below to download and use AOMEI Cyber Backup for free:

Download FreewareVMware ESXi & Hyper-V
Secure Download

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

Next, I will show the detailed virtual machine backup procedure using free Hyper-V backup software - AOMEI Cyber Backup.

3 easy steps to perform free VM backup

1. Add Device: Open AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, and access to Source Device >> Hyper-V >> Add Hyper-V to bind your Hyper-V host, then enter the required information and click Confirm.

Add Hyper-V Host

2. Create Backup Task: Access to Backup Task >> Create New Task to configure your Hyper-V backup task. In the opened wizard, perform the following steps.

Device: select virtual machines you want to back up on the Hyper-V host.

Target: select a local folder or network location (such as backup to NAS) to store the VM backups.

Backup Target

Schedule: select backup method as full / incremental backup, then specify the time according to daily / weekly / monthly to automatically run the Hyper-V backup task.

Schedule Hyper-V VM Backup

Start Backup: click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

When completing the Hyper-V backup solution, you can monitor the backing up process on the main interface, and you can also check the Backup Log to see if there are any errors that result in your backup failure.

3. Restore: In addition to reliable Hyper-V VM backup, you can restore VM from any selected backup history. It’s convenient to recover a VM by hitting Restore to original location when the Hyper-V VM fails.

Restore Hyper-V VM

✍ While the Free Edition covers most of the VM backup needs, you can also upgrade to Premium Edition to enjoy:
Batch VM backup & restore: batch backup and restore large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server or on standalone ESXi hosts.
Backup Cleanup: Specify retention policy to delete unwanted VM backups automatically, thus saving storage space and cost.
Restore to new location: Easily make a clone of a virtual machine in the same or another datastore/host, without reinstalling or configuring a new VM.

Summary

Free Hyper-V VM backup software is more efficient to protect virtual machine data comprehensively. Due to ransomware, natural disaster, human error, power-outage, etc., it’s crucial to back up VM to avoid data loss and serious financial damage.

AOMEI Cyber Backup offers a reliable and free platform for Hyper-V and VMware backup and supports administrator to get quick assistance. It doesn’t require a license and has no expiration date.

Crystal
Crystal · Editor
Crystal is an editor from AOMEI Technology. She mainly writes articles about virtual machine. She is a positive young lady likes to share articles with peolpe. Off work she loves travelling and cooking which is wonderful for life.