VMware fusion 4 users with Time Machine

[jcannan14]

I have a question to any VMware Fusion 4 and the interaction with a virtual system and Time Machine in Lion OS. I use VMware Fusion 4 for the Microsoft office package, as I am more familiar with the PC version of Office. I currently have a 500GB hard drive on my 15” MPB with only 100GB used. I use a 1 TB Time Capsule for automatic back up through Time Machine. For some reason whenever I exit out of VMware Fusion 4 and my Time Machine backs up my computer it always backs up ~30GB of info. When I check my Time Machine file is states that I have 280GB of info backed up when my hard drive only has 100 GB of info stored on it. I think when VMware Fusion 4 changes (i.e. Windows 7 updates, new files created, etc) it created a new copy of the entire virtual system (only a guess).

Is anyone experiencing the same or similar issue? I would like to resolve this so my Time Capsule does not get filled. I couldn’t find any posts/topics regarding this issue but if anyone could direct to them it is much appreciated.

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this? (Stop Time Machine from creating new duplicate copies of my VM and only make copies of changes)

Thanks,
-Jake

 

[MacDawg]

Yes, I believe that is what happens
I exclude my Virtual Machine from Time Machine backups
But I do make a fresh clone every night of everything on my Mac

 

[jcannan14]

Thanks MacDawg,

When I exclude “VMFusion Ware” from my application menu, do I need to exclude the office package / applications that are used by the Virtual Machine too? Or will those not be backed up since they are utilized my by “VMFusion Ware” and that application is being excluded.

It would be helpful if you could attach a screen shot of all your exclusions for your virtual machine so I know exactly what I need to block.

Thanks,

Jake

 

[jcannan14]

Can anyone post a screen shot of what you have excluded in your time machine relating to your virtual machine so that it does not backup the entire VM after each time you use it? I've attached a screen shot of my exclusions however my time machine still backs up my entire VM after each time I use it.

Thanks,

Jake

 

[ayeying]

Can anyone post a screen shot of what you have excluded in your time machine relating to your virtual machine so that it does not backup the entire VM after each time you use it? I've attached a screen shot of my exclusions however my time machine still backs up my entire VM after each time I use it.

Thanks,

Jake

Exclude the "Virtual Machines" folder in your "Documents". Those are just application links (except the VMware Fusion.app)

 

[NogbadTheBad]

Exclude the "Virtual Machines" folder in your "Documents". Those are just application links (except the VMware Fusion.app)

+1

This is exactly what I do, I also manually make a copy of important VMs to the Timecapsule disk and also once a week I use rsync to make a 3rd copy of my /users directory to an external disk.

 

[wpotere]

Exclude it, but if you make significant changes to your VM, you may want to include it from time to time to make sure you have a backup.

 

[MacDawg]

Exclude it, but if you make significant changes to your VM, you may want to include it from time to time to make sure you have a backup.

I exclude it from my TM backup, but include it in my Carbon Copy Clone

 

[maflynn]

I exclude it from TM as well, but I also use Carbon Copy Cloner to create an offsite backup of my system. I also manually copy the VM to my NAS once a week.

 

[perezjuanf]

I have a question to any VMware Fusion 4 and the interaction with a virtual system and Time Machine in Lion OS. I use VMware Fusion 4 for the Microsoft office package, as I am more familiar with the PC version of Office. I currently have a 500GB hard drive on my 15” MPB with only 100GB used. I use a 1 TB Time Capsule for automatic back up through Time Machine. For some reason whenever I exit out of VMware Fusion 4 and my Time Machine backs up my computer it always backs up ~30GB of info. When I check my Time Machine file is states that I have 280GB of info backed up when my hard drive only has 100 GB of info stored on it. I think when VMware Fusion 4 changes (i.e. Windows 7 updates, new files created, etc) it created a new copy of the entire virtual system (only a guess).

Is anyone experiencing the same or similar issue? I would like to resolve this so my Time Capsule does not get filled. I couldn’t find any posts/topics regarding this issue but if anyone could direct to them it is much appreciated.

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this? (Stop Time Machine from creating new duplicate copies of my VM and only make copies of changes)

Thanks,
-Jake

I switch to Parallels 7 and have not had any problems with my time capsule

 

[Mr. Retrofire]

Is anyone experiencing the same or similar issue?

Yes, and i've no easy solutions.

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this?

You have two options:
1. Split your virtual harddisk files in 2 GB segments (at least Fusion v3.x.x can do this, in the VM/HDD preferences). This results in lower read/write performance, so do not use it if you work with large files inside the VM.
2. Use large virtual harddisk files and Fusion snapshots. Fusion v3.x.x and Fusion v4.x.x should support this feature.

I've used options 1. and 2. for a while, but i needed something else. Method 3 is, that i use shared folders inside the VM to store important data and that i tell TM to ignore my VMs folder (a folder which contains all my VMs, but no other important data). This works with Ubuntu, Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 SP1 VMs. Time machine saves only the data from the shared folders, which contain usually small files, and can be anywhere on my HDDs.