Citrix XenServer / XCP-ng

NGBackup protects virtual machines running on Citrix Hypervisor / XenServer 6.x–8.x and XCP-ng using in-guest agents: Windows VMs are backed up agent-based with application-consistent, VSS-quiesced snapshots, while Linux VMs can be protected either agent-based or snapshot-based. Full-VM recovery to the original or an alternate host is delivered through Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) for both Windows and Linux guests, and a single backup task also serves granular restores — files, Exchange items, SQL Server, SharePoint, Oracle and MySQL databases — without restoring the entire VM.

Capabilities

Windows guests — agent-based, application-consistent backups via the Microsoft VSS framework
Linux guests — agent-based or snapshot-based backup, full and incremental
Bare Metal Recovery (BMR) — restore the whole VM to the original host or to an alternate XenServer/XCP-ng host, Windows and Linux
Granular restore from one backup task — no separate item-level job and no full-VM restore required:
- Files and directories from Windows and Linux guests
- Microsoft Exchange databases and individual items (messages, attachments, appointments, tasks, contacts, public folders)
- Microsoft SQL Server databases
- Microsoft SharePoint files, databases and items
- Oracle and MySQL databases
Web Console driven — every backup and restore operation is configured and executed from the graphical Web Console; no scripting required

Configure

Add the plugin to a FileSet on the guest you want to protect:

FileSet {
  Name = "xenserver-vms"
  Include {
    Options { Signature = SHA256 }
    Plugin = "xenserver: host=xcp01.example.com user=root password=secret vm=* quiesce=vss"
  }
}

Job {
  Name = "backup-xenserver-vms"
  Type = Backup
  Client = xcp01-fd
  FileSet = "xenserver-vms"
  Schedule = "nightly"
  Storage = dedup-store
}

All parameters are space-separated key=value pairs. For Linux guests set quiesce=snapshot for snapshot-based capture. See the Content reference for FileSet options.

Restore

From the Web Console’s Restore Studio, pick the client and a backup, then choose full-VM BMR (original or alternate host) or drill into the guest for granular restore of files, Exchange items, SQL Server, SharePoint, Oracle or MySQL databases — all from the same recovery point.

Supported versions

Component	Versions
Citrix Hypervisor / XenServer	6.x, 7.x, 8.x
XCP-ng	7.x, 8.x
Windows guests	Windows Server 2012 R2 and later, Windows 10/11 (VSS application-consistent)
Linux guests	Major distributions (RHEL, Ubuntu, Debian, SLES and derivatives), agent or snapshot-based
Granular restore	Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, Oracle, MySQL, files/directories