Creates a checkpoint for a virtual machine deployed on a host managed by VMM.
Description
The New-SCVMCheckpoint cmdlet creates a checkpoint for a virtual machine deployed on a host managed by System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM). You can use a checkpoint to restore a virtual machine to a previous state.
A typical use is to create a checkpoint before you install an update to the operating system or to an application on the virtual machine so that, if the update fails or adversely affects the virtual machine, you can use the Restore-VMCheckpoint cmdlet to revert the virtual machine to its previous state.
For virtual machines deployed on a Hyper-V host, VMware ESX host, or Citrix XenServer host, VMM creates the checkpoint without stopping the virtual machine, so no interruption in service occurs.
It is important to back up data files on a virtual machine before you restore the virtual machine to a checkpoint. When you restore the virtual machine, user data files on its virtual hard disks are returned to their previous state.
Although checkpoints let you restore a virtual machine to a previous state after a change such as a system or application update, checkpoints do not provide a permanent backup of the operating system, applications, or files. Checkpoints are stored with the virtual machine on the host. Therefore, if the host fails, checkpoints for virtual machines deployed on that host are lost.
To provide data protection for your virtual machines, you can use the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). You can use a backup application such as Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) to back up virtual machines on any type of host to external storage.
You can grant self-service users permission to create and manage checkpoints for their virtual machines. For more information, type: "Get-Help Set-VMMUserRole -detailed".
For more information about New-SCVMCheckpoint, type: "Get-Help New-SCVMCheckpoint -online".
Parameters
VM
Required?
true
Accept Pipeline Input?
true (ByValue)
Position?
0
Specifies a virtual machine object.
Confirm
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Prompts for confirmation before running the command.
Description
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
States a description for the specified object.
JobVariable
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Specifies that job progress is tracked and stored in the variable named by this parameter.
Name
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Specifies the name of a VMM object.
PROTipID
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Specifies the ID of the PRO tip that triggered this action. This allows for auditing of PRO tips.
RunAsynchronously
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Indicates that the job runs asynchronously so that control returns to the command shell immediately.
VMMServer
Required?
false
Accept Pipeline Input?
false
Position?
named
Specifies a VMM server object.
Examples
1: Create a virtual machine checkpoint
for virtual machines that have the same name but reside on
different hosts.
The first command gets the virtual machine objects named VM01 (this example assumes that more than one host contains a virtual machine named VM01), creates a checkpoint for each virtual machine object, and then stores the checkpoint objects in the $Checkpoints object array.
The second command displays information about each checkpoint object stored in $Checkpoints to the user.
2: Create a virtual machine checkpoint
for a virtual machine asynchronously.
This example creates checkpoints in the same manner as Example 1 except that this command uses the RunAsynchronously parameter to return control to the command shell immediately, and uses the JobVariable parameter to track job progress and store a record of the progress in the NewCheckpointJob variable. When you use the JobVariable parameter, you do not use the dollar sign ($) to create the variable.
The second command displays the contents of $NewCheckpointJob.