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Use USB Drive for Backup Copy of Hyper-V VM?

  • May 2, 2025
  • 6 comments
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I have moved VBR 12.3 to a Hyper-V VM as recommended. I would like to continue to use a set of USB drives for the backup copies. Is this possible?

Best answer by MicoolPaul

Hi,

 

Thats fine, but there’s some considerations. You should utilise a physical backup repository to achieve this. USB pass through via a hypervisor to a VM is often possible, but you’d want to ensure the device is properly passed through so the VM can detect all the physical drive characteristics and detect if the drive is rotated (sounds like you want to use rotated drives for your backup repository)

    6 comments

    MicoolPaul
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    • MicoolPaul
    • 2425 comments
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    • May 2, 2025

    Hi,

     

    Thats fine, but there’s some considerations. You should utilise a physical backup repository to achieve this. USB pass through via a hypervisor to a VM is often possible, but you’d want to ensure the device is properly passed through so the VM can detect all the physical drive characteristics and detect if the drive is rotated (sounds like you want to use rotated drives for your backup repository)

    Michael Paul - Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Veeam | https://micoolpaul.com | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.com
    Tommy O'Shea
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    • Tommy O'Shea
    • Veeam Legend
    • 359 comments
    • May 2, 2025

    The easiest way to do this would be to connect the USB drive to the Hyper-V server, then add the Hyper-V server as a backup repository using the USB drive.

    If you're rotating the USB drive with others, don't forget to mark it as such in the repository settings.

    https://helpcenter.veeam.com/docs/backup/vsphere/backup_repository_rotated.html?ver=120 

    Tommy O’Shea, VMCE, VMCE-SP, VMCA
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    • BillyG43
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    • 27 comments
    • May 2, 2025

    Thanks, MicoolPaul. When VBR was running on the Hyper-V host, backups went to a Synology NAS with a Backup Copy going to a rotated set of USB drives. Now with VBR on a VM, backups are also going to the Synology NAS but, of course I can’t yet use rotated USB drives until I work out how to get the VM to see them.

    Cheers

    MicoolPaul
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    • MicoolPaul
    • 2425 comments
    • May 2, 2025

    Hi ​@BillyG43 ive played with this before. In VMware world passed through the USB controller itself to a VM so it could see clearly the devices and see SMART health etc. I know you can pass through USB devices in hyper-v, I’ve not tried this myself however. My main concern with passing devices specifically is they’d be referenced in the VM config file so it could fail or otherwise act unexpectedly when you rotate drives. If you can pass through a USB controller to the VM, it’ll treat the drives as if they were plugged into it directly.

     

    If not, you could use another physical PC/server and deploy the Veeam components to it for this task. (Preferably server as I believe this would be against the Windows EULA for a windows 10/11 license to be offer server services)

    Michael Paul - Opinions are my own and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Veeam | https://micoolpaul.com | Mastodon: @micoolpaul@masto.nu | Bluesky: @micoolpaul.com
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    • BillyG43
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    • May 2, 2025

    Hi MicoolPaul. I see what you mean: USB drive rotation will likely be problematic. I should investigate online services for this function or using another server as you have suggested. Would be nice to have an offsite copy of course.

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    • BillyG43
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    • May 6, 2025

    Thanks to all for your help!


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