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Versions of Virtualbox supported by ShadowProtect

Director of Engineering
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Oracle VirtualBox

 

VirtualBox is an open source VM environment and is available for both Linux and Windows. 

ShadowProtect SPX supports various versions of Oracle VirtualBox. However, these versions are not supported on Windows due to issues with loading plugins:
4.0.0, 4.3.14, 4.2.26, 4.2.28, 4.2.30, 4.2.32

It is recommended users directly download specific versions of VirtualBox supported by StorageCraft. The table below lists the current supported versions of VirtualBox that are compatible with SPX. Download the specific VirtualBox package (e.g. rpm) for that supported version using the normal download URL (e.g. download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox).

  Warning: Staggered releases of ImageManager and ShadowProtect SPX may not always support the same versions of VirtualBox. For systems using VirtualBox for both ShadowProtect SPX and ImageManager, ensure the installed VirtualBox version is compatible with both products. See the ImageManager user guide for comapatible versions. 

 VIRTUALBOOT PLUGIN FILES

Version numbers here correspond to
the various versions of VirtualBox's disk
*plugin interface*

 SUPPORTED VIRTUALBOX VERSIONS
ForVBox4.0.0 4.0.2, 4.0.4, 4.0.6, 4.0.8, 4.0.10, 4.0.12, 4.0.14, 4.0.16, 4.0.18, 4.0.20, 4.0.22, 4.0.24 4.0.24, 4.0.26 (Linux only), 4.0.28 (Linux only), 4.0.30 (Linux only), 4.0.32 (Linux only) (VirtualBox 4.0.0 not supported)
ForVBox4.1.0 4.1.0
ForVBox4.1.2 4.1.2, 4.1.4, 4.1.6, 4.1.8, 4.1.10, 4.1.12, 4.1.14, 4.1.16, 4.1.18, 4.1.20, 4.1.22, 4.1.24, 4.1.26, 4.1.28, 4.1.30, 4.1.32, 4.1.34 (Linux only), 4.1.36 (Linux only), 4.1.38 (Linux only), 4.1.40 (Linux only)
ForVBox4.2.0 4.2.0, 4.2.2, 4.2.4, 4.2.6, 4.2.8, 4.2.10, 4.2.12, 4.2.14, 4.2.16, 4.2.18, 4.2.20, 4.2.22, 4.2.24, 4.2.26 (Linux only), 4.2.28 (Linux only), 4.2.30 (Linux only), 4.2.32 (Linux only)
ForVBox4.3.0 4.3.0, 4.3.2, 4.3.4, 4.3.6, 4.3.8, 4.3.10, 4.3.12
ForVBox4.3.14 4.3.14 (Linux only), 4.3.16, 4,3,18, 4.3.20, 4.3.22, 4.3.24, 4.3.26, 4.3.28, 4.3.30, 4.3.36, 4.3.38
ForVBox5.0.0 5.0.0, 5.0.2, 5.0.4, 5.0.6, 5.0.8, 5.0.10, 5.0.12, 5.0.14, 5.0.16, 5.0.18, 5.0.20, 5.0.22, 5.0.24, and 5.0.26

 

 

 Visit www.virtualbox.orgFor  more information about VirtualBox and to download the software. 

  Note: Do not install VirtualBox on a Windows system already configured with Hyper-V. This can result in a failure of the VirtualBoot functions.

 

General Storage and Memory Requirements

Storage and memory requirements for VirtualBoot vary significantly depending on the number and size of mounted volumes. As mentioned, VirtualBoot is intended to be used for testing backup chain integrity, content recovery or as a temporary replacement for a downed system. (Should a user require a longer term solution, consider a permanent migration to a VM.) When using VirtualBoot in its role as a testing or content recovery, it requires minimal space for mounting volumes. A rule of thumb for determining a practical size for how much free space will be needed is to add up the currently used space of each anticipated VM's volume(s) and divide this in half. For example, if the user mounts 5 active VMs with a total of 200GB of existing data across multiple volumes, then allocate 100GB of free space on the hypervisor's data volume.

At the other extreme, if a mounted VM has writes to most or all of its sectors, the host's data drive would require free space equal to the size of the original volume.

Caution: Both VirtualBox and Hyper-V use default paths to the OS volume for their VM file caching. StorageCraft recommends defining a different path to an accessible drive other than the OS volume. This avoids creating a bottleneck with data transfers on the OS volume.

 

VirtualBox Requirements

These guidelines apply equally to VirtualBox on Windows or on Linux. For more details, refer to the VirtualBox End-User Documentation. Note that SPX supports various versions of VirtualBox. Please refer to the SPX ReadMe file for details on the latest supported versions.

 

VirtualBox Hardware Requirements

These guidelines for Windows and Linux come from the VirtualBox End-User Documentation.

Hardware Description
Processor Oracle recommends using a recent (within the last five years) "reasonably powerful" x86 processor (either Intel or AMD), including AMD/Intel x64 processors. VirtualBoot does not support Itanium (IA64).
Memory At least 1GB
Hard DriveSpace At least 10 GB. This is dependent upon the guest operating system loaded in the VM.
Host OS VirtualBoot supports the same host operating systems as VirtualBox.
Guest OS VirtualBoot on either a Linux or Windows host supports booting image files created from a Windows system volume for these OSes:

 

  • Windows 2000                             • Windows 2008 R2 (32- and 64-bit)  
  • Windows XP (32- and 64-bit)       • Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit)
  • Windows 2003 (32- and 64-bit)    • Windows 8 (32- and 64-bit)
  • Windows Vista (32- and 64-bit)    • Windows Server 2012 and R2
  • Windows 2008 (32- and 64-bit)

VirtualBoot on a Linux host also supports booting image files of Linux boot volumes.

  Warning: VirtualBoot does NOT support booting a Linux-based image file on a Windows host.
Note: When using VirtualBoot to boot an image of an x64 operating system, make sure that your host hardware supports AMD-V or VT-x, and that AMD-V, or VT-x, is enabled in the host machine's hardware BIOS settings.

 

Linux Requirements

VirtualBox has two known issues when running on Linux--one with the VirtualBox repo, the other with SELinux.

Warning:

It is possible to configure the VirtualBox Repo on a Linux machine. (A repo provides an easier way to download updates to VirtualBox.) However, this option tends to download the most recent version of VirtualBox for that particular branch defined in the Repo (e.g. 4.2.x or 4.3.x). This presents two potentially serious problems:

  • Some versions of VirtualBox are not supported in SPX. These are rare but they do occur when there are changes in the API used by SPX. Configuring a VirtualBox Repo may result in an install of a new, untested version and VirtualBoot functions would fail.
  • Some versions of VirtualBox may also update the system kernel. This may result in a kernel version that is not supported by SPX. StorageCraft regularly releases updated kernel drivers as new kernels become available, so this issue should be rare. However, it is still possible and would cause SPX functions to perform erratically or not at all.

For these reasons, StorageCraft recommends:

  1. To not create a VirtualBox repo.
  2. Confirming the new VirtualBox version appears on the SPX readme supported list.
  3. Downloading this version directly from Oracle.

SELinux Conflict

A system with SELinux may prevent VirtualBox from mounting certain backup image files. To check the SELinux status, run the command as ROOT:

sestatus

If enabled, check to see if SELinux is set to Permissive mode. If so, then VirtualBoot should perform as described. If SELinux is set to Enforcing mode, change this setting using the command

setenforce 0

To reset Enforcing mode after completing the desired VirtualBoot operations, use the command:

setenforce 1

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