Backup

How to Restore a Broken KVM VM from Backup

July 18, 2025

DevOps, Tutorials

Kvm, Backup, Virtualization, Linux, Libvirt

How to Restore a Broken KVM VM from Backup #

Sometimes things go wrong with virtual machines — maybe a filesystem corruption or a bad update. When that happens, restoring from a backup is your best friend.

Here’s how I restored my broken KVM VM disk image using weekly backups stored on a NAS share.

The situation #

I have a VM called runner.home.arpa running on KVM, and its disk got corrupted. The VM disk images live at /var/lib/libvirt/images/, and my backups are stored on a NAS mounted at /mnt/backups/runner.home.arpa/.

Automating KVM Backups with Ansible

July 12, 2025

Homelab, Automation, Backup

Ansible, Kvm, Backup, Homelab, Virtualization, Nas, Automation

Automating KVM Homelab Backups with Ansible #

When you’re running a dozen virtual machines in your homelab, manual backups quickly become a nightmare.

In this post, I’ll walk you through my Ansible-based backup strategy for my KVM homelab. It automatically backs up all VMs by shutting them down gracefully, copying their disk images and configurations to a NAS, and bringing them back online.

Backup Strategy #

My backup strategy uses Ansible to orchestrate the entire process: