Time Machine Backups of pvm file

Parallels Desktop for Mac Version 8 Build 8.0.18608

I need to temporarily backup up my virtual machine file (Windows 7.pmv) on Time Machine and I have had no success at doing that. Here is what I have tried.

#1 Remove the file name from Time Machine Preferences
#2 Drill down in Parallels through Virtual Machine; Configure; Backup and remove the check mark from the Do Not Backup on Time Machine check box.
#3 Undo #1 and Repeat #2

The problem I run into with #2, is the check mark removal is not saved or retained by Parallels.

How do I get a TM backup? And also how to stop them after my temporary need ends.

(I have tried to post an image of the screen shot, but don't think it is here. If an image would be useful, please reply and I will do something with DropBox. Must leave now for a short while.)

Gordon
Atlanta, GA
USA

 

If you need a TEMPORARY backup, it is probably best to do this without time machine. Is there a reason why it NEEDS to be with TM?

I recommend just making a copy of the VM to your TM disk. I make folder in the root of MY time machine drive called "backups not in TM" Before performing these steps, i recommend that you shut down the virtual machine, so that it is is not in a suspended or paused state. This step is not really necessary, but I am sure most would agree that it is a good idea.

1. go to your finder, go to the GO menu, enter ~/documents/parallels/
2. right click on your VM that you want to backup, select Copy "your VM name is here"
3. navigate to your TM disk, or any other disk that is big enough, and can suit your purpose
4. press CMD-V (or if you are cool enough and still have an APPLE key, then APPLE-V

This should copy your VM Machine into that location. You can put it at the root level if you would like, but I recommend putting it into a folder.

If you have a real NEED for it to actually be a TM backup, let us know the reason, and I'm sure we can figure something out. Also, if you do it this way, there is no need to start or stop any additional settings that will make continuous TM backups.

If you REALLY need it to be a TM backup, make sure that you have the option "Do not backup in Time Machine" unticked in you your Virtual Machine options. (Virtual Machine menu: CONFIGURE: Backups.) You need to have VM shutdown to make this change.

 

If you REALLY need it to be a TM backup, make sure that you have the option "Do not backup in Time Machine" unticked in you your Virtual Machine options. (Virtual Machine menu: CONFIGURE: Backups.) You need to have VM shutdown to make this change.[/QUOTE]

OK all that is clear, expect one little item, I apparently do not know how to shutdown the VM. I certainly don't have Windows running. But as far as I know there is no way to get to the Backups section without Parallels running.

Worded another way, I boot my Mac, I start Parallels, I DO NOT click to Start Windows, I click Virtual Machine in the Menu bar and drill down -- Parallels does not save/remember my removing the checkmark.

 

You don't know how to shutdown the Virtual Machine?!? It's really simple in windows 7, select START menu, then SHUTDOWN....alternately, you can choose Virtual Machine window, and choose SHUTDOWN...

If all all fails you can choose VIRTUAL MACHINES> STOP.....this is akin to the one-finger salute....(long pressing the power key on a winclone machine.

 

We are not communicating.

Unless the Virtual Machine is something other than Windows (which I seriously doubt), the VM is not running when I have this issue.

I have just again checked -- Windows not running and while I can remove the check mark, that choice is not saved/remembered just as soon as I move from the "Backups" window in the Configure menu.

Gordon

 

Ok. It sounds like you might have an issue with your Parallels Installation. If I were you, I would try to re-install Parallels with the latest version. You should download the latest version and re-install it. I have never had that issue as far back as I can remember, (I think I started using TM in 2012 after "accidentally" erasing my entire hard drive.) That should have been Parallels 5 or 6 at that time.

 

I did take the latest version and attempt to re-install over an existing installation. With no success in terms of the TM issue. The process did copy files, but it did not do the normal installation of Windows Tools that happens with a normal update. I am suspicious that the issue might be in some of the plist or other preference files. Assuming I need to do a complete installation (I do have my install keys from version 5 and up) a few questions exist.

#1 How would you suggest I un-install?
#2 Is this process going to have any effect on my Windows installation? (I really don't want to get into re-installing Windows, Updating Windows and reinstalling various Windows programs)
#3 Any other little tricks or "gotchas" you have learned from experience? (I have some Windows background, but am still a baby at Macs.)

Gordon

 

I'm having this exact issue. I just spent an hour on the phone with Parallels Support and they used remote desktop on my machine. They couldn't figure it out either. We tried two different Macs with all different VMs, different settings, etc. If you uncheck this box when your VM is shut down, it reverts as soon as you boot the VM. If your VM is already booted, it reverts when you reboot it.

They escalated me to senior support and said someone should be contacting me shortly. Reinstalling does NOT fix the issue.

I have a suspicion that this bug affects all users. I'd be interested to hear if anyone in this thread has that setting not revert if they uncheck the box and reboot their VM. To me, this is pretty bad. If I wasn't the strange sort of person who goes through every single option in Settings after an app upgrade to see what has changed, I never would have noticed that this box had become checked (it was not checked for any of my VMs in Parallels 8). I could have been backing up with Time Machine for ages, not realizing my VMs were not backed up until disaster struck.

 

Gordon214 - I sent you a Private Message. I am not sure how people get noticed about Private Messages. Somehow after I sent mine to you, I was on a screen which said I had a Private Message. I sure did not get an email as I have been getting when someone adds to this thread.

Gordon
Atlanta, GA
USA

 

Ah, so I missed a critical bit of information here. I thought this thread was already in reference to Parallels 9. I never had any issues in Parallels 8, but in Parallels 9, I get this issue on every system I've tried it on. So, if you're having this issue in Parallels 8 and hoping 9 will fix it — it will probably make it worse.

 

With a smile on my face, I am typing - maybe you were just lucky and did not have the issue on 8, and I will be lucky and not have it on 9.

Still and all I would really like to know if there is a solution.

Gordon

 

It doesn't seem that Parallels actually stores this setting in any of its own preferences. It looks like it is reading it directly from the directory metadata for that virtual machine. You can use "tmutil isexcluded <path>" to see if the VM directory is excluded from backups. I've tried removing the exclusions using "tmutil removeexclusion <path to VM>". When I do this, the "do not backup" box in Parallels immediately unchecks, indicating that it's reading the metadata and not some internal preference file. However, when I restart a VM, the box is checked again, and "tmutil isexcluded" confirms that the exclusion has been reapplied to the directory.

 

I've found a workaround for this issue. It is absolutely not a fix, but it will allow you to backup your virtual machines using Time Machine, and prevent Parallels from disabling this.

What you want to do is set up what's called a "fixed path inclusion" for each of your virtual machines. This type of inclusion requires root to add or remove, and Parallels cannot override it.

To do this:

Open
/Utilities/Terminal

Enter
sudo tmutil removeexclusion -p "</path/to/VM.pvm>"
For instance:
sudo tmutil removeexclusion -p "/Users/you/Documents/Parallels/Windows.pvm"

Go back into Parallels and take a look at the backup checkbox. It should be unchecked, even after rebooting your VMs. Parallels is still setting the exclusion by metadata, but it is being overwritten by the explicit fixed path inclusion time machine has for that directory.

It appears you'll need to do this for each VM (.pvm). I tried including the entire Parallels directory and it did not override the exclusions, so apparently it's not recursive. You will also need to do it again if you rename your VMs, as the exclusion applies only to that exact path and filename.

Again, this is not a fix for this issue. Parallels is still reverting the exclusion, we're just overriding it. It will at least let you back up all your VMs until Parallels fixes this issue.

 

Well while I can easily perform the terminal work, I consider this "fix" beyond my pay grade. I just don't like doing things I don't understand. When you mention meta data, exclusions and multi those are terms I don't understand. (I have heard about meta data with regard to digital camera images and even read it, but I suspect this is not the same stuff.) Hopefully somebody at Parallels will get a solution.

Gordon

 

It's not as complicated as it sounds. Basically, there are two ways Time Machine can be told not to backup a file:

1. A file can have extra information "stuck" to it that tells Time Machine that this file should be ignored. It's like what happens if you apply a color label to a file or folder in Finder. Extra info gets stuck to the file that tells it to display its icon and name in a particular color. This is what Parallels is doing - sticking this "do not backup" attribute to its virtual machines. Since this attribute is being stuck to the file/folder itself, it's 'sticky' - it doesn't matter where the file or folder is, it still won't be backed up.

2. Time Machine can be given a path, and told not to backup anything at that path. This is similar to what happens when you go to the Time Machine preference pane > Options > Exclude these items from backups: Anything existing at that location will not be backed up. However, if you move a file at that location somewhere else, it will get backed up. For instance, I can tell Time Machine not to back up the path /Users/me/Documents/myfile.txt. As long as there is a file in my Documents folder called "myfile.txt", it won't get backed up. However, if I were to move myfile.txt somewhere else, it would get backed up since Time Machine is only looking at the exact path /Users/me/Documents/myfile.txt.

We're just reversing this logic. We're telling Time Machine that anything located at /Users/you/Documents/Parallels/your-virtual-machine.pvm should ALWAYS be backed up, regardless of whether the file has the "do not backup" attribute stuck to it.

 

Thanks for the education - I really appreciate your taking the time and I do enjoy learning. I guess that comes from an early PC experience. I bought an Osbourne PC just before the company went belly up. That was the first "portable" PC. It had a large 3 by 5 inch monitor, two 180K, single sided disk drives and a monstrous 64K of RAM. The 300 baud modem plugged into the Parallel printer port. All this in a mere 27 pound package!

I started this thread believing I was going to have to perform an unplanned clean install in the near future. (I will do one soon, but unplanned is not a word l like appearing is descriptions of my activities.) Having moved my VM between PCs before with some or more issues, I felt if I could do it via Migration Assistant, it could not be worse than my worst and it might be simple. Well after I started this thread, I found out that JAVA was causing a whole slew of issues I was having with Apple Mail. Things like no Mail sounds (all other sounds worked fine). My Default Mail Reader would not stay assigned to Apple Mail - rather it bounced between various Windows "exe" files which generally had been renamed with an "app" extension. I wore out a couple of Senior Applecare techs trying to figure those jewels out. Since none of this stuff existed when i created a new User, everybody concluded some really odd not good stuff was happening with stuff in the User files -- probably in preference files. Solution - clean install.

I had removed JAVA in the middle of this for other reasons. The issue continued, but it went away - probably when I rebooted. Then I was on a web site that required JAVA so I re-installed - problems did not return immediately, but they did within a few hours. Eventually as I was fighting the Apple mail issues, I put enough together and did some controlled testing. A sure way to resolve my Mail problem appears to be disable JAVA or remove JAVA (-- well the JavaAppletPlugin.plugin) and reboot into the SafeMode. Without the SafeMode boot, eventually the issues would resolve most of the time - so i am suspecting caches might have been holding stuff causing my issues. But the bottom line is my machine is OK now and I don't have to do the clean install.

I do not need TM backups generally for my VMs - I merely wanted them for the movement to a new, clean install I expected to make. I use SuperDuper and run daily backups, cycling between two drives. Weekly I take a SuperDuper backup and swap out my offsite backup. I only use Windows for a specific piece of software that has not reliable Mac alternative, although several companies claim their product is an alternative.

Hopefully the Parallels folks will figure this out and issue a fix. Since I will upgrade to version 9, if they do find the fix, i will get it.

But I have been clicking on check of updates and so far Parallels has not found that version 9 in available.

 

Did you get my Private Message?

 

yes, and I saw it contained a link to update to 9. In the past I have been notified about say 8 when using 7 by clicking the update menu item.

That said, given the apparent issues with 9 at this point, I will let others work on the Debug & Beta team.

Gordon

 

Here is the reply I received from Parallels support regarding this issue in Parallels 9:

This is after first-level support did remote access and was unable to fix the issue. They escalated it to the next level of support. No one from senior support ever contacted me. My assumption based on this email is that senior support verified the issue on their end, could not find a fix, and sent it directly to engineering. This makes me suspect that it is a bug affecting all installs of Parallels 9. I can't confirm that, but I've installed it on three different systems now and they all exhibit exactly the same issue.

 

Thanks for getting back. Even though you did not have this issue with Version 8, I wonder if the seeds for the issue were not present - Maybe it is an issue that presents when someone upgrades from version X to version X+1. In any event at least we now know what is going (or not going) on.

Have a good week.