Macrium viBoot enables you to instantly create, start, and manage Microsoft Hyper-V and VirtualBox virtual machines using a Macrium Reflect image file as the basis of the virtual machine storage sub-system.

Macrium viBoot can be used to boot a Macrium image as a virtual machine, enabling near instant failover in the event of a disaster, validation that a Macrium Reflect image will be bootable when restoring, or to retrieve data from applications installed in a bootable image.

Note: viBoot only supports Microsoft Hyper-V and Oracle VirtualBox running on a minimum of Windows 8.0 or Windows Server 2012.

How does Macrium viBoot work?

Macrium viBoot is built on technology that allows it to instantly present a Macrium Reflect image file as a Microsoft Virtual Disk (.VHDX) or VirtualBox/VMWare (.VMDK) file. The type of virtual machine to create is automatically detected by viBoot based on the virtualization software installed on the host.

When creating a new Hyper-V or VirtualBox virtual machine, Macrium viBoot will create two Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (.VHDX) or VirtualBox (.VMDK) files, respectively, for each of the disks described within the selected Macrium Image file. The first VHDX/VMDK file is incomplete and only contains enough information to describe the disk layout and a signature to mark it as a Macrium viBoot VHDX/VMDK. The data for the disk is retrieved from the Macrium Image File by the Macrium Virtual Disk Provider filter driver as required. Because the data is not stored with the VHDX/VMDK, its size will never exceed a few megabytes. The second VHDX/VMDK file is a standard differencing disk that will receive any modifications made to it during the lifetime of the virtual machine.

No changes will be made to the source .MRIMG file.

As with any differencing file (VHDX or VMDK), this file can grow dramatically in size, depending on the usage of the virtual machine.

These disk files (VHDX or VMDK) are stored in the designated Macrium viBoot repository and remain open until the Macrium viBoot virtual machine is deleted from within viBoot.

Note: The default location for the viBoot Microsoft Hyper-V VHDX files is C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot. This is configurable from within the Macrium viBoot UI.

Both VHDX and VMDK files related to VirtualBox VMs are stored under C:\ProgramData\Macrium\viBoot\VirtualBox

Installing Macrium viBoot

New Installations

Macrium viBoot can be installed during the Macrium Reflect LTSC installation on the 'Custom Setup' page of the installer:

Existing Installations

Macrium viBoot can also be added to existing installations of Macrium Reflect LTSC by navigating to the 'Programs and Features' page of the Windows Control Panel, selecting 'Macrium Reflect Workstation/Server', then selecting 'Change':

In the window that opens, select 'Modify':

On the next page, ensure that 'Install viBoot' is checked:

Select 'Next' and then 'Install' to finish modifying the installation.

Launching Macrium viBoot

Once Macrium viBoot has been installed, there are two ways that it can be launched:

Macrium viBoot Application

The first way to launch Macrium viBoot is by using the standalone Macrium viBoot application that is installed with Macrium Reflect LTSC. This can be found using the Windows Search Bar or the desktop icon that is created for Macrium viBoot:

Alternatively, the viBoot application can be launched using the viBoot.exe executable found in:

C:\Program Files\Macrium\Reflect

Through Macrium Reflect

Alternatively, Macrium viBoot can also be launched on the 'Existing Backups' tab of Macrium Reflect. To do this, select a bootable image file on the 'Existing Backups' tab of Macrium Reflect, then select the 'viBoot' icon on the action bar:

If the image does not contain the necessary partitions to boot an operating system, the 'viBoot' icon will be disabled:

This will launch Macrium viBoot partway through the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard. Using this wizard to create a new virtual machine is discussed below.

Alternatively, this wizard can be cancelled to navigate back to the main Macrium viBoot interface:

Creating Virtual Machines with viBoot

To create a new virtual machine, select 'New...' in the main viBoot interface:

Weclome

This will launch the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard. The first page of the wizard contains a brief overview of Macrium viBoot and the steps that will be taken during the wizard. This page can be hidden on future launches of the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard using the 'Do not show this page again' checkbox:

Select Image Files

The image that will be used as the basis for the virtual machine is selected on the second page of the wizard.

If Macrium viBoot was launched through the 'Existing Backups' tab of Macrium Reflect, the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard will open on this page with the selected image shown in the user interface.

An image can be selected using the 'Add...' button:

In the Explorer window that opens, navigate to where the image file(s) are located, select the image that will be used to create the virtual machine, then select 'Open':

The image will then be displayed in the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard, the disks contained within the image can be expanded to view the partitions located on the disk:

The first bootable disk contained in the image will be marked as the boot disk. If the image contains multiple bootable disks (e.g., an image of a dual-boot system), the boot disk can be changed by selecting a disk, then selecting the 'Set as Boot' button.

Once the relevant image has been selected, select 'Next' to proceed with the wizard.

Hyper-V/VirtualBox VM Settings

The final page of the 'New Virtual Machine' wizard is used to specify the settings and virtual hardware specifications for the new virtual machine.

The 'Processors' and 'Startup RAM' options are limited to match the host computer. If the number of processors is set to 'Automatic', viBoot will interrogate the Windows settings from the image files to set the correct number of processors.

Setting the 'Virtual Switch' to '<None>' will ensure that the virtual machine is not able to connect to a network; this can be especially useful if the system where the image, that is being used as the basis for the virtual machine, is still online. Alternatively, this can be set to an existing network adapter to enable the virtual machine to communicate with a network.

Select 'Finish' to create the virtual machine:

If 'Automatically power on the virtual machine after creation' was checked, the virtual machine will automatically start and boot into the operating system contained in the image file:

Managing viBoot Virtual Machines

Imaging a viBoot Virtual Machine

Images can be easily created of a viBoot virtual machine using the 'Backup...' button while the virtual machine is in an 'Off' state. This will create a new image of the current state of the virtual machine. The type of backup that will be created can be selected in the window that opens:

Selecting 'Create an Incremental backup' or 'Create a Differential Backup' will append to the most recent matching backup set in the source folder of the image that was used to create the virtual machine.

Deleting a viBoot Virtual Machine

Virtual machines can be deleted from viBoot when the virtual machine is turned off using the 'Delete...' button. When the virtual machine is deleted from viBoot, the virtual drives will be dismounted, and the virtual machine removed from Hyper-V:

The window that opens will prompt to confirm the deletion of the virtual machine. The 'Create a backup before deleting' checkbox can be used to open the 'Backup...' wizard described above, to create an image before the virtual machine is deleted.