basic Cron Bash Script to automatically save specific VirtualBox VMs using savestate, copy, tar and p7zip

cron.save-vms.sh

#!/bin/bash

# Vars
# BUDATE - our date used for the Backup-Folder name which is created in our Backup-Path
# VBOXUSER - used if your VirtualBox is started and managed by a special/specific user
# BACKUPMNT - the mountpoint of your Backup-Media/HDD/SSD/whatever
# VMPATH - Path to your VirtualBox VMs Folder
# BUPATH - complete Path to your Backup-Folder - where date-based folders are created for each (Daily-)Backup
# VMLIST - List of VMs (Names only) to backup - passed to vboxmanage and used for the Copy-Part so please use names only..

BUDATE=`date +%Y-%m-%d`
VBOXUSER=vbox
BACKUPMNT='/mnt/backupdrive'
VMPATH="/path/to/VirtualBox VMs" # edit me to match your path to VirtualBox VMs
BUPATH=${BACKUPMNT}/backup/virtualbox

#Change this list of VMs to match your needs
VM_LIST=("VM-NAME-1" "VM-NAME-2" "USE-ONLY-VM-NAMES")

#this functions can be used to check if a device or path it mounted for example our Backup-Mount
isMounted() { findmnt -rno SOURCE,TARGET "$1" >/dev/null; } # path or device
isDevMounted() { findmnt -rno SOURCE "$1" >/dev/null; } # device only
isPathMounted() { findmnt -rno TARGET "$1" >/dev/null; } # path only
writelog() { /usr/bin/logger -tsave-vms -plocal6.notice $1; } # writes $1 to predefined syslog facility with our save-vms tag

#
#Let the games begin
#

writelog "Starting VM Backup ${BUDATE}" # Log for our Syslog
echo "Starting VM Backup ${BUDATE}" # Output for our Cron-Mail

#
#Mountcheck - Check if our Backup-Space is mounted
#
if ! isPathMounted $BACKUPMNT;
then
	writelog "${BACKUPMNT} not mounted! mounting now"
	echo "${BACKUPMNT} not mounted! mounting now"
	mount ${BACKUPMNT}
fi

writelog "Pausing VMs"
echo "Pausing VMs"

for vm in "${VM_LIST[@]}"
do
	writelog "Pausing ${vm}";
	echo "Pausing ${vm}";
	su -l $VBOXUSER -c "VBoxManage controlvm '${vm}' savestate"
done

unset vm

writelog "all VMs paused"
echo "all VMs paused"

if [ ! -d ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE} ]
then
	echo "Make Dir ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE}"
	mkdir ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE}
fi

for cvm in "${VM_LIST[@]}"
do
	writelog "Copying VM ${cvm}"
	echo "Copying VM ${cvm}"
	cp -r "${VMPATH}/${cvm}" ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE}/${cvm}
done

unset cvm

for vm in "${VM_LIST[@]}"
do
	echo ""
	su -l ${VBOXUSER} -c "VBoxManage startvm '${vm}' --type=headless"
done

unset vm
echo "All VMs should be Back online, Start compression of our temporary copies."
for bakdir in ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE}/*/
do
	writelog "Compressing ${bakdir}"
	tar c "${bakdir}" | 7z a -t7z -m0=lzma2 -mx=5 -si "${bakdir%/}.tar.7z"
done

echo "All backups compressed"
unset bakdir

#removing the copied, uncompressed VM Folders
for vm in "${VM_LIST[@]}"
do
	rm -r ${BUPATH}/${BUDATE}/${vm}
done

# 
# TODO 
# 
# delete older backups. using find -not -newermt or find -mtime +7 for a week or sth like this..
#
# find ${BUPATH} -type d -mtime +7 -exec rm -r {} 
# or
# find ${BUDATE} -maxdepth 1 -type d -mtime +7 -not -mtime +14 
# the -not -mtime condition in my case prevents deletion of backups older than x days
# in my case i have master-copies in the same folder which i need to be untouched ;)
# this could be less specific if you, other than me, use a dedicated folder only for this backups-purpose...
# 
# also 
# 
# Adding a separate temporary working directory and or space for the copies before compressing them and 
# copying only the final archives to the backup-space could be better on smaller backup-targets. 
# for example u could use /tmp for this.. or another ssd/hdd drive - just check for it using the isMounted functions.