Backup:
Two scenarios:
- You have important software/data in the VM (research, etc) - install TSM within your VM and have it run regular backups of the data within your VM
- Your VM is an appliance - be a good sys admin manually make backups. Drag and copy it somewhere (IE: an external drive). Exclude your VM files from regular backups
Things to note:
- Mac: time machine does not backup Vms
- VM image is actually several files and they all have to be in sync or behavior is erratic.
- From outside the VM (host machine), if backup made when virtual machine is running the result is inconsistent. Back it up when it's not running.