vzdump is a utility to make consistent snapshots of running OpenVZ VEs. It basically creates a tar archive of the VE private area, which also includes the VE configuration files.

There are several ways to provide consistency:
  • stop the VE during backup (very long downtime)
  • use rsync and suspend/resume (minimal downtime)
  • use LVM2 (no downtime)

vzdump is available here:

source code: vzdump-1.2.tar.gz