I do not work for VMware and I'm not writing that VDR is the best backup product!
First versions were affected by some bugs and issues... But now (from 1.2 release) could be one possible backup solution (of course with its limits).
Official VMware site: http://www.vmware.com/products/data-recovery/
See also: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-11443
Note that this product works quite like the old esXpress (similar idea to have virtual appliance that handle the backup procedure).
Pro
it is a backup product and solution that can be used for SMB
it require vSphere and a valid license for VDR (actuall all version, except the Essential Bundle has the VDR license)
it could be cheaper than other solution?! Probably yes, but with less functions
works with a GUI (integrated in vCenter) quite simple to understand
works in a virtual appliance (no addition hardware is required)
easy deployment with initial setup wizard
backup are at image level (and restore can be at file level, also for Linux VM)
note that you can select individual vmdk (not so simple with some other backup software), that it use a single pass to have image and file level protection and that in some other product the Linux file restore is usually sold apart
file level restore can be handled from the destination VM in a simple way, without the needs of administrative access on the vCenter Server and/or hosts (not so simple to implement with other products)
first backup is full, the other are with deduplication (so more effective that a full/incremental schema)
more important, if VM are virtual hardware 7 it can use Changed Block Tracking (CBT) to handle incremental changes in VMs (and reduce the backup traffic)
multiple restore points are displayed for each VM for easy restore
Cons
it's a product with limited features, compared to other backup solutions
is only a B2D solution and cannot (in a simple way) be integrated in other program to implement also a B2T
see http://xtravirt.com/xd10131
can save data to vmdk or NAS share (a CIFS share or a supported NFS datastore)
block reclaim not always work in the right way (also if you change the retention policy)
the actual plugin (but seems also the next version) is not tight integrated with vCenter inventories, it use his inventory (that is a copy of the Hosts&Clusters inventory)
IMHO could be nice have the restore points and run a backup directly from the vCenter inventories.
the virtual appliance needs several resource (CPU and memory) to run fine
But this is the same problems of other backup programs
this product cannot handle application backup, like AD, Exchange, SQL databases... those application must be handled in a usual way
one solution could be use VCB guest scripting to dump the database in a files
Install and configure:
http://terenceluk.blogspot.com/2011/07/install-and-configure-vmware-data.html
http://www.vmwareinfo.com/2009/08/how-to-install-vmware-data-recovery.html
The procedure is really easy and note that now is possible have more VDR appliances to increase the backup power.
Also the appliance can work really well in DHCP (it does not require a static IP to work), but is better that it is in the same network of the vCenter and the Management interfaces of the hosts (to reduce network traffic).
The VDR plugin cannot be download from the vCenter Server, but must be installed as a separate part. The good news is that it can work without vCenter Server (so could be a good tool to take a backup of a virtual vCenter Server).
Another interesting aspect is than the catalog is in the destination, so it's easy to re-deploy a new appliance and simple attach existing destinations.
As all other products it first take a VM snapshot with guest quiescence (there is no way to disable it) then with snapshot is used to perform the backup (with virtual hardware 7 the CBT can be used to track changes from the last backup and reduce the amount of data to be handled from the backup process).
The data can be transfert in two ways (that are transport modes usual also for other backup solutions):
To understand when VMware Data Recovery use network based copy instead of SCSI Hot-Add see: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1012862
For VMware Data Recovery advanced options (and datarecovery.ini format) see: http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1013175
For more info see also:
http://www.virtualinsanity.com/index.php/2010/01/22/vmware-data-recovery-vdr-overview-2/
http://myvirtualcloud.net/?p=88
As written the only way is handle with traditional backup solution (agent based) especially if you need also an application granular restore.
Of course, another solution is change backup product and use one that support application backup & restore.
A really simple solution to handle at least the application data backup could be use custom guest scripts, in the same way of VCB scripting:
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1006671: Running custom quiescent scripts inside Windows virtual machine with ESX 3.5 Update 2 and later.
About the consistency... from Windows Server 2003 there could be also application consistency... if all application are compliant with VSS.
http://www.vladan.fr/troubleshooting-tool-for-vdr/
Cannot create quiescent snapshots if backup or system recovery applications are installed
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1009558
Removing snapshots in VMware Data Recovery fails with the error: -error 3942
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1019160
Location of VDR log files
http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022680
The new vSphere 5 family will include also a new version of VDR (2.0) with some improvements:
Note that the upgrade process remain quite the same of previous version with basically those tasks: rename the old appliance, create a new one, attach the destinations.
I care a lot about protecting my data. I used a lot of solutions from various companies, but they all have some flaws that can put my data in danger. At this moment I use https://spinbackup.com/products/office-365-backup/ for my Office 365 backup. I hope that with their help I will be able to do timely backups and protect my data.