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The goal here is to recreate (using the procedures of William Lam and Raj Perumal) a repeatable procedure for backing up VMs to "external storage". The system I am using is ESX server 3i 3.5.0 Build 153875
Notations: A-Action, R-Result, Q-Question, C-Cognition, X-Exploration research

A BES 1.0.1 - Allow SSH to ESX host server
(This step is only necessary on the first instance of the procedure)
Go the physical server hosting ESX and press Alt+F1, then type "unsupported" - you will not see anything as you type - you will then be prompted for a password. After gaining root access use vi to edit /etc/inetd.conf Remove "#" comment character in front of the SSH line. Save changes and reboot the system. You now have SSH access to the host.

A BES 1.0.2 - Get script to ESX host server
(This step is only necessary on the first instance of the procedure)
Download a copy of the ghettoVCB script found here http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760 then transfer it without modification to the ESX server with WinSCP making sure the transfer happens in Text mode. The destination on the ESX server should be: /vmfs/volumes/"datastorename". Once the transfer is complete change the permission to allow it to be executed: chmod +x ghettoVCB.sh

A BES 1.0.3 - Create list of VMs to back up
(This step is only necessary on the first instance and then every time the list of VMs to be backed up changes)
Since the script uses a text file to input the names (one per line) of the VMs to be backed up, this needs to created on the ESX host server. Use vi to create the textfile in the same directory in which the ghettoVCB.sh script is located.

A BES 1.0.4 - Create destination for backups
(This step is only necessary on the first instance and every time the backup storage destination changes)
I took Raj's advice and downloaded Allegro NFS in order to create and NFS share on my Windows machine as the destination for the backups.
Launch Allegro NFS to create the share
a. in the Export tab click "new" type /j/vmwarebackups (where j is the local partition and vmwarebackups is the folder)
b. browse for folder to partition j and folder vmwarebackups
c. click all on allowed hosts list, click everyone and root for read/write, do not click anything in read only
d. click apply and the apply button goes grey, click ok and Allegro NFS config window closes.
Open VMware Infrastructure Client (VIC) to add the share as a datastore
e. select host machine
f. select Storage in hardware then select add storage link
g. select NFS then next
h. input the static IP of the backup destination
i. input the path of the backup destination ( see a., and b. above)
j. do not check Mount NFS read-only
k. input the name of the datastore - for example: backup
l. click next and finish

R BES 1.0.5 - You see the new data store in the VIC

A BES 1.0.6 - Configure the ghettoVCB script
(This step is only necessary on the first instance and every time you need to reconfigure the script)
Use vi to edit the ghettoVCB.sh file on the ESX server
a. first make a backup of the script: cp ghettoVCB.sh unmodified_ghettoVCB.sh
b.. VM_BACKUP_VOLUME=/vmfs/volumes/backup or whatever the path of the NFS share is from BES 1.0.4i
c.. any other changes needed based on reading of script
d.. write changes and exit vi

Q BES 1.0.7 - My Windows NFS share is probably non-persistent NFS-backup, but I didn't modify the non-persistent section of the script - will this matter?

A BES 1.0.8 - Run the script
(This step will be needed every time you want a backup unless a cron'd)
a. execute the script: ./ghettoVCB.sh vmbackups

R BES 1.0.9 - The script ran successfully and let me know that since a snapshot was found the backup will not take place.

A BES 1.0.10 - Remove the snapshots before running the backup
a. shut down VM
b. go to snapshot manager in VIC and select remove all snapshots
c. the task window show in progress, but it has been a long time - good thing I trusted VMware and didn't reboot the box - that operation took 30 minutes, but completed successfully.

Q BES 1.0.11 - Why after removing the snapshots have I not gained capacity back on my datastore?

A BES 1.0.12 - Re-Run the script now that snapshot were removed.
a. execute the script: ./ghettoVCB.sh vmbackups
b. Script running sucessfully with % done ticker.

Hi everyone, please take a look at this weeks newsletter which is packed with loads of interesting new articles related to VMware Technology.

Kind Regards

Neil Isserow | VCP | Technical Account Manager - Queensland |
VMware Australia

It's been about 2 years since we introduced a re-designed website with an entire new look. It was an incredible struggle for the team to make that happen back in 2007. This year, we did a new design, and we spent about 2 months to re-work the design of communities.vmware.com.

The team did an excellent job, and this time it was smooth. I personally like the new look, and it tends to be easier to navigate. It will be interesting to see what the reaction to this is. We didn't change much functionality, just some navigation behavior and new content boxes on landing pages.

I would say, we are all much more aware of the requirements for doing major redesigns.

Eric Nielsen

Director, Web Communities.

See Attached

Great read over here: http://blog.thesilentnumber.me/2009/09/top-things-to-do-after-installing.html

Check out some of the key things you must do once you upgrade your system to 9.10 (or rebuild it from scratch).

Great article over at Cosmic Egg about open source view client on 64 bit linux. I've been slacking on the blog, so enjoy the read.

http://blog.cosmicegg.net/2009/10/vmware-view-open-client-on-64-bit.html