Yes, it is possible and there is "VMware Consolidated Backup" solution aka VCB. Also there are lot of tools intended for virtual machines backup. For ex. Veeam Backup, Vizioncore vRanger.

---
VMware vExpert '2009
http://blog.vadmin.ru

It is also possible to acheive this by way of scripting. One way would be to mount an NFS share to your esx hosts from a NAS or other device and write a script that snapshots a vm, then copies the vmdks and other relevant files to a folder on the NFS share and then commits the snapshot. Depending on your NAS you could also have the same NFS share mounted to a linux server or present to a windows server as CIFS and backup to tape or disk using your backup agent.

Sid Smith-----
VCP, VTSP, CCNA, CCA(Xen Server), MCTS Hyper-V & SCVMM08
http://www.dailyhypervisor.com

• Don't forget to award points for correct and helpful answers.;-)

Depends on what language you want to use. You could do it from the Service Console using bash or perl, you can do it remotely from the remote CLI or a windows machine using the VI Toolkit for windows.

VI Toolkit for Windows powershell script to snapshot VM:

connect-viserver -server <server> -user <user> -password <pwd> New-Snapshot -Name <snapshot_name> -VM <vm_name>

connect-viserver -server <server> -user <user> -password <pwd> remove-Snapshot -snapshot <snapshot_name>

Perl Script:

Here is a thread where someone wrote a perl script to do backups http://communities

Service Console using vimsh

create

vmware-cmd <vmx> createsnapshot <snapshotName>

revert

vmware-cmd <vmx> revertsnapshot

Sid Smith

---

VCP, VTSP, CCNA, CCA(Xen Server), MCTS Hyper-V & SCVMM08
http://www.dailyhypervisor.com

• Don't forget to award points for correct and helpful answers.

simo79, New-snapshot should be a separate command.

---
VMware vExpert '2009
http://blog.vadmin.ru

You can also use the following: http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760

=========================================================================
William Lam
VMware vExpert 2009
VMware ESX/ESXi scripts and resources at: http://engineering.ucsb.edu/~duonglt/vmware/
http://twitter.com/lamw