Simple & Low Cost BackUp & Data Recovery ?

[mingle2]

Hi,

Our setup:

4 VMWare hosts

1 Vcenter

VMWare esxcli = 5.1 or 5.5

VCenter = 5.5

We have Essentials Plus License

Maybe around 60 VMs spread out among the 3-4 VMWare hosts. All VMs running Linux (All Linux no Windows). All VMs are running open source front end web applications, Cache, Elastic Search (NO Mail Apps, Oracle or any Database apps or Corporate Apps).

What is a good low cost Data Backup and Recovery Solution that is simple to set up and requires no downtime on the VMWare hosts (no reboots if possible)?  Checking out the Unitrends and VEEAM paid solutions but their licensing seem cost prohibitive for us.

Goal would be to take a nightly snapshots (keep like 3 - 7 days back) of VMWare host esxcli and VMs that are running and be able to restore from a backup in the event of hardware issue like a drive failure etc.

Thanks!

[rcporto]

For VM backup just use the VDP that is already included with Essentials Plus, see: https://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?language=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=20165...

And for vSphere configuration, just keep a configuration documentation and in case of physical hardware crash you can bring a host back in less than 30 minutes, including host configuration.

[mingle2]

Hi Thanks for you reply,

Do you know of any simple easy to understand guides to set this up on a VCenter 5.5 on VM esxcli hosts that run version 5.1 - 5.5 ?

I saw this one here: Install and configure VMware vSphere Data Protection - TechRepublic

1. Download the Virtual Appliance from your VMware customer portal. 

For step 1 what is the "Virtual Appliance" exactly that we must download from from the portal?  In my customer portal I see this is the correct appliance to download?

https://my.vmware.com/group/vmware/details?downloadGroup=VDP614&productId=614

VMware vSphere Data Protection

File size: 5.61 GB

File type: ova

Where is the data being backed up to?  On the same host?   Looking through this document here : http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-data-protect...

http://www.vmware.com/content/dam/digitalmarketing/vmware/en/pdf/vsphere/vmware-vsphere-data-protect...

WHich servers need to be rebooted to install VDP? Just the server running VCenter? What about the VMWare host themselves do they require a reboot?

[rcporto]

Do you know of any simple easy to understand guides to set this up on a VCenter 5.5 on VM esxcli hosts that run version 5.1 - 5.5 ?

Here is a good guide: https://www.vladan.fr/vsphere-data-protection/

For step 1 what is the "Virtual Appliance" exactly that we must download from from the portal?  In my customer portal I see this is the correct appliance to download?

The OVA file should work, but make sure to download the version compatible with your vCenter server.

Where is the data being backed up to?  On the same host?

The backup data is stored on the VDP disks, and that VDP appliance could be running on any vSphere host that have access to the VDP disks.

WHich servers need to be rebooted to install VDP? Just the server running VCenter? What about the VMWare host themselves do they require a reboot?

No servers need to reboot, just the VDP during the installation process.

[mingle2]

I think I found a solution to backing up the VMWare virtual servers.  How can I backup all the VMWare Host itself or at least the configuration?  (No backing up the VMs just the Host itself)

Are there any straightforward simple solutions for this?