Backup VM replicated with vSphere Replication/SRM

[sandroalvesbras]

Hi,

I have an environment where I use vSphere Replication / SRM to replicate VMs from host A to host B.

I want to back up the VMs that are on my host B.

Can I do agentless backup using a backup solution for replicated VMs? Are there any restrictions on the VMware side?

Thank you.

[scott28tt]

Moderator: Thread moved to the vSphere Replication Site Recovery Manager area.

[ashilkrishnan]

Hi

Yes, you can backup  these replicated VM files. Replicated VM files will be offline and won't be a running VM, so basically you would be backing up offline copies of all VM files ( Config files and VMDKs).

As far as backing up running VMs that are replicated, yes can do that as well. Backups might fail at times when vSphere replication is performing any sync tasks.

Please refer following FAQ for more info -->  vSphere Replication Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) - The current version of this doc has moved to:...

Refer 'If Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) quiescing is enabled when configuring a virtual machine for replication, will this cause issues with backup solutions that also use VSS?'

Hope that helps

[sandroalvesbras]

Hi,

I tried to perform the procedure, but I can't take a snapshot.

Backup tools use snapshot to back up.

The backup tool also failed.

Thank you.

[vbrowncoat]

You cannot backup the VMs replicated data as they are not "VMs"

[ashilkrishnan]

Hi

As I had mentioned earlier, replicated VM files will be offline and won't be a running VM, so basically you would be backing up offline copies of all VM files ( Config files and VMDKs).

VM that you see in the inventory is not created by vSphere replication but is a placeholder VM created by SRM for inventory mapping purposes. If you go to edit settings of this placeholder VM, you will notice that it does not have any hard disk attached it.

Replicated VM will only be registered to the inventory when you perform a recovery task.

[sandroalvesbras]

Hi,

I got it wrong. I believed it could already be offline.

So what option could I have to store these files from the VMs in another storage location?

I will explain the reason.

My vSphere ESXi is protected in a data center, but it is not my management. But I replicate the VMs in the datacenter for my onpremises.

I want to save the VMs that have been replicated from the datacenter to my onpremises and take them outside the company.

Thank you.

[ashilkrishnan]

Hi

Typical backup won't work because there is no VM here. If the backup software supports backing up datastore files, you can do that.

If not, you can browse the Targetdatastore/VMfolder from Web client or using Winscp and download these files