Anyone using VMware Data Recovery in production? Good idea?

[ThorinOak]

The environment will be 5 ESX 4.1 Enterprise hosts and 1 ESXi 4.1 free host. I would like to be able to backup all the VMs in a cost effective way. I would like to be able to do incrementals, have data retention, and possibly off-site backups. I have watched some YouTube videos on VDR but have not set it up or used it yet.

I am also considering Acronis Backup & Recovery 10 Virtual Edition but there is a huge cost associated with it, especially since VDR is free. However you always get what you pay for so I am wondering if anyone is using VRD in production and how it is working.

I would be backing up to something via a UNC share, no tapes or anything fancy. Ultimately I would like to be able to do a full system restore as well as file level restores for Windows and Linux guests.

[DSTAVERT]

Welcome to the Communities.

I would suggest that you install it and start getting some experience with it. Go through the documantation. It will not work with the free version. A licensed version of ESXi is required for access to the APIs. I

t works reasonably well. Some occational minor issues. For offsite you would need to come up with a way to replicate the data to your remote site.

[pcerda]

VDR is designed for small-medium scale implementations.

Anyway is a good product, specially the deduplication feature, which allow you to save a lot of disk space.

If you want off-site backups, you're gonna need additional software.

[aparis]

Hey

I have customers with VDR, with Veeam and with Vizioncore.

I can't make here a feature vs feature comparsion because all this products are similars but i will get you my opinion about all.

VDR

I think VDR is a good product to backup a small medium enviroment. I think that your enviroment can enter in this category.

VDR haven't SQL and Exchange agents and that can be a difference with other products. If you need to replicate the VM's to other host you will think in other products to do that. The Vmware solution gets me problems sometimes to make some file level restore and the job managment isn't optimized.
The restore options are more complete in other solutions. VDR only backup and restore Vmware enviroments.

So in summaries, VDR is a valid solution to your enviroment, but can fix only parcial your requirements. You will need other products to complete the solution and that is a negative point because the integration with other replication product isn't the best. VDR have deduplication and no all the other product can compete with that now.

Veeam

The Veeam backup and replicator solution is the first one that include replication in the same product. It's similar that the others to make the backup, but is the onlyone solution now that can integrate backup, replication, agents to SQL and exchange in the same solution.
That is a good extra point to veeam. So in summaries, Veeam backup and replicator is the most complete solution to backup Vmware enviroment now, but in the next year first quarter Quest will introduce the vRanger backup and replicator solution and that in my opinion is a very good reason to wait a liitle the evaluation of this product to make your final desicion.

Quest software (Vizioncore)

Vizioncore, now Quest software, can fix backup and replication to your Vmware enviroment, but need to applications to make that vRanger and vReplicator. Veeam punch first in two important features agents to applications and the integration of the backup and replication in one product, but Veeam force the last release of the product to win in the Vmware World and that sacrifice the correct product maduration time.
That's in my opinion the advantage that will have the new Quest product in the first piriod of next year. vRanger and vReplicator are two excelent solutions to backup and replicate your enviroment so when Quest integrate bouth in only one product next year and when Quest add agents to Exchange and Sql into it, the solution will become in my opinion the most complete suite. Another plus of Quest products are the other products that you can buy. That give you the posible too have a most complete solution to monitor, backup and replicator all in one brand.

So in summaries, if you wanna buy now Quest can't compete with the veeam solution, but if you can wait a little, you can have more information for the new product and i know you will be happy to take this time.

I hope this information becomes important to help you to take the best desicion.

Bye

Andre Paris

skype: andre.paris

andre.paris.sica@gmail.com

[idle-jam]

it depends on the environment, some of my implementation works fine for 20VMs and below and the rest is like 10VMs and below before weird issues start to crop out. while evaluating i would also suggest looking into quest's vranger or veeam backup. both are equally good and allows single pane backup for all hosts.

[ericsl]

First thing to do is determine your RPO and RTO. Without knowing these you won't be able to properly design you solution. See:http://cxobriefing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:business-continuity-establish...

Once you know your RPO and RTO for all your apps then consider solutions that meet those requirements.

At myManagedBackup.com we run Veeam and Quest so that we can meet short RPO and RTO's. We also can work at the guest OS level with other solutions. Typically off-site replication is a requirement. VDR is very rudimentary, IMHO.

~Eric

www.mymanagedbackup.com

[thehyperadvisor]

I agree with most of the posts that it all depends on your requires and needs. vDR technically is not free since you have to pay for the right vSphere license to use it. So, in my opinion you should find use cases for it if you can. I tend to use the product in conjunction with our current backup software which doesn't have the features of vDR yet and easy DR by replicating the vDR datastore. This does include needing some additional parts which can add to the complexity so testing and documented procedures are needed more so.   You just have to do what makes sense for your environment. vDR works but I don't think today it is a total replacement for an enterprise backup solution.

[WessexFan]

I use vDR in my development environment only. It wasnt meant to be a production product in my opinion. That been said, if you are strapped for cash, it will do. It can only backup 100vms if I remember correctly. 

[ThorinOak]

As it stands we don't have backups of production systems. We have already purchased the enterprise liceses so my mindset is to use the software we already own rather than spending more money for another product like vRanger, Veem, Acronis, etc.

It seems to be doing a good job so far, I have also tried the file level restore in Windows which was really easy. I still have to test a full system restore but I assume that will go as planned as well.

The deduplication has saved a lot of space and I am very happy with that. I am going to setup Email alerts per the blog below. I realize that it is not as robust as some paid options previously mentioned, however even at $500 per socket for say vRanger we would end up paying $2500 to backup ~20 VMs.

With my bad experiance with both vRanger and Veem in the past I am not inclined to spend that kind of money for their product.

http://blogs.vmware.com/uptime/2010/09/would-you-like-an-email-when-vmware-data-recovery-finishes-a-...

[WessexFan]

Full image restore is a piece of cake. I've performed this many times and havent found any issues to speak of. As I mentioned, the solution works just fine for a small shop and the functionality will only get better with future releases, so if you arent inclined to spend money on vRanger or a Veeam product (I agree), then by all means use vDR.

[thehyperadvisor]

You can have more than one vDR appliance now with the latest version of vSphere. if you currently have nothing now, I can't see how you could go wrong with trying it out. Whatever you go with configuration is key. The vDR appliance runs in the virtual environment and it does need resources to perform well. As mentioned 100 vms per VDR seems to be a good ceiling to use but you will have to find that ceiling per vDR as you go.