Hotadd backup method explanation ?

[AlbertWT]

Hi All,

My goal is to make the backup of VM faster since most of the

VM is in the MD3000i_SAN VMFS and between the ESXi host is direct connection to

the both ESXi1 and ESXi2

I’d like to get clarification in using VCB v1.5 update 1 ESXi

VM backup with –hotadd method in vSphere 4 (All server is ESXi 4)

According to:

Network diagram:

Do I have to do the settings as follows:

1. Windows Server 2003 x64 Std. VM +
   VCB Framework deployed on the ESXi1 and ESXi2 local SATA Datastore, namely VCBProxy01
   and VCBProxy02

2. Empty VM created on both ESXi1
   and ESXi2 namely VCBProxy01(VCB-HELPER) and VCBProxy02 VCBProxy01(VCB-HELPER).
   

but then I got lost in the backup job selection list (see

attachment) as I could not select which items to select and

and in the Media Set selection of which location to select

as the backup directory ?

Any idea of how to do the hotadd method of multiple VM

(online & offline) through command line please ?

Or should I select –SAN mode instead ?

Kind Regards,

AWT

[dconvery]

Albert -

Try adding an empty SCSI adapter to the helperVMs. That may help if they are not connecting properly. You can create a script to run locally on each VCB server to call the VCB framework. Just change the config.js to use hotadd mode. The script would look something like this:

C:
cd "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework\generic"
cscript pre-command.wsf "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Consolidated Backup Framework" %1 fullvm 

Check out my VCB Proven Practice Guide on VI:OPS ->

Dave Convery

VMware vExpert 2009

http://www.dailyhypervisor.com

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"

[AlbertWT]

Hi Dave,

Thanks for the reply, so in this case one batch file per VM right ?

If somehow there are 40 VMs inside that SAN_VMFS is there any limitation

that i can run the backup job simultaneously (maybe 8 at a times ?) or i should create one long

batch file which backup the VM sequentially one by one ?

Kind Regards,

AWT

[Lakshmi_Gayatri · Accepted solution]

AWT,

Simultaneously we can take the backup of 8 VMs so you can group the Vms accordingly and create batch files.

For better maintenance, you can have batch files either one for each vm or one for a batch of eight.

[AnibalR]

Hello AlbertWT

Your VMware configuration is pretty much similar to my plans of virtualization. I would like to ask you how is your experience with DELL MD3200i and iSCSI, Do you have a good performance? any thoughts you would like to share?. Rite now I am deciding between the MD3200i, IBM DS3512 and HP P2000, all are pretty similar. We dont have much butget for backup software, is there any way to backup the virtual machines using a less expensive or a free tool?

Thank you

AnibaR