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Kevin_Gao
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Now that VDR is here...any benefits of continuing with vRanger?

So we're upgrading to vSphere and I'm just wondering should I even bother renewing all my vRanger Pro licenses? Anyone else out there ditch their 3rd party backup's or is there another reason to keep them?

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demean0r
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Ask yourself what you want out your VM backups and see if vDR meets those needs. We use vDR instead of VCB now and are very happy with it. It does lack some features but it comes with vSphere and is better than VCB.

Once your VMs are upgraded to hardware version 7 the backups go faster also. The built-in ability to set a pre-defined or custom archive is nice also.

Also, the notion that a product shouldn't be used until update 1 or service pack 1 is way off. Test it yourself and if you are comfortable with it, move forward. The fear of using first release products comes from horror stories of MS products mostly and last time I checked VMware is no Microsoft.

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VMSpotlight
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It depends that features and functionality you need at the moment.

In the features dept. VDR seems to be very much an entry level solution, and not really at the same level as current enterprise solutions.

If you're looking for something similar to VDR, but at more of a enterprise level with more features take a look at esXpress

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esXpress radically alters the notion of how to protect data in virtual infrastructures in one simple way: we use the virtual infrastructure to back itself up!

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Currently working with several VMware and Microsoft vendors!!
Kevin_Gao
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Just fast, easy-to-use, and reliable backups. I actually personally tested esXpress way back last year but unfortunately at that time it didn't support ESXi. We needed ESXi support immediately (couldn't wait) and so ordered vRanger. So now I have 12 licences up for renewal...just contemplating if we need them since Data Recovery is here.

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Mirko_Huth
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I think the reason you ask is due to the fact that you have not tested VDR. In my opinion it is buggy like a beta product and lacking features that enterprise backup products typically have.

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EDV-COMPAS
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Mirko,

login to the VDR Virtual Appliance, and take a look at the VDR RPM informations.. and you may find out why its buggy like a beta product Smiley Happy

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depping
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I would also not label vRanger as an enterprise backup solution. And although VDR might lack some functionality you would expect it is a step in the right direction in my opinion.

Duncan

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Kevin_Gao
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Yes I haven't tried VDR yet and that's why I'm curious and asking about it. In regards to Depping's comment about vRanger; yes it's really a basic product and so just at a glance I don't see much of a difference between it and VDR.

Thanks all for the feedback.

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Rumple
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Have you tested out the new vRanger 4 DPP beta to see how it compares to the VDR? I haven't had a chance to install and play with it yet, but since its license renewal time I would look at the products not only released now, but the ones coming out in the next quarter (from both Vizioncore and esXpress) to see if that helps you decide.

Personally I am not counting on VDR until at least U1 as thats when they are going to be fixing anything wrong.

Kinda like not moving to windows 2008 until SP1 came out 🐵

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demean0r
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Ask yourself what you want out your VM backups and see if vDR meets those needs. We use vDR instead of VCB now and are very happy with it. It does lack some features but it comes with vSphere and is better than VCB.

Once your VMs are upgraded to hardware version 7 the backups go faster also. The built-in ability to set a pre-defined or custom archive is nice also.

Also, the notion that a product shouldn't be used until update 1 or service pack 1 is way off. Test it yourself and if you are comfortable with it, move forward. The fear of using first release products comes from horror stories of MS products mostly and last time I checked VMware is no Microsoft.

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buckmaster
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Until vDR can perform a file level restore I will continue to use vRanger. I would anticipate this function to be in a near release of vDR however.

Tom Miller
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Kevin_Gao
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Thanks for all the helpful posts everyone. I think we'll go with VDR and go from there.

Cheers

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FlEric
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The main problem on all of this third party products is that they are sometimes month behind with the support of new ESX Versions.

In case of esXpress... still today it did not run on VSphere and it has no ESXI Support also not for 3.5

Ok now in this case vsphere is a complete new release and sometimes is not bad to wait for the first service packs and maybe this is already enough time that you have a compatible version of your third party backup. But sometimes you will have also this problem if you install some fixes and your backup stops to run ..

Some of these companys have nice products but it seems they are sometimes not able to delivery compatible upgrades in time and i am sure that the own VMWare product will not have this issue!

Also i think that is not the last version from VDR we will see and further version will have more of the features you like to have...

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admin
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The experimental version of the file level restore client (for Windows) can be downloaded here - it was posted today

http://www.vmware.com/downloads/download.do?downloadGroup=DATARECOVERY10

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TAMW
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I don't see it

If I follow your link I find only this?

Latest Released Version: 1.0 | 05/21/09 | 164675

VMware Data Recovery and VMware vShield Zones (DVD ISO)

This is the "old" version.

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admin
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Sorry, spoke too soon! It should posted today.....

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The-Kevster
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Still not posted?

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admin
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I apologize but I jumped the gun on this "announcement". The good news is that the dev (i.e coding) part is done for the FLR client. However, there are some additional steps that we need to go through before we can make the code available to customers and partners. I expect that we should be able to get this done by the end of this week, however, we have to go through it day by day. I will put up a daily post to make sure everyone is in the loop.

Again, my apologies but very exciting that there is so much interest.

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Mirko_Huth
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No problem. IMHO there is no need to hurry with that.

As long as this product is not able to run a backup job for longer than two days it is pretty useless and there is no need for file level restore.

So VMware should put more energy in resolving the current issues everyone has instead of adding new features!!

Just my two cents...

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admin
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Mirko,

I am glad that you are testing the VDR product and we obviously are concerned that you are running into issues that we did not run into during our QA cycles. Can you send me a private mail on the SR number that you have open? The good news is that the majority of customers have successfully deployed and running VDR, in either test/dev or production environments.

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Kevin_Gao
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Out of curiosity how big was your VM? One of my VM's take a good 12+ hours and I use vRanger Pro.

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