RDM Backup

[nnmansoori]

Hi, I have 6 ESXi hosts in a cluster, most of the VMs inside are assigned RDM disks, Physical mode, and the capacities are more than 3 TBs.

I have a tape library, HP MSL 6060, and SEP SESAM backup software which is VMware ready, I need to make a backup from RDM disks and put on tapes daily, because of RDM disks, I cannot use VDR, am I right? is VCB the solution?

Nastaran M

[Gerrit_Lehr]

As far as I know, physical RDM backups can only be performed from within the VM (agent-based) or by utializing SAN capabilities like clones or snapshots. SAN-based VMware Backups like with VDR or VCB are AFAIK not possible with physical-mode RDMs.

[AndreTheGiant]

With physical RDM you cannot take VM snap... so no backup software can work with VMware API.

You must use storage snapshot, attach the snap to the backup server and copy your data from there.

Andre