Backup ESXI 4.0 USB key to SATA or elsewhere?

[allanl]

We had a power failure over the weekend which corrupted the USB thumb drive used to boot the server with all of the VMWare servers. After getting help to restoring the servers after rebuilding the USB key it occured to me that a alternate boot location is in order.

Is it possible to install the boot partition to an in-use volume from the installation CD? In other words, if the USB drive dies again, one can boot from the SATA drive by removing the key and rebooting? If not, can I just reformat an attached SATA backup drive, install the boot partition, etc. and then create another backup volume and recopy over the data at the next cycle?

Is their a technique to doing this, or should I just backup the boot USB key and then restore it the key in the event of another power spike/failure?

[DSTAVERT]

I would just make sure you never have another power failure.

Seriously though, I would be more concerned that you cover yourself from power problems. A UPS and script the VM's and ESXi host to shutdown. A crash of the host is far more likely to cause corruption of the datastores if it happens at the wrong time. The USB disk isn't difficult to deal with. I keep USB drives ready to go in the datacenter. If I ever have a problem I can pop in a new one and restore the configuration in a few minutes. If you have the the rcli tools and schedule a configuration backup you should be up and fully functional very quickly.

[scowse]

Installing to a usb key is such a trivial job so i do it on two keys

One for production and the other for the safe

[allanl]

Thanks for the update.

How is a copy of a working USB key made? Do you just copy the files to a newly created generic "ESXI USB" key so that both have the same files or another method?

Thanks,

[DSTAVERT]

You can't make a copy of a running USB disk. You can find another platform to install to another USB disk. Use the rcli tools or install the vMA appliance and regularly backup your configuration. If you copy the configuration to a datastore or a network available location you can insert a new USB disk and quickly restore your configuration.

[allanl]

Thanks. I'll work on it.