Compressing existing VM guest image?

[davidyuz]

I am looking for a way to zip up the existing VM guest image for backup and restore purposes. I know that this can be done using VMWARE server product where I could easily using zip tool to compress entire VM guest folder into very very very small zipped file. Then I could make a backup copy of that zipped file.

Now, with ESXi, I can't get to the VM host console. I tried Alt-F1 key and it did not work. Even, I could login to it, can I locate those VM guest folders on the datastore and start zipping them?

I can't download the original filesize which could be 20-100gig and zipped it locally on my desktop. that is a silly solution. There has to be a way to access to the datastore from my desktop to compress the folder locally on the VM host machine instead of downloading it.

How does one make backup of his or her VM guest images?

Thanks

David.

[kac2]

i would look at a solution like Veeam Backup and Replication. it will make your life easier and it won't be a manual process.

From the way you are making it sound, you want to almost double the space on your storage. If i have 10 50GB VMs (500gb) it will take about 300-400gb to make compressed copies. Thereby losing lot of space, then you have to transfer all of that off your storage.

Have you not tried VMware Data Recovery? (if you have a licensed version of vSphere)

[AntonVZhbankov]

You can't do it on ESXi and it shouldn't be done there.

You have to download entire VM to some place and compress it there. With Converter or FastSCP or even Veeam Backup if you have it.

Veeam backup will compress VM on-the-fly, so you'll get compressed image without additional stages.

---

MCSA, MCTS, VCP, VMware vExpert '2009

http://blog.vadmin.ru

[kac2]

Not to mention Veeam also does inline data de-depulication. Space savings are tremendous

[DSTAVERT]

You can try the Standalone Converter tool and create an OVA appliance. It will a single compressed file that can be restored easily with the Converter tool or vSphere Client.

[DSTAVERT]

You can also use the ghettoVCB script http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760

[davidyuz]

Thanks folks for all your responses and suggestions. I will look into it.

David.

[iLikeMoney]

Can't you just export the VM as an OVF template to a share? this automatically compresses it.