Thank you for your direct and plainly stated answer. That sounds useful for fail-over. However, in this situation I simply want to backup VM files from one VMFS data store to another VMFS data store on another host.
Currently, i have two hosts with 3 VMs each that cross-backup to each other. That enables me to have multiple backups over time where I can restore an older version, or I can bring it into inventory on the backup server if there is a hardware issue. I do this now with GhettoVCB with the caveat that the destination directory must be an NFS volume. The NFS restriction renders the -thin ineffective for storage of the backups. Compression at the destination does not work because when the host VM compresses the NFS disk, it doesn't add any nodes, so the NFS volume shows full even when underlying VM operating system shows there is plenty of space. I could write a script to then have the destination server move it to a VMFS store, but that doubles the work for the server.
I have never had to work with a vCenter Server. From reading it can be installed on a supported version of Windows or you can use a preconfigured Linux version known as vCenter Server Appliance. I certainly wouldn't want to buy another host in the data center to do this, nor would I be interested in paying $5,596.00. My guess is that I would have to do maintenance or pay again if I wanted to update VMware again later. I've used ESXi since it became a product.
I'm simply trying to determine if there is a practically priced solution that could remedy the NFS situation. It appears there is not in the vSphere product line.
