vmware esxi 4 backup suggestions

[mysterx]

I have one home server running the free esxi 4 hypervisor with two windows 2008 standard guests (one running SQL server 2008). I was hoping to get some good free/inexpensive suggestions for backing up either the full vms (120GB total) off site or at a minimum important files off the guests themselves.  I have a fast broadband connection I can upload at a max of 10Mbps i can pull 50Mbps down. But yeah 120GB would take hours. I do have quite a bit of flexibility with time to shut the guests down and back them up on a periodic basis, basically 48 hours max :).

My goal is basically to have access to an offsite VM backup (together they come in at ~120GB (80/40)) and the latest version of important files (10GB for a full backup of important guest files).

I've spent a fair amount of time looking into various software packages and services. There is a lot of confusing pricing structures and gotchas for the unitiated (especially with dealing with windows server), so I was hoping to get some input on what vmware gurus are using in similar setups.

Thank you in advance!

[cyclooctane]

Hi mysterx

Have a look at storage crafts shadow protect.

This is a commerical product and it is not paticulaly cheep and it works very well (the solution I use a work)

Otherwise a hacked together method (but one that works and I use at home) is to use windows server backup to take an image of the server, and then use Rsync to transfer the deltas across the WAN / LAN to a remote server.

Otherwise you will have to upload 120gb for each run.

If you have the option to shut the systems down for a length of time, then shutting down the VM, and taking an .ovf template every 48 hours is an option.

This would be stored locally and then the deltas could be synced using Rsync to the remote site.

This method could be faster to restore then the windows server backup method.

If anyone has any other ideas, I am interested.

Regards

Cyclooctane

[dhabbetichandra]

you can implement VDR (Free) or Veeam(commercial(low cost)) for your requirement. both supports full VM / File level backup recovery no need to install any client at guest operating system.