Stupid VCB questions

[jason5]

Brand new to VI3, and so far, it is awesome I must say. We use NetVault by Bakbone for backup. Unfortunately it is not on the list of supported software for VCB, but it does have the ability to run various pre and post scripts. We do not use Virtual Center Server as we only have 2 ESX installations. Could VCB be installed on a proxy with NetVault and still be utilized or should we look at some type of scripting on the VI host to suspend and resume the vm's for backup?

[jjohnston1127]

I use VISBU created by mittell for backing up my vmx and VMDK files. You can download it from http://www.xtravirt.com.

It basically does the same thing as VCB only it is LAN based for exporting the files rather than LAN free over the SAN.

[GBromage · Accepted solution]

Hi Jason!

Yes, if NetVault supports pre and post exec scripts, it will work.

You'll need to write a pre-exec script to mount all your VMs from the server, run the backup job, and then unmount them with a postexec.

I use a two-stage batch file process, with the prexec script looking like:

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@echo off

call d:\mnt\hostmount.cmd <<fqdn of ESX host 1>>
call d:\mnt\hostmount.cmd <<fqdn of ESX host 2>>
call d:\mnt\hostmount.cmd <<fqdn of ESX host 3>>

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And hostmount.cmd looks like:

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vcbVmName.exe -h %1 -u root -p <<password>> -s any: |find /i "name:" >d:\%1.txt

for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=:" %%i in (d:\%1.txt) do vcbmounter.exe -h %1 -u root -p <<password>> -a %%i:%%j -r d:\mnt\%%j -t fullvm -m san & sleep 10 )

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Hope that helps you,

Greg

Message was edited by:

GBromage

[petedr]

If you want to try a alternative to VCB take a look at esXpress (http://www.esxpress.com).

The backups provide Full vmdk backups (free version) as well as Delta backups (licensed versions) among many other features. The backups run in a VBA (Virtual Backup Appliance) and supports Lan free backups to your vmfs as well as to network targets (ftp and ssh).

esXpress has also just recently released a new Beta providing File Level Backups in addition to the vmdk (VM backups.)

[Mad_HADR]

The beauty of VCB is that it is a framework that will work with most backup products. As stated in the previous thread, you will need to run the post and pre scripts to perform the VCB operation and then have the backup software scoop the files off disk. You can even run VCB with NT Backup!