Backing up one ESXi (free version) to another

[shannonadams]

I have two ESXi servers that I want to keep in sync. Both servers have internal storage. One server is currently in production and contains all the VM's. If I have a hardware failure on the production server, I want to failover to the backup server as quickly as possible.

It looks like the only commercial backup product that supports the free version of ESXi is Veeam Backup. However, Veeam Backup currently does not support ESXi as replication target.

My only option now, I guess, is to backup the production server to the internal storage of the backup server and then do a restore on the backup server, if neccessary - correct? Is ghettoVCB.sh my best option for this? If so, will it work with the free version of ESXi?

Thanks for any help.

[lamw · Accepted solution]

One option is using ghettoVCB, though you'll have to manually SCP the backups to your target host, it does not allow you to backup to another host. If you have shared storage such as NFS/SAN you could easily keep both hosts in sync but if you're just utilizing local storage you'll have to script the replication between the two once the backups have taken place on your source host.

You should look at setting up an NFS Server that way you have shared storage between the two hosts

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William Lam

VMware vExpert 2009

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