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ChrisInTexas
Contributor
Contributor

Free ESXi Backup Solution for Windows

I have spent the last few days trying to find a free backup solution to the newly free ESXi for windows only enviroments (in particular Windows XP). The solution for me was the following:

1. Installing Windows Services for UNIX (WSFU)

2. Copying the ESXi Server password and group files to Windows

3. Configuring WSFU for accepting ESX Server connections

4. Sharing the Windows folder for NFS compatibility

5. Configuring the ESXi Server to mount the Window NFS Share as Datastore.

6. Setup Backup Script

Attached is the complete steps.

I take NO credit for any of this. This is just a complation of others work formated to suit my needs and felt others could benift from it as I have.

by Jason Mattox from Vizioncore (direct copy of his work, I just added more information to make it work in Windows XP)

(NFS Server port information)

by robink (The backup script)

(ssh on ESXi)

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ThomasWeber64
Contributor
Contributor

mrkelder schrieb:

.....

a nice holiday gift from Veeam..


how is it to be understood:

"After downloading, you will receive an email with a 30-day license key.  The license key enables all functionality in Veeam Backup &  Replication and is good for up to 2048 sockets. The license key expires  30 days from the date you download the software."

Is it only a time limited gift? Will the soft stay alive after 30 days or end up with "...now its time to purchase the full version..."

Regards

Thomas

edith says....

first think.. then write

the solution is http://www.veeam.com/nfr/free-nfr-license Smiley Wink

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Neonewbie
Contributor
Contributor

Thomas thanks for the reply.

I agree it looks a great program.

but the price tag is what puts me off. $600 bucks for one socket.

so for the big boys looking after 500 plus vms this could be good

But some of us are only looking after 2 servers running Esxi with about 6 vms on each.

Maybe there will be a solution for home user one day?

Regards

Neo

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Neonewbie
Contributor
Contributor

Good point DSTAVERT

I am willing to sit down and run the script on a test server and learn, make some mistakes on the way and ask questions.

My firs question is this

What script am i running and where can i get it.

I am asking because the post leads of to a couple of diff scripts.

would you be so kind a to point me to the correct script.

Many thanks Neo

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ThomasWeber64
Contributor
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@neonewbie

did you see my edit?...

there are licenses for non-profit-use ....

or didnt I see that there is to pay for too

Regards

Thomas

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reggy
Contributor
Contributor

Please note to stop others accidentally wasting time with the (admittedly good) VEEAM backup solution, please note that this ONLY works with the commercially purchased versions of ESXi 3.x / 4.x - the 'free' versions have locked down APIs and are not supported by this otherwise good product. Shame.

Message was edited by: reggy

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Neonewbie
Contributor
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Thomas hi

no you didn't mention that.

so can you point me to your edit that states that there is a non profit licence

and will it as some one else mentions

run on the free versions of ESXI

or  ONLY works with the commecrially purchased versions of ESXi 3.x / 4.x

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reggy
Contributor
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The ref to "Not running with the free versions of ESXi 3.x/4.x" comes from the FAQ section on VEAM's own website - I was about to download a trial version when I spotted this.

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joegman
Contributor
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Hi all.  I have been trolling this thread for a while trying to figure out how best to backup my ESXi machine.   I have a question or two (or four) to help me clear things up.

Are there any free 3rd party tools for backing up a VM?  I have only found paid software.  Is this correct?

VMWare makes tools for backing up your VMs, but these tools are not free.  Correct?

There are three "versions" of ESX.  ESXi free license, ESXi paid license and ESX (also paid).  Is this correct?  I have a free licensed ESXi box.

To use the VBGhetto script(s), you muse have the paid license version of ESXi.  Is that correct?

To use Sanbe's script, you can have the free licensed version.  Actually, this is not a question, I have it working on my box but I am having some problems that I hope to resolve with help from the coummunity.

I am experimenting with VMWare Converter right now.  The only down side I have found so far is the VM must be powered off before you can "pull" an image from it.  With Sanbe's script, I can backup the VM while it is running.

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Have a look at http://trilead.com

The ghettoVCB script requires that SSH be enabled on the guest. If you look at the documantation for the script it will have told you what was necessary for the free version.

Have a look at http://blog.peacon.co.uk/completely-free-backup-for-esxi/

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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joegman
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hi DSTAVERT, I realise SSH has to be enabled and have done that on my test box.  My question specifically is can the ghettoVCB script be used on the free licensed verion of ESXi.  I am getting a 403 forbidden eror when I try to read through the ghettoVCB information.  Either it's me or hopefully that page comes back up soon.

Thanks for the link to peacon, I am looking over it now.

Oh and this should have been posted on my original thread, I tried and gave up on the OPs suggestion of using Windows Services for Unix.  I had too many problems.

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

I am getting a 403 forbidden eror when I try to read through the ghettoVCB information.  Either it's me or hopefully that page comes back up soon.

The communities went through a recent update and that document did not convert well. The VMware website team is aware of the issue and are working to correct this and other issues.

Do a Google search and select Cached results and you will find the script and page.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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benp23
Contributor
Contributor

Pardon me if this topic has already been addressed, but if you're using ESXi 4.1, why are you not just using VDR 1.2? Is there something I should be aware of with VDR that I'm missing? The earlier version was awful but I test 1.2 regularly (file-level restores, etc) and don't see any problems.

We're running backups no problem in two datacenters, one backing up to a network share and the other to a .vmdk. Deduplication works great: for example, 15 vm's on one store are only taking up 55 GB.

benp23

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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

Many of the posters here are using the free version of ESXi and or aren't using vCenter. I use both vDR and the ghettovcb scripts. Just remember if the worst happened it would take you hours and perhaps days to recover your VMs. Since a ghettoVCB backup is a clone of the VM it only takes a minute or two to register the VM on a host and push the start button. Back in business in less than five minutes.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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benp23
Contributor
Contributor

So is there a central location for these ghettovcb scripts where I can download to test them out? Pretty straightforward?

Thanks,

benp23

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

Here is the ghettoVCB Group that you can join for further discussions and provides a link to the ghettoVCB document - http://communities.vmware.com/groups/ghettovcb

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benp23
Contributor
Contributor

Okay, thanks.

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BD66
Contributor
Contributor

Hello everyone,

I have spent many hours trying several techniques (ie GhettoVCB, other ssh scripts, Veamm, etc)  for backing up windows servers and they all worked fine. The two big limitations/issues with the above solutions is your backup window and the size of your virtual disks.

If you have a 50GB drive in windows then your vmdk virtual disk is 50GB (unless you are using thin provisioning....Which I would advise against for reasons I will not get into here).

Even if you are using 15GB of that 50GB drive, the above solutions will still backup the 50GB....not a very efficient way of backing up a server...especially if you have multiple servers and larger drives to contend with.

Now.... I know the post says "Free ESXi backup solution for windows" , but what if you could do a very effcient backup of any server for less than $50us/server.....I would say that is pretty close to free considering most third party VMWare backup solutions are in the $1000 of dollars/server.

The poor mans solution is to image your servers to a shared physical storage on the network (If you want, you can back that up after to tape, ext disk, etc...that's up to you, but I would recommend it). The advatage to this approach is you only backup the data on the disk partition and not the whole disk. So in the above example, we backup 15GB (of data) which is compressed and ends up being around 7GB-8GB. Depending on your network speed...this could be done in about 15min. So there's a virtual server with a 50GB drive being completely backed up in about 15min and taking substantially less backup space.

Now...you saying that's great!Smiley Happy...but how do I restore that if the server crashes?:smileyconfused:

Easy....The imaging software that I use is R-Drive image (It costs about $44.....I would also like to note that they do not gouge you for using it on a server platform like some other companies that I won't mention here) ....It allows you to create a bootable iso (that you convieveably would then burn to CD...but we are not doing that here)...I create and dump the R-drive iso to the ESXi datastore and configure that as a cd in your virtual server config (using the VSphere client). You start your server and boot from your virtual cd (r-drive iso), at this point you may need to manually configure the network settings in R-drive so you can browse to the network share you backed up to. Now you can restore your server disk partition (I say partition because that is what you want to backup and restore...NOT the disk only the partition(s)).

Just so you know....I do not work for or represent R-Drive in any way....I have just used a few of their products and have been an exceptionally satisfied customer...so I don't mind putting a plug in for them. I am using this solution on a number of severs and it works very well. I would highly recommend you give this a try....It really does work great for the price.

Disclaimer: The directions provided here are general instructions and should not be used as a technical guide for properly backing up your servers. If you do not know how to properly backup your servers then read some manuals or get a professional network admin to do it.

Thanks

Brett

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HBam1
Contributor
Contributor

How can this script be modified to run with a windows system.

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jeremyb
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Contributor

You can also try vBackup (Google "thinware vbackup" if you are interested). It is a Windows-based backup product targeted exclusively at virtual infrastructure. It is currently in public BETA and the eventual free version will probably meet your needs.

Hope this helps!

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falc0
Contributor
Contributor

Another way to have a fast recovery is to use replication instead of backup. The vmdk are mirrored (async mirror) on another VMFS (or NFS) store.

In case of disaster, you only have to register the mirror vm and start it.

Unfortunately, I only know sotware that you have to pay for (veam, aexia vsb, netapp snapmirror, etc.).

Any idea for a free software?

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