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frantzcollini
Contributor
Contributor

VCBackup or other soluzion on ESXi

Hello,

since VCBackup cannot be sold only for ESXi, how can i have the same, or similar service to hot-backup the VM externally?

Thank you, cheers!

Francesco

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

Just to clarify, you can purchase a VI foundation license and then install ESXi and you will be licensed for VCB. The big advantage of VCB is being able to do networkless backups of SAN storage. That is, the VCB proxy (running on Windows ) will have access to the VMFS LUN and be able to backup directly from the SAN rather than using the console network connection to ESX(i).

Are you backing up local or SAN storage? That are other options (both commercial and free) that will backup ESXi hosts without VCB. You can still create snapshots and backup the VMDK in the same manner VCB would.

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frantzcollini
Contributor
Contributor

Nice Dave,

thank you for your reply... just to puntualize: if i take a snapshot of a VM, can i export the vmdk-flat file or the snapshot file externally (as example by SCP...) toh ave a complete machine Backup?

Can i do it when the VM is running?

Thank you!

Francesco

Francesco Collini

Amministratore Unico

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Dave_Mishchenko
Immortal
Immortal

When you take a snapshot on a VM, ESX(i) will redirect disk writes to snapshot files will allow you to backup the VMDK files for the VM while they are in a static state. You can do this while the VM is powered on. You'd also want to copy out the VMX file for the VM. If you search the forums for free backup there are a number of scripts that have been developed to provide backups for you.

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frantzcollini
Contributor
Contributor

Fantastic, now everything is clear!

Francesco

Francesco Collini

Amministratore Unico

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