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stevedahlberg
Contributor
Contributor

backing up to external USB drive on ESXi 4.0 server?

Is there a different forum for ESXi 4? Somehow ended up here ...

Hello, i've got ESXi 3.5 on Dell Poweredge 2950 server and just want to make a backup of the VM's from vSphere client (don't have Vmotion) or any third part software. If in vSphere client i go to the server in question, then to the Summary tab, then into the Datastore, there are options to download it my local machine and to move it to another location, but i can't find an option to copy it to another location - either a network drive or even locally attached external USB harddrive.

Is there a way to remotely access the ESXi box, tell it to backup the VM files to the USB harddrive attached to the ESXi box?

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Also, may be getting vCenter soon - will that solve all my backup problems or is it just a glorified version of vSphere client for monitoring more systems at once?

Thanks

-steve

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4 Replies
Yosias
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Steve

Check this thread out might help you out.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1473489#1473489

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Kasraeian
Expert
Expert

Hi,

You can also checking this link



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If you found this note/reply useful, please consider awarding points for "Correct" or "Helpful" If there's any mistake in my notes, please correct me! Sohrab Kasraeianfard | http://www.kasraeian.com | @Kasraeian
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DSTAVERT
Immortal
Immortal

The simplest method to add an external backup destination is to use NFS. You can easily build an NFS storage device with a spare server and a standard Linux install. Any will do. NFS is trivial to set up and the NFS share can be added as an additional datastore to your ESXi host. You can then use the ghettoVCB script to schedule the cloning of your running VMs. As an alternative to building your own you can find several small NAS devices by IOmega, Buffalo, etc that support NFS. These small devices are quite inexpensive. I have seen them for $200 and up.

-- David -- VMware Communities Moderator
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AndreTheGiant
Immortal
Immortal

ESXi cannot use the USB device from the "console". So the mount and copy solution does not work.

I agree with the network share solution.

Andre

Andrew | http://about.me/amauro | http://vinfrastructure.it/ | @Andrea_Mauro
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