rdiff-backup in esxi 4

[bdh13579]

I have seen other posts where users have created a statically built rsync executable and used it as a daemon in esxi. Is there any way to do the same thing with rdiff-backup? Thanks in advance for any help.

[DSTAVERT · Accepted solution]

The more you try to run inside the limited ESXi space the more unstable your ESXi host can become. There are many ways to make clones of your VM's. Have a look at ghettoVCB script in these forums. Consider using rdiff-backup inside the VM's themselves. Break up large drives into smaller more manageable chunks and treat the data differently based on it's importance. Treat OS partitions differently than data partitions.

[bdh13579]

I understand, but I am looking for a guest independent solution. I would like to power down the VM, copy any changes to each of the VM's files to a backup target, and then power on the VM again. ghettoVCB using an NFS share as a target is a great backup tool. An rsync daemon works very well in ESXi 4 to quickly transfer the files. The problem is that all of these tools capture full snapshots of all of the data, not incremental changes to a base set of files (like rdiff-backup). I would like to run an rdiff-backup daemon in ESXi as a more efficient option to backup the VM files. I have already successfully run an rsync daemon in ESXi with no problem and pretty decent speeds (not quite as fast as FTP though). Thanks for the help.

[AndreTheGiant]

You can try to build a static binary from a Linux box... at your risk

For example this is for rsync build:

http://wiki.neddix.com/How_to_make_a_statically_linked_Rsync_Binary

Andre

[bdh13579]

Thanks, that is exactly the kind of information I was looking for. I will try that.

[bdh13579]

I thought I would post what I ended up doing after a lot of experimentation. I never could figure out how to statically compile rdiff-backup and I ended up agreeing with what DSTAVERT said about not running additional software in ESXi (rsync or FTP daemon). I now just use the ftpput command included in busybox to upload the files to an FTP server. I can then run whatever software I want on the server (i.e. rdiff-backup). This provides a way to achieve fast transfer speeds (40+ MB/s on a gigabit network with 2 7.2K RPM SATA hard drives in raid 1) without adding extra software to the ESXi box. Thanks for the replies I received.

[DSTAVERT]

Look into NFS storage. Add the NFS as a datastore and use the ghettovcb or just copy the vmdks between datastores.

[bdh13579]

I already tried that. I used a decently powered windows machine as an NFS server and I didn't get speeds any faster than scp (4-5 MB/s). The only way I have found in ESXi to transfer files quickly is an rsync daemon (because it doesn't have to rely on slow SSH), an FTP daemon (extremely fast transfer speeds: 40+ MB/s), or ftpput to an external FTP server (40+ MB/s).

[DSTAVERT]

Windows is a terrible NFS datastore. Also ghettoVCB does not use SSH. I can get 100MB/s and more with a good LINUX or OPEN-E NFS server.

[kpc]

may be worth checking out running a linux based NFS server, I get great speeds, can schedule cronjobs easily etc. Ghetto works a treat...