VMware Cloud Community
bigblack1
Contributor
Contributor

Best backup solution for 4 separate ESXi hosts with one vSphere?

Currently we have 4 separate ESXI 6 servers (Dual XEON, 128GB RAM, 12TB RAID, 1Gbit LAN) with 8-10 virtual machines running on each, having about 5TB of free space. All servers are connected to one vShpere virtual server, located on the one of those 4 ESXi servers. We need a backup solution which would provide us with the following possibilities: 1) Full (daily inceremntal) back up of every virtual machine, so if one of our ESXi hosts fails we can continue our work in 20-30 minutes. 2) If any of our virtual machines fails, we can revert to 1-7 days backup. 3) During daily backups VM should countinue to run without noticebale performance impact. Better if backups could run at night (but without stopping VM's). AFAIK VMware offers 2 possible solutions: VSphere Replication & vSphere Data Protection. Which one suits our needs better? What if host with vsphere server & VR or VDP appliance failes? Is it possible to have 2 vsphere servers & 2 appliance servers? Thank you in advance for comments.

Reply
0 Kudos
2 Replies
JohnStech
Contributor
Contributor

Veeam,  but that licensing will be expensive.   I think there are direct competitors to Veeam, less expensive these days.   The advantage of Veeam or products that provide the same functionality is not only backups, but you get real replications that are ready to run in case of failure.   These days you just add an ISCSI box for storage and you are ready to roll with veeam.    Lots of cheap iSCSI software out there these days.   We use a product by Kernsafe, rips performance wise with 10Gig ethernet and cheap SSD based raids.   But works well with 1gig pipes and mechanical drives also.  The Veeam guest can be replicated as well so you don't loose your backup guest,   Replicates efficiently off-site as well if you have a host(s) in any remote locations.  

Best of luck,   let us know what you implement.

Reply
0 Kudos
bigblack1
Contributor
Contributor

But what about VSphere Replication or vSphere Data Protection? They are free in case you have standard license?

Reply
0 Kudos