Backing up VM's to a Windows server or ghost, etc.

[REALM]

So I have 40 Windows VM's on ESX servers connected to a SAN.

I want to backup all these VM's. I'm looking into VCB, but it's going to take me weeks to understand how it implements with Legato.

I was just going to create ghost images and dump them onto a Windows server and then burn to a gazillion DVD's., but booting with a ghost network disk gives TCP/IP problems. I guess the VM doesn't see the network within DOS? It let's me pick Ghostcast server so I think I have the right AMD card the VM is using, but it TCP/IP errors out.

What other quick alternative do I have or is there a fix for the ghost boot? I'm not Linux savy, I've tried for weeks and cant' figure out how to burn the VM files to anywhere I can get it. I need data accessible to a Windows box, so ghost seemed perfect. I can clone, but it's still Linux based within ESX. In Linux all I can do is login to the thing and change directories... that's it.

My plan was to present SAN luns to my Ghost Windows box, then ghost the VM's individually to there, and then burn to DVD's, but I can't get Ghost to work with the VM.

Please help a Linux challenged person. I've tried... I just can't get Linux without some sort of training, which I don't have time for before this is critical. Thank you.

[esiebert7625]

You can try just snapping your VM's then copying the vm disk files to a Windows server and then back them up from there. There are several scripts available that do this, here's a couple of them.

Perl Backup Script for Vmware ESX - vmbk.pl ( free ) - http://www.vmts.net/vmbk.htm

Backup scripts - http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=23 and http://www.rtfm-ed.co.uk/?p=156

Shell script - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?messageID=475244

Perl script - http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=70253&start=0&tstart=0

Eric Siebert

VMware Communities User Moderator

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[ejward · Accepted solution]

Scrap everything you've been doing and get either .... it's free. Or This . it's licensed by CPU on the host so it's not too bad. it's cheaper than buying 40 copies of your backup agent. I'm not sure how Ghost is licensed but, don't you need a copy for each VM? Anyway, both of these products will do a backup at the host level. Esxpress requires you to do stuff at the Linux level to get it installed. VRanger is all Windows. They will both dump the VM to a file without taking the VM down.

The problem with Ghost and a backup client within the VM is that your going to potentially have 40 VMs doing a backup at the same time. This will ramp up the memory and CPU of the host that these VMs are on.

[ctfoster]

I agree with ejward - but don't be too put off by the linux discription of esXpress. Apart from the initial one line install, all the config is done through a charming retro 80's style interface that runs on the service console. It has a solidity and simplicity that other backup software can only dream of ! It has a GUI but is currently broken in 3.5. I've never used it and therefore don't miss it.

You can backup up to a SMB share directly, or as I do use an FTP source that is reshared as SMB. The preferred target is actually a Windows server running the 'FileZilla" ftp software. As ejward has mentioned you could put the whole package together for nothing but I think after trying it you'll buy into the solution for the extras and to relieve yourself of the embarrasment that you really should be paying for something that works so well.

[ejward]

I didn't mean to put you off on esXpress. It is very easy. I just understand from experience the fear of the Linux prompt.