VMware Cloud Community
Rajesh_k
Contributor
Contributor

Best way to backup VM and ESX host

Can anyone tell me the best way to backup ESX and VM?

Can I copy the VMDKs to any windows servers?

How do I restore the ESX or VM?

Help is appreciated

Reply
0 Kudos
11 Replies
khughes
Virtuoso
Virtuoso

There are many different ways to backup your VM's. Backing up the ESX host isn't that big of a deal because you can re-install ESX within 20 minutes. Some of the more popular programs to backup your vmdk files are esXpress and vRanger. We run esXpress and are very happy with the product and the support behind it. Each restore method is different per program so I would look at a couple different solutions and possibly talk with the vendors and find something that will fit your environment.

-- Kyle "RParker wrote: I guess I was wrong, everything CAN be virtualized "
Reply
0 Kudos
RParker
Immortal
Immortal

You don't need to worry about the ESX host, it takes 5 minutes to install, and there isn't anything on it you need to worry about, unless you make specific changes to configuration from the console. If you don't make custom changes to your host, then there is no need to back up the host. A new install is very fast, so restoring from backup would take longer than a simple reinstall.

VM's need specialize software. You can use 3rd party apps:

This is one is easy to use, simple to install. -

Reply
0 Kudos
Troy_Clavell
Immortal
Immortal

I agree, vRanger is a great product as well.

http://www.vizioncore.com/vRangerPro.html

Reply
0 Kudos
Cloneranger
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Yep I use esxpress also,

Its actually one of the best backup utils I have used,

Easy to setup, very clever interface,

AND most importantly its easy to perform restores,

And thats what backups are about at the end of the day, restores.

Reply
0 Kudos
ctfoster
Expert
Expert

I'd second that. Give esXpress a go.

It may not be to your liking if you 'live and die by the GUI' - but it backs up and restores. Thats all I want it to do.

Reply
0 Kudos
mike_laspina
Champion
Champion

Hello,

Great question. Good to hear someone thinking about "better" backups.

Well as the others helpful posts have indicated the ESX host itself is for the most part is a trivial rebuild cycle based on the availability of your host build procedure media etc.

I think that before we can say what is the best way we have to define what we want to recover from. If I just want to recover from a foobar ESX host incident then you need not worry about the license that is required to run the ESX host or the license server it will still be there.

When it comes to the VM that will be dependant on what it is running on it.

A database will need more care that a general application or file server.

Here are some of the things I look at when defining how I will backup a "system"

Recovery Point Objective and Recovery Time Objective

Crash recover state acceptable or Transactional only (DB's AD etc.)

Value of the data.

Volume of the data

Complexity to recover.

Backup Time Windows.

Software and hardware keys and licensing.

Encryption requirements.

Vaulting and retension.

For the most part I will backup simple VM's using a snapshot and dump them to a vaulted offsite tape library. (Covers a simple server gone foobar)

Otherwise it is OS integrated and has multiple external dependencies and with recovery componentsoutside of the backup function. e.g. CDROM image of a license server etc.

http://blog.laspina.ca/ vExpert 2009
Reply
0 Kudos
dconvery
Champion
Champion

The nice thing about Vizioncore vRanger is that you can use it with VCB to do LAN free backups...

Dave

Dave Convery, VCDX-DCV #20 ** http://www.tech-tap.com ** http://twitter.com/dconvery ** "Careful. We don't want to learn from this." -Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
Reply
0 Kudos
edawg
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hello Mike-

I am looking at the VRanger Pro option integrated with VCB and TSM. So far product looks great, but I was wondering if it will have any issues with a MYSql database that you are aware of? My main VM will be running a 200-300 Gb MYSql database and I have read some posts which state VCB might have problems snapping certain types of databases and maintaining database integrity. If this is the case do you know if VRangerPro will overcome this isse?

Thanks in advance,

Erik

Reply
0 Kudos
bidDAVE
Contributor
Contributor

I'd like to dig into ESX host backups...

We currently have 3rd party backup software that is backing up all hosts to tape storage that will most likely never be used (noted above that ESX installs are easier than finding tape/restore process). The only thing I could see these backups useful for is analyzing an intrusion into our systems (god forbid). We are looking at possibly retiring the backup process and just storing log files somewhere. Other than /var/log is there anything that should be saved or pertinent for VMware support to have in determining errors/intrusions on a host? What files are tar'ed up when the vmware support script is run? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Reply
0 Kudos
dconvery
Champion
Champion

Everything will be in /var/logs. You could also just set up s syslog server so everything posts to a single place. As for backups, you may be better off creating a kickstart script and automating a build.

Dave

Dave Convery, VCDX-DCV #20 ** http://www.tech-tap.com ** http://twitter.com/dconvery ** "Careful. We don't want to learn from this." -Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
Reply
0 Kudos
Texiwill
Leadership
Leadership

Hello,

If it is forensics you are worried about then I would use something like TCT (The Coroner's Toolkit) or its follow on. You may also be interested in reading through http://www.unixreview.com/documents/s=8472/ur0307l/ which may give you some more ideas on what to gather, etc.


Best regards,

Edward L. Haletky

VMware Communities User Moderator

====

Author of the book 'VMWare ESX Server in the Enterprise: Planning and Securing Virtualization Servers', Copyright 2008 Pearson Education.

CIO Virtualization Blog: http://www.cio.com/blog/index/topic/168354

As well as the Virtualization Wiki at http://www.astroarch.com/wiki/index.php/Virtualization

--
Edward L. Haletky
vExpert XIV: 2009-2023,
VMTN Community Moderator
vSphere Upgrade Saga: https://www.astroarch.com/blogs
GitHub Repo: https://github.com/Texiwill
Reply
0 Kudos