VMware Backup

[vmmar]

Hi ,

i have vmware ESX server 3.1 with few instances that are linux and windows 2003 Os running. I need to take backup of all instances from vmware into one windows 2003 server (not vmware) which is storage box with high configuration.

Can you pls suggest the way to to take a backup from vmware ?

Any help would be highly appreciated..!!!

Thanks

[azn2kew]

You need to have destination storage so your virtual machines can be save to and since you have Windows 2003 as a file server, I would install NFS for Windows component so that your ESX hosts can see it. You can use free backup tool such as PHD esXpress, Veeam, vRanger, VCB 1.5 integration with existing backup software such as Backup Exec 12.5 or even using VISBU tool to back them up. You can also use BE 12.5 to backup a system state of all the virtual machines and can restore directly to a dummy virtual machine that way too if you do not have those backup softwares/tools available.

Basically you have to try and see which one works for you and it all depends how big your environment needs to backup. Most likely free version of Veeam or esXpress or VISBU would be fine. Make sure you have storage in place to point it to and you can even use Openfiler or FreeNAS, Starwind for cheap storage sources for backup.

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Regards,

Stefan Nguyen

VMware vExpert 2009

iGeek Systems Inc.

VMware, Citrix, Microsoft Consultant