VMware Consolidated Backups

[mhoward1977]

Hi,

I have just configured VCB with Backup Exec which is fine. I can successfuly snapshot and backup my guests. My query is that I was expecting to basically be able to backup the flat .vmdk etc files. Instead the process presents with a DIR for each guest VM and then within there, 2 further DIR's (digits & letters) which both contain the entire file system for the VM.

Is this correct?

[ejward]

I believe that is correct. You can't do an image type backup with the normal Netbackup agent. I believe they have a seperate product to do that. Or, you may want to check out Esxpress or vRanger.

[kjb007]

Depends on what type of backup you are performing. An image level backup will allow you to do full vmdk backups, while a file level lets you backup full filesystem as well as incremental.

-KjB

[mhoward1977]

It is the image level I am aiming for. My current configuration does not present this though?

I didn't think I required any further agents/plugins for backup exec. Am I wrong?

[conradsia]

You need to append Full-Backup or something like that to your pre-command to run an image backup. I can't check the exact command but look in the pdf for the command, there are examples and probably more on this forum.

[kjb007 · Accepted solution]

You need to specify "-t fullvm " in your vcbMounter.exe command to use fullvm instead .

Backup Exec will work just fine with image level and file level. Just change your option type to fullvm and then make sure you have enough disk space to hold the entire vm's disk, and then you can backup the vm in its entirety.

-KjB

[kjb007]

This thread should help you out a bit: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/58818

-KjB

[emklennert]

I am curious about one thing with VCB.

Do we need to have Virtual Center Server to have VCB work if we have more than one host server? We currently have ESX Standard Edition running on two physical servers with six total VMs spread out on the two. Some of the documentation hinted at that. We would really have no need outside of that to try and justify the expense of the Virtual Center Server. I might be out of luck for image level backups using Backup Exec.

[kjb007]

You should be able to point VCB to the esx host directly, so it should work, but I haven't tested it this way.

-KjB