Hi
I would also suggest that you do not use a VM as your backup server, mostly because Backups servers needs restarts with Library problems, then you need to restart the Whole ESX Box. Other reason is that I could not get it to work 🙂
I do however use VMs as Media servers to do large VM backups straight to tape.
My Experience:
I set up a Backup server on a VM using HP Dataprotector.
What i found was that the VM does not communicate with the Robotics all that well.
I could do a backup, but when it finished, the command that the tape was put back into the Library slot never came back to the VM, so the backup fails.
What i did manage to do is make File servers Media servers only. So I present the "Tape drives only" to the ESX box (which needs a reboot) and then assign the 4+ tape drives to the File Server VM as SCSI devices. (this makes the VM fixed to the ESX host)
So the Robotics are controlled by a Physical server, but the VM can backup straight to tape.
This works like a charm and the backup speed is x5 quicker than backing up over the network.
This do however have its con's like VMotion and HA will not work, In a HA scenario, you will need to remove the SCSI Tape Libraries before the VM will start
Regards
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