How to do backup file thin?

[SmokeR8672]

Hello there!

cry from the heart

my boss, told me make a auto snapshots on VM's (ESXi 6.5 free edition) or another else simple way of auto backing up. I search in google how i can do that. Okay, i find vghettoVCB (veeam backup free edition doesn't work with free edition ESXi (б***ь, да вы серьезно!? Russian filthy language)).

yes, i know, snapshots - bad practice of backing up.

Okay. I use vghettoVCB (vmkfstools) for backing up. But backup files very "thick" even when i use parameter "thin". How it work? If I allocated for VM 700GB disk space in the VM settings - backup file size = 700GB.Okay, it FULL backup, i agree. But i choose "thin" parameter! And why if I do export in OVF file same VM, this file size ~ 5GB?

I transfer backup file on NFS share. And when i transfer 700Gb through local network.... it's not cool. after starting cloning (vghettoVCB (vmkfstools)), after 30 minutes, only 1% has been transfered!

I dont know what to do. I need small backup files, and i not understand...how arrr! Anyone help? God bless you, and your server if you help me.

[Nick_Andreev]

Thin disks is a vSphere feature. When you start exporting them from vSphere they become thick (вот такая х**ня), because information on which blocks are used and which are free is lost at this stage. The reason why OVF image is small is because OVF supports compression.

If you have a free edition of ESXi 6.5, there is not much you can do. There is Veeam Free Edition and vSphere Data Protection (VDP), but both require at least Essentials Plus.

You can write a PowerShell script with the help of PowerCLI to trigger VM snapshots on a schedule and add the script to some Windows Server's scheduler. But snapshots are not really a backup, because they are kept on the same local or external storage. So I would recommend to buy at least an Essentials Plus licence and it will give you more options.