Free backup VMs

[EGS78]

Hi everyone,

Please, I have a question: Is there any free backup solution for VMWare vSphere? I have four hosts, and about 100 vms. I have to backup these vms, preferentially using full and incremental strategy. Is it possible?

Thanks in advance.

[daphnissov · Accepted solution]

If you have that many VMs and, presuming this is for a business (right?), you need to be looking at paid solutions. It's just not realistic to be operating a business with 100+ VMs on a free budget. I've dealt with this many times over the years and, while there might be a few things here and there for free, backup is about restore and you'll be feeling the pain with those free solutions in those cases.

[EGS78]

Hi daphnissov​,

Thanks for answering. Ok, I got it. It's a pity. In our structure (you are right, it's a business company. Actually, a government company), we have Avamar Backup. But, it isn't working. Therefore, I've been looking for another solution. But, that's ok.

Have a good one!

[daphnissov]

A community favorite (around here anyway) seems to be Veeam so you might want to have a look there.

[EGS78]

daphnissov​,

Yeah, I've seen it. But I didn't understand how it works...I visited the veeam website, and I saw the following:  "Note: Free vSphere Hypervisor (free ESXi) is not supported. vSphere Essentials or higher license level required". What does that mean? Is there any "Free vSphere Hypervisor"? If it exists, what's the difference between this type of "Free vSphere Hypervisor" and a regular vSphere?

Thank you

[daphnissov]

Yeah, there are no "real" backup tools (free or paid) that support the free ESXi (vSphere Hypervisor) version. Reason being that only a paid edition of ESXi unlocks the necessary APIs. So, essentially, you need some paid edition of ESXi in order to have proper backup, even if the tool is free or not.

[EGS78]

Hi daphnissov​ how are you doing today?

Sorry for the late reply. Ok, I got it. I will talk to my boss about it.

Thank you so much!

Best regards