Which Backup Solution To Use

[fitzie22]

I have been reading over all the materials about backing up our esx systems and am looking for some thoughts on what others are using. I like the like the idea of the consolidated backup but not the fact of having to have another server and space to put the copied files. Plus it seems like the setup and the configuration are cumbersome. (Is it true there is a Gui interface in the works for Sep.?) I like the file copy (agent on each vm) only for the fact of not having to have a dump for the copies and then having them go to tape. I saw a demo of esx Ranger Pro and liked that it seemed simpler than the other roads but again it would have to go to physical storage first and not directly to take. Let me know of experiences.

Thanks

[petedr]

The are plenty of threads on the forum going over this topic with a lot of different opinions on the best approach for backups. In the end it really depends on your environment and what approach best fits your needs. I would suggest trying out a couple of different solutions to determine the best approach.

In our environment we use esXpress (http://www.esxpress.com ). Their backups are done in the virtual space using VBAs ( Virtual Backup Appliances ). You do need another host to support backups ( like the case is for VCB). Each host is responsible for their own backups. For storing backups it can support FTP or SSH target or go directly to VMFS. In our environment we use a central backup server which we send our esXpress backups to and then write to tape from there. EsXpress supports alot of different features including their Delta technology which was big for us. Also their support is really good.

[ESXTechie]

Yes, the discussion on backup tools to use is indeed vast.

I personnaly like VMBK.PL, but you can also check other good free tools, like:

ESXpress - Particulary good because of it's delta technology backups and VBA (Virtual Backup Appliances). Didn't like the transfer method being limited to FTP (not sure about SSH), and not having the possibility of dividing the VMDK files in smaller chunks like VMBK.PL does. (this might be useful to FTP systems or OS's that cannot handle files bigger than 2Gb)

VISBU - its a similar utility that you can download from www.xtravirt.com

VCB - similar principle, from VMware, but only present on VI3

On the commercial software, esxRanger from Vizioncore seems to be very good.

[fitzie22]

ok I looked at the vmbk.pl prduct adn 2 questions. how would you schedule it to backup adn also I did not see a swqitch for incremental backups. did I misss something?

[m_d_sella]

In our environment, we use Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) for all of our standard file-level server back-ups. So each VM has the TSM client installed and is backed up individually (within the VM's OS) via scheduling on the TSM server.

We are also currently working on our VCB implementation. Our current objective is to use the TSM Integration Module for VCB and utilize TSM scheduling to send the full VM backups directly to offsite tape. As of now, we are hoping to run these back-ups weekly to give us a baseline restore point. In the event of a severe VM failure, we would then restore the baseline VM files from tape (at most 1 week old) and then once running, we would then finish the restore using our file-level TSM. The whole process start to finish would likely take about 45 minutes to complete. Additionally, with VCB there is no need to allocate more storage for the VM snapshots, as the VCB Framework merely creates a mount point on the proxy server that points to the actual files on the SAN, thus allowing TSM to grab the files directly and send them to tape. Generally, the TSM file-level back-up alone has been adequate in most cases, but with a growing need for offsite DR, the VCB/TSM solution seems like it will provide much better coverage.

I speak to TSM, as that is what we use. However, a similar solution could be accomplished with many other back-up software vendors including Veritas, EMC, CA, Symantec, etc. As previously mentioned, this type of solution would require VI3.

Hope This Helps,

Mike

[ESXTechie]

Yes and no.

VMBK.PL does not have the incremental backup feature, but it does include the means to schedule backups.

Check here: http://www.vmts.net/vmbkFAQ.htm

This is an example on how I'm currently doing it:

Step 1 - Create a shell script called vmbk-cron.sh that actually starts the backup itself. The code will include the command line above applied to every significant VM. It should look something like this:

#!/bin/bash

/usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm1/vm1.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

/usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm2/vm2.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

/usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm3/vm3.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

/usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm4/vm4.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

Just keep appending a new line per new VM to backup. Also, if there's the need of having a VMBK log file per backup, make sure logging is not enabled on the vmbk-default.conf file, and instead use the following parameter for HTML files

-L /path/log_file.htm

or use this one for text files

-l /path/log_file.txt

added to the command lines. This will allow the creation of a secluded log file per backup operation.

Step 2 - Change the file's permission, in order to allow it's execution as a shell script file:

chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/vmbk-cron.sh

Step 3 - Test the script. At this point you might want to edit the script and and the -t switch to perform all backups in test mode (see above).

Step 4 - After confirming the operations' success, edit the file with the adequate scheduling parameters and copy it to /etc/cron.d/vmbk-cron.sh so that final version should look something like this:

#!/bin/bash

00 20 * * 6 root /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm1/vm1.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

00 20 * * 6 root /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm2/vm2.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

00 20 * * 6 root /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm3/vm3.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

00 20 * * 6 root /usr/local/bin/vmbk.pl -x /home/vmware/vm4/vm4.vmx -C /usr/local/bin/vmbk-default.conf > /dev/nul

The first 5 parameters of a CRON file entry will refer, respectively, to minute, hour, day, month and day of the week (0 = sunday). An asterisk means every.

This means the above script will backup VM1, VM2, VM3 and VM4 starting at 20:00 (8:00pm) on every saturday.

If you're keen on using incremental backups, I think the only product doing it is ESXpress with its Delta technology backups.

Let me know if you need further assistance on this.

[petedr]

esXpress does support SSH now in addition to FTP targets as well as backups to VMFS. Their free product provides full backups but they have an inexpensive Starter edition which provides Delta backups.

[ESXTechie]

Thanks petedr. I just realized that.

[petedr]

I replied back to your message you sent me on how to set SSH up.