ghettoVCB
ghettoVCB.sh - Free alternative for backing up VM's for ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.x+ - Updated 09/28/2010
ghettoVCBg2 - Free alternative for backing up VMs in ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.x (no SSH console required!)
This script performs backups of virtual machines residing on ESX(i) 3.5/4.0+ servers using methodology similar to VMware's VCB tool.
It's created and well maintained by lamw
Other script based solutions
Another ESXi backup script
http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/gabrielmaciel/2008/12/08/free-vm-backup-alternative-for-esx-35-a...
Re: Free ESXi Backup Solution for Windows
Any new backup VM Solutions - ESX 3.5
VMware Converter Standalone
http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/
Is not designed as a backup solution, but could be used also for this purpose.
File copy solutions
For a powered off VM is possible to simple copy all the files in the VM folder.
To use also with a powered on VM you need to do create a VMware snapshot to unlock the *-flat.vmdk files
To make this copy several tools could be used:
VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)
VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)
Note that next product version will not include VCB anymore
VMware Data Recovery (VDR)
http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-data-recovery/
VMware Data Recovery (VDR) as a backup solution
This solution could be fine for small environment... But has some limits.
Veeam Backup & Replication
http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-backup.html
Veeam Backup 5.x
http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_5_0_whats_new_wn.pdf
Veeam Backup 4.x
http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_4_1_user_guide_pg.pdf
http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_4_1_whats_new_wn.pdf
Veeam Backup & Replication 4 offers a major breakthrough in full and incremental backup speeds. Using technological advancements within VMware vSphere 4 and the VMware vStorage APIs for data protection, Veeam customers experienced the following benefits derived from native support of thin provisioned disks and changed block tracking
Veeam Backup 3.x
http://veeam.com/vmware-esx-server/backup/documents/Veeam_Backup_User_Guide_3.0.pdf
Veeam Backup & Replication is the first enterprise-ready solution that combines backup and replication in a single product for fast recovery of your VMware ESX servers. Backup is easy, but recovery can be hard – and that’s when the clock is ticking loudest. But with Veeam Backup & Replication, fast recovery is easier than you ever thought possible.
Quest (Vizioncore) vRanger Pro
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/documents/vRangerProUserManual_Eng.pdf
vRanger Pro 4 Data Protection Platform
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/literature.php
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/documents/vRangerPro-DPP-FAQ.pdf
vRanger Pro Data Protection Platform (DPP) is a comprehensive backup and recovery solution for virtual infrastructures that complements existing data protection strategies to reduce the backup window with minimal impact on IT resources. With vRanger Pro, administrators can ensure all virtual assets are properly backed up on a regular basis and that "computing ready" virtual environments can be restored and populated with recovered data as quickly as possible. With faster VM recovery organizations can minimize costly outages to applications and business services.
vRanger Pro 3.3
http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/vRanger3x.php
Vizioncre vRanger Pro 3.3 is the ideal solution for customers wanting the same reliability of vRanger Pro 4.0 DPP but require features that are not yet supported in the 4.0 version. Supports VMware 3.X, 4.0 (vSphere) and ESXi.
Trilead VM Explorer
http://www.trilead.com/
Trilead VM Explorer is a management tool that eases management, backup and disaster recovery tasks in your VMware ESX environment. Backups can be stored to ESX, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD based storage platforms or directly to a SAN. VM Explorer has only to be licenced once for your infrastructure, you don't have to pay any fees per ESX Server, CPU, or anything similar.
PHD Virtual esXpress
http://phdvirtual.com/products/esxpress-virtual-backup
esXpress radically alters the notion of how to protect data in virtual infrastructures in one simple way: we use the virtual infrastructure to backup and restore itself!
esXpress v3.6 is Compatible with VMware ESX v3, v3.5 and vSphere4.
PHD Virtual in the current 5.x product now supports ESXi and you can backup to network storage (CIFS/NFS) as well as local attached disk.
vBackup
http://www.vbackup.com
Another good option. vBackup's Standard Edition is free and should provide all of the functionality needed in small environments.
With the free version of ESXi then you cannot actually use a third party tool to perform any backups. This is against your EULA. If it is the paid version of ESXi go for it.
So be sure which you are using to be sure you do not violate the EULA.
As for other mechanisms, you can snapshot the VM and then copy the data via the vSphere Client/VIC as well. There is also VMware Converter. These tools do not violate the EULA.
See also: http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/?p=274 - VMware Forcing Third Parties to NOT Sell Products for Free ESXi
If you have a stora NFS base, then file copy could be simple...
For other shared storage you can use storage snapshots.
You can use the RCLI to make a backup configuration of your ESXi host using
esxcfg-cfgbackup
You can find more information for the RCLI documentation here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_rcli.pdf
There are also other ways to do a backup of ESXi configuration, see:
http://www.r71.nl/index.php/kb/technical/212-vmware-esxi-configuration-backup
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/DG/ESXi_3_5_U4/HTML/app_c.htm
Nice collection of backup tools. I have posted a reference to this a couple of times.
Thanks
Thanks, I'm glad that it is useful
Great reference, though started to get out of date. You might want to start updating it as many people still hit this page for resources. Veeam has released v6 a while back and PHD Virtual has just released v6.1. Maybe you can as well have the following comparison between the two between your references:
http://www.itcomparison.com/Backup/VirtualPHDvsVeeam/VirtualPHDvsVeeam.htm
Enjoy,
Eiad
vmware replication is now free in v5.1 under most licences.
I have linked a short howto video to help people get acquainted with vmware replication
At VMWorld 2013, Unitrends announced a free edition of its Unitrends Enterprise Backup software for up to four virtual machines that runs on the unlicensed -- free-- version of VMware vSphere Hypervisor.
Solution Highlights
You can download the free edition here: http://go.unitrends.com/unitrends-and-free-esxi
Hi AndreTheGiant, thank you for the great summary!
I just wanted to mention that Veeam released a free edition of its backup solution called Veeam Backup Free Edition. Could you please put it on your list?
Veeam Backup Free Edition provides a subset of the functionality of the paid version enough for day-to-day VM management. It's built for virtualization and fully supports VMware.
With Veeam Backup Free Edition you can:
It's important that Veeam Backup Free Edition is completely free and has no limitations on the number of VMs and no expiration date. The minimum required VMware licensing is vSphere Essentials (with the unlocked vStorage APIs for Data Protection).
You can download Veeam Backup Free Edition for VMware here: http://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html
Please let me know if any questions will appear.
----
Veeam Community Manager
Kudos to this great work!!!
Great summary!
Here I find a perfect VMware ESXi backup solution---Vinchin Backup & Recovery, which has helped me deal with many backup and recovery problems. It also provide free edition.
It can performs image-based, incremental and crash-consistent backup for standalone ESXi and vCenter server environments. You can backup your VMware VMs via separated backup network or LAN-Free path for minimal network bandwidth consumption. Besides, it also supports powerful anti-ransomware feature and V2V migration between many virtualized platforms!