Copying VMs offsite for maintainence?

[maxrebo]

We have an issue with one of our VM`s and was thinking I could make a copy of the VM and then work on it offline to fix\fault find , does anyone do this? We have a VM ware environment

[rich_tech]

I have done this in the past, exported a VM off to a standalone computer to fix stuff and look at issues with applications on it then reimported it onto the domain again.

 

Because an issue with a DB this product runs took down our whole sites main ERP system historically, so I had to check it all out offline in isolation before reimporting it again.

[penfold]

Probably wont help you now but Veeam allows you to do this in a SureBackup environment. We use Veeam to do our VM backups. It allows you to boot a backup/replica into a virtual lab and test the systems are able to start-up as expected. I've used it to run some upgrades on our live systems in a virtual lab so I was aware of any problems before attempting it on the live systems.

 

If you don't have Veeam you will probably have to go with what @rich_tech has done.

[maxrebo]

Probably wont help you now but Veeam allows you to do this in a SureBackup environment. We use Veeam to do our VM backups. It allows you to boot a backup/replica into a virtual lab and test the systems are able to start-up as expected. I've used it to run some upgrades on our live systems in a virtual lab so I was aware of any problems before attempting it on the live systems.

 

If you don't have Veeam you will probably have to go with what @rich_tech has done.

 

Yeah we use Veeam, I will look into that. thanks

[PotNoodleTech]

How about setting up a free ESXi server on a spare PC/Workstation and copy the entire VM over to it. Make sure there's no virtual networks configured so it can't get out onto the network, boot it up and have a play with it.

 

That way you do not have to take anything offsite and risk your data.

[maxrebo]

How about setting up a free ESXi server on a spare PC/Workstation and copy the entire VM over to it. Make sure there's no virtual networks configured so it can't get out onto the network, boot it up and have a play with it.

 

That way you do not have to take anything offsite and risk your data.

 

I think thats the way Im going to do it, I think its the "Export OVF" function in vSphere IIRC