Backing up VM's ESX 4.1 ( Free )

[MicrosoftTechy]

Hi,

 

Has anyone come across a free / cheap solution to backing up ESX VM's? while there live?

[K.C.Leblanc]

Depending on which version of VMware you have you might be able to use VMWare Consolidated Backup. I've used this for a while and it works well.

 

But if I wasn't about to leave I'd be having a look at this;

 

Free virtual machine backup - Veeam Backup

[MicrosoftTechy]

Dose Veeam pause the VM?

[glennda]

Dose Veeam pause the VM?

 

No - well not the paid for version anyway. Veeam creates a snapshot of the vm and then takes a copy of the orginal disks using Change block tracking (to make incremental backups super quick). Onces its finished it commits the snapshot back.

 

It also supports replication to a DR site.

[3s-gtech]

There's also GhettoVCB, it has been great with 4.1 but I think I'll move to Veeam with our new 5.1 installs. GhettoVCB doesn't pause the VM, and it copies across nicely to our NFS NAS. Bit involved to set up compared to some solutions.

[glennda]

There's also GhettoVCB, it has been great with 4.1 but I think I'll move to Veeam with our new 5.1 installs. GhettoVCB doesn't pause the VM, and it copies across nicely to our NFS NAS. Bit involved to set up compared to some solutions.

 

Have you seen the new features in 6.5? Including the Veeam Explorer for both exchange and San Snapshots.

[eddyc]

Although not free, I would also recommend Veeam - been very impressed with it.

[twin--turbo]

Setup ghettoVCB yesterday in the office in about 15 mins.

 

And again last night at home.

 

Works a treat.

[3s-gtech]

Nah not played with Veeam yet - not sure there was a free version when I set my backup scheme up a couple of years ago. The features do look crazy though for free software - it's got me sold. Just about to set up my new VM host so that's what I'll use.

[glennda]

Nah not played with Veeam yet - not sure there was a free version when I set my backup scheme up a couple of years ago. The features do look crazy though for free software - it's got me sold. Just about to set up my new VM host so that's what I'll use.

 

Veeam isn't free but not that expensive at all in comparison to other softwares.

[twin--turbo]

Is it not limited to manual backups in the free version?

 

 

I now need to do XEN centre ..

 

Rob

[localzuk]

Veeam isn't free but not that expensive at all in comparison to other softwares.

 

There is a free version of it. Free virtual machine backup - Veeam Backup

[3s-gtech]

^^Yup, that's what I saw and was so interested in. If it's as good as it looks, we could move to a paid version but the free edition is pretty feature rich.

[twin--turbo]

As I say, I think there is no automation which is a killer for me.

 

Rob

[localzuk]

As I say, I think there is no automation which is a killer for me.

 

Rob

 

Not such an issue to me, as old fashioned tape changes required manual intervention every day to deal with, so setting a backup off each time we want to on a schedule isn't a big problem. Just make it part of the routine.

[oxide54]

Not such an issue to me, as old fashioned tape changes required manual intervention every day to deal with, so setting a backup off each time we want to on a schedule isn't a big problem. Just make it part of the routine.

 

far to prone to human error for my liking,

 

out backup routine consists of eject tape print expiry date, put in safe. replace tape with new or reused tape. changing the tape is a daily routine but the autoloader means if everyone is ill or similar the backup will still run for 4 days.

[oxide54]

Hi,

 

Has anyone come across a free / cheap solution to backing up ESX VM's? while there live?

 

vmware consolidated backup, did i not send you my scripts?