Ferdinando Pasqualetti <fpasq...@ccci.it> wrote: > > the cleanest way I found was a script to stop and export > the VMs on a local (to VM server) disk and rsync them on > a bacula server disk. In this manner we can move the VM on > another VMserver and save it on tape using bacula.
I have attacked this problem with a two-pronged approach. For VM's that need file-level restore and nightly incrementals, I have the Bacula client installed inside the client VM. Nothing special here at all, except that my Bacula Director is running on a VM as well. :-) For VM's that don't need file-level restore (as well as the above VM's), I am running monthly DR snapshots of every VM and storing those snapshots on a cheap portable NAS device. There's really no reason to involve Bacula in the process of backing up DR images, since you don't need file-level restores and let's face it 95% of the VM's in use these days probably won't fit on a tape or virtual tape library. I'm using a pair of consumer-grade portable NAS devices for these off-site DR backups, and they were just over $1,100 for about 5TB of formatted storage. VMware ESX/ESXi has the ability to snapshot a running VM and export it's disks into a backup image natively through the ESX service console. The commands for doing this are a little bit cryptic, but the API is there and it can easily be scripted with a little bit of research. The script that I am using to do this came from the VMware user forums a few years back, and is named vi-backup.pl . Unfortunately, a VMware partner vendor now owns this simple backup script, and you probably can't get your hands on it without paying for it. The nice thing about it was that it could mount/export to a CIFS network share (NAS), compressed the disk images down using VMware's tools, and the backup image that it built included a simple restore script to put the backup image back online with all of the restore options pre-filled in. I was just looking at ghettoVCB.sh for the first time yesterday, and it seems to have much of the base features of vi-backup.pl . It apparently can't do an export to a CIFS share, and looks like it needs a separate restore program to bring the image back in. It will do a hot snapshot backup to SAN, local disk, or NFS though. When VMware released ESX 3.0, the architecture included a well-documented API for third-party enterprise backup software to utilize for doing VM backups. It may be worth someone with some programming experience investigating this interface scheme to see if Bacula can exploit it for a plugin or something... -Arthur ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arthur Emerson III Email: emer...@msmc.edu Network Administrator InterNIC: AE81 Mount Saint Mary College MaBell: (845) 561-0800 Ext. 3109 330 Powell Ave. Fax: (845) 562-6762 Newburgh, NY 12550 SneakerNet: Aquinas Hall Room 60 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Throughout its 18-year history, RSA Conference consistently attracts the world's best and brightest in the field, creating opportunities for Conference attendees to learn about information security's most important issues through interactions with peers, luminaries and emerging and established companies. http://p.sf.net/sfu/rsaconf-dev2dev _______________________________________________ Bacula-users mailing list Bacula-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-users