Too true on the Hot backup getting you a crash consistent image, What I do is prior to backing them up run a script that shuts the VM's down, the backups happen and once they're done VM's get powered back on.
Using this scenario we've gotten rid of Agent backup on the VM's we do this on. We Test the backups every day and they've been perfect to date -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2008 12:39 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: ESX backup solutions? Also using esXpress for a year or so now at several different clients of mine. Very happy with the results. We also do data backups via BackupExec as well. The hot-backups of the VMs with esXpress are done for extra piece of mind but we don't rely on them. Still, so far, they have proven to be a good tool. Using the Professional version at 3 different places now. The free one is okay, but limited by speed, no auto-delete of old backups, etc. JR Original Message: ----------------- From: Garcia-Moran, Carlos [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Thu, 6 Nov 2008 09:30:20 -0500 To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com Subject: RE: ESX backup solutions? 2nd Vote for EsXpress. We've been using it for the past year and I have to say it rocks, As noted you can download a free copy of their basic product and a 30 eval. The basic free copy only allows you to do Full's which is not bad if you have the space / speed. Their Enterprise version comes with everything and it's $1999 List , which is not bad at all The setup we have is Site one back's up all the VM's on Three hosts to Site two by FTP every night, we do Delta's nightly and Full's on the weekends, The Host's on Site Two scans the FTP backup Dir and restores the VMDK's from the night before every morning, so to us it's pretty much BCP on Site two. While the program doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles it's does one thing and does it well. Their next version comes with Dedup, block level stuff and central management coming in Dec. For the price it's very hard to beat From: Jeff Frantz [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 6:54 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: ESX backup solutions? Damien, I've used esXpress for about 1.5 years and I highly recommend it. All in all, it's a fast, inexpensive, and easy to use product. I back up to an 8TB NAS box via FTP then copy full backups to external USB drives weekly for off-site storage. You can backup to a VMFS volume, or use FTP, NFS, or SMB. esXpress has always worked flawlessly, it's easy to configure, and you don't need the program to restore a backup. The delta backups are executable with code to restore themselves. I purchased their file level backup (FLB) option about 7 months ago which allows you to zip up files and/or directories within a Windows VM client. I use it for keeping archives of files such. The FLB isn't sophisticated but it works well. They also have great support forums. Usually questions are answered by the esXpress staff within minutes of being posted. You may want to read through some of the forum questions. It's a good resource and it may give you a better idea of what others are doing with the product. I highly suggest you try it out. You can download a free copy of esXpress from their website. It will take you about 10 minutes to set up and it won't "pollute" your ESX host should you decide not to use it. -Jeff ________________________________ From: Damien Solodow [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 5:22 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: ESX backup solutions? We are looking at some packages for backups and the like of ESX guests. Most things I've seen say that VCB comes up a bit short, and the two products I've seen much about are vRanger, and esXpress. Any experiences, anecdotes, etc on either of these? Other options worth looking into? Damien Solodow, MCSE Senior System Administrator Infrastructure Services Group Information Services Indiana Business College [EMAIL PROTECTED] Direct - (317) 217-6881 We are the Foundation of how Business Gets Done! _________________________________________________________ This e-mail, including attachments, contains information that is confidential and may be protected by attorney/client or other privileges. This e-mail, including attachments, constitutes non-public information intended to be conveyed only to the designated recipient(s). If you are not an intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any unauthorized use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this e-mail, including attachments, is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. 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