If you aren't snapping at the SAN level, then look for ghettoVCB.sh
This will take a snapshot, copy it elsewhere, remove the snapshot then label the folder. It has a rotation count, it will automount NFS volumes, or you can use the free Windows for Unix to get NFS, I use an NFS server for 50 bucks, and now Im on Starwind's iSCSI which is free for 2TB and a single connection per install. This all happens w/o shutting down. I do this to a management server with attached USB drives or internal S-ATA's and getting about 1.5gb/min. You can also run the rCMD which is the free remote command line tool interpreter from vmware. In vsphere 4 this is the only way to get your esxi backups because they made the shell unable to login like you can on the current esxi (root hack) From: Joseph L. Casale [mailto:jcas...@activenetwerx.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 3:09 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: VMWare tools here's what I do, all with the free version. I have a couple scenarios. Some vm's have disc's setup as RDM's from ZFS backed iSCSI targets, some vm's exist on ZFS backed NFS mounted vmfs stores. Doesn't matter. I script the proper shutdown of the vm, check that its off, then trigger a snap on the backend storage, then restart. You can do all of this through the perl rCLI or whatever the hell they call it now. If all your vmfs is/are local, you can still do everything but the snap, just code up a vmkfstools export to a remote server and waitJ No matter what these products that do warm backups say, your backup resembles pulling the cord out of the wall and imaging a physical server. Just because the newer ones use VSS etc, it doesn't mean every aspect fo the server behaves correctly when a quiesce is issued. I don't like this idea, and have never subscribed to it. jlc From: Bill Songstad [mailto:bsongs...@gmail.com] Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 9:01 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: VMWare tools I've been using ESXi 3.5 for about six months and I have run up on a need that is not covered in the free hypervisor. So, as any industrious sole might, I went to the VMware website to see what products might suit my needs. And Viola! There I discovered that the marketing folks at VMware are sadists probably hired from the microsoft licensing team. So what I am polling about here is this: What are the essential tools for managing VMware virtual servers? What I need is pretty simple. I just want to make backups of my servers that I can restore to a different host without shutting them down or at the very least by a script that I can run on Saturday nights. I don't necessarily need to have vmotion especially since the products that include it are more than my total server hardware budget. Are there less expensive tools from other publishers that I should check out? The VMware stuff is a little outside my budget as far as I can divine from their website. Any advice is appreciated, Bill ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
