I apologize if I caused some confusion. I suppose I forgot that the OP was asking about backup solutions for ESXi (presumably the free version). My responses were all about ESX, and it seems that Veeam for one, *used* to backup the free version of ESXi, but doesn't any longer at the behest of VMWare, though they still support the for-pay version. (Pretty lame IMHO, though I understand the reasoning.) http://www.veeam.com/news/veeam-software-offers-new-essentials-bundle-acceleration-kits-for-vmware-vsphere4.html
With regard to vRanger 3.X, I don't see on their site where they differentiate between ESXi versions (thought it wouldn't surprise me to discover that they're under the same thumb screws from VMWare as Veeam). If you've got a valid trial key they will support you 100%, so I suggest giving them a call. If you don't get the answers you need contact me off list and I'll see if I can get some answers for you. RS On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 10:13 PM, Benjamin Zachary - Lists <li...@levelfive.us> wrote: > I spoke to veeam and they don't support the free ESXi w/o the foundation > tools, which I thought was strange because the free version worked .. > > I checked out vranger 3.3 and it requires vcb, none of my machines are > available for backup w/o it. I tested this by doing a new install, if I put > in the free license key vranger wont work, if I unregister it back to the 60 > day trial which has VCB it works just fine. > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Stovall [mailto:richard.stov...@researchdata.com] > Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 2:43 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: RE: VMWare tools > > Just to reiterate. It is *not* necessary to use VCB with all 3rd party > backup products for VMWare. Veeam and vRanger both have the option to > do network backups. > > The benefit of VCB is that your proxy is hooked straight into the LUNs > and there are almost no resources used on the ESX hosts. As others have > mentioned, the problem comes in when backing up databases such as SQL > and Exchange. You have to quiesce the OS and databases somehow or all > you'll get are 'crash-consistent' backups that may or may not be useful. > > I'm using vRanger 3.X + VCB and freezing the databases with the VSS > support builtin to the ESX 3.5 U4 VMWare tools. With vRanger you have to > be very careful with how to set this up, and I received excellent > guidance from their support team. > > So far I've restored a couple of VMs with SQL databases and everything's > been fine. > > -----Original Message----- > From: mse...@ont.com [mailto:mse...@ont.com] > Sent: Wednesday, September 30, 2009 1:12 PM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: VMWare tools > > Yes, all third party products use VCB, however, VCB by itself is a > little > more difficult to setup. The third party product eliminates having to do > all of the custom scripting. > > Original Message: > ----------------- > From: Jonathan Link jonathan.l...@gmail.com > Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 12:56:10 -0400 > To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com > Subject: Re: VMWare tools > > > vRanger uses VCB. IIRC, all third party backup solutions for VM's > require > VCB. > > On Wed, Sep 30, 2009 at 12:51 PM, mse...@ont.com <mse...@ont.com> wrote: > >> You can use VCB or third party backup solution such as vRanger. The > key is >> what are your backup needs and budget. VCB works in conjuction with > third >> party products to do full VMDK and file level backups. The key is if > you >> need your VM nees quiesed before snapshot. I believe VCB alone may not > do >> this. Plus with VCB alone you will have to setup backup scripts > manually. >> The best solution if your budget allows is a third party solution > installed >> on a backup proxy. >> >> Mike >> >> Original Message: >> ----------------- >> From: Bill Songstad bsongs...@gmail.com >> Date: Wed, 30 Sep 2009 08:01:27 -0700 >> To: ntsysadmin@lyris.sunbelt-software.com >> 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/> ~ >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------- >> mail2web.com - Microsoft(r) Exchange solutions from a leading provider > - >> http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange >> >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > -------------------------------------------------------------------- > mail2web - Check your email from the web at > http://link.mail2web.com/mail2web > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > > > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
