vmware官方推荐的几种VMware ESXi备份方案

既有免费的ghettoVCB备份，如ghettoVCB.sh支持 esxi5

ghettoVCB.sh - Free alternative for backing up VM's for ESX(i) 3.5, 4.x+ & 5.x

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760

也有Veeam Backup & Replication这种第三方商业备份工具。
http://www.veeam.com/cn/vmware-esx-backup.html
Veeam Backup & Replication专门为VMware vSphere而开发，旨在为ESX(i)虚拟机提供快速的备份和恢复支持（ESG：VMware恢复快77倍！）。利用Veeam
Backup & Replication，您可以从任何应用或文件系统恢复整个虚拟机或单个对象（所有这些都是基于相同的映像级备份），这在业内是绝无仅有的。

原文转帖：

Backup solutions for VMware ESXi

http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-10780

创建于: 2009-9-15 下午10:44 作者AndreTheGiant-最后修改: 2011-7-16
下午9:32作者
AndreTheGiant

Free solutions

ghettoVCB

ghettoVCB.sh - Free alternative for backing up VM's for ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.x+ - Updated 09/28/2010

ghettoVCBg2 - Free alternative for backing up VMs in ESX(i) 3.5 and 4.x (no SSH console required!)

This script performs backups of virtual machines residing on ESX(i) 3.5/4.0+ servers using methodology similar to VMware's VCB tool.

It's created and well maintained by
lamw

Other script based solutions

Another ESXi backup script

http://communities.vmware.com/blogs/gabrielmaciel/2008/12/08/free-vm-backup-alternative-for-esx-35-and-esxi

Re: Free ESXi Backup Solution for Windows

Any new backup VM Solutions - ESX 3.5

VMware Converter Standalone

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Is not designed as a backup solution, but could be used also for this purpose.

File copy solutions

For a powered off VM is possible to simple copy all the files in the VM folder.

To use also with a powered on VM you need to do create a VMware snapshot to unlock the *-flat.vmdk files

To make this copy several tools could be used:

Datastore browser (directly from VIC or vSphere Client)
SCP / Veeam fastSCP (need to enable SSH access: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/08/10/howto-esxi-and-ssh/)

VMware solutions (need license)

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB)

Note that next product version will not include VCB anymore

VMware Data Recovery (VDR)

http://www.vmware.com/products/vcenter-data-recovery/

VMware Data Recovery (VDR) as a backup solution

This solution could be fine for small environment... But has some limits.

Other commercial solutions

Veeam Backup & Replication

http://www.veeam.com/vmware-esx-backup.html

Veeam Backup 5.x

http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_5_0_whats_new_wn.pdf

Veeam Backup 4.x

http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_4_1_user_guide_pg.pdf

http://www.veeam.com/veeam_backup_4_1_whats_new_wn.pdf

Veeam Backup & Replication 4 offers a major breakthrough in full and incremental backup speeds. Using technological advancements within VMware vSphere 4 and the VMware vStorage APIs for data protection, Veeam customers experienced the following benefits
derived from native support of thin provisioned disks and changed block tracking

Veeam Backup 3.x

http://veeam.com/vmware-esx-server/backup/documents/Veeam_Backup_User_Guide_3.0.pdf

Veeam Backup & Replication is the first enterprise-ready solution that combines backup and replication in a single product for fast recovery of your VMware ESX servers. Backup is easy, but recovery can be hard – and that’s when the clock is ticking loudest.
But with Veeam Backup & Replication, fast recovery is easier than you ever thought possible.

Quest (Vizioncore) vRanger Pro

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/documents/vRangerProUserManual_Eng.pdf

vRanger Pro 4 Data Protection Platform

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/literature.php

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/documents/vRangerPro-DPP-FAQ.pdf

vRanger Pro Data Protection Platform (DPP) is a comprehensive backup and recovery solution for virtual infrastructures that complements existing data protection strategies to reduce the backup window with minimal impact on IT resources. With vRanger Pro,
administrators can ensure all virtual assets are properly backed up on a regular basis and that "computing ready" virtual environments can be restored and populated with recovered data as quickly as possible. With faster VM recovery organizations can minimize
costly outages to applications and business services.

vRanger Pro 3.3

http://www.vizioncore.com/products/vRangerPro/vRanger3x.php

Vizioncre vRanger Pro 3.3 is the ideal solution for customers wanting the same reliability of vRanger Pro 4.0 DPP but require features that are not yet supported in the 4.0 version. Supports VMware 3.X, 4.0 (vSphere) and ESXi.

Trilead VM Explorer

http://www.trilead.com/

Trilead VM Explorer is a management tool that eases management, backup and disaster recovery tasks in your VMware ESX environment. Backups can be stored to ESX, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD based storage platforms or directly to a SAN. VM Explorer has only
to be licenced once for your infrastructure, you don't have to pay any fees per ESX Server, CPU, or anything similar.

PHD Virtual esXpress

http://phdvirtual.com/products/esxpress-virtual-backup

esXpress radically alters the notion of how to protect data in virtual infrastructures in one simple way: we use the virtual infrastructure to backup and restore itself!

esXpress v3.6 is Compatible with VMware ESX v3, v3.5 and vSphere4.

PHD Virtual in the current 5.x product now supports ESXi and you can backup to network storage (CIFS/NFS) as well as local attached disk.

vBackup

http://www.vbackup.com

Another good option. vBackup's Standard Edition is free and should provide all of the functionality needed in small environments.

The free ESXi "problem"

With the free version of ESXi then you cannot actually use a third party tool to perform any backups. This is against your EULA. If it is the paid version of ESXi go for it.

So be sure which you are using to be sure you do not violate the EULA.

As for other mechanisms, you can snapshot the VM and then copy the data via the vSphere Client/VIC as well. There is also VMware Converter. These tools do not violate the EULA.

See also: http://www.virtualizationpractice.com/blog/?p=274 - VMware Forcing Third Parties to NOT Sell Products for Free ESXi

Storage based solutions

If you have a stora NFS base, then file copy could be simple...

For other shared storage you can use storage snapshots.

Backup ESXi configuration

You can use the RCLI to make a backup configuration of your ESXi host using

esxcfg-cfgbackup

You can find more information for the RCLI documentation here: http://www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_35/esx_3/r35u2/vi3_35_25_u2_rcli.pdf
There are also other ways to do a backup of ESXi configuration, see:

http://www.r71.nl/index.php/kb/technical/212-vmware-esxi-configuration-backup

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/eslvmwre/DG/ESXi_3_5_U4/HTML/app_c.htm