www.vmware.com/pdf/vi3_vm_backup.pdf 


Phil Koster
Network Administrator
City of Grand Rapids
Direct: 616-456-3136
Helpdesk: 456-3999


-----Original Message-----
From: David Rock [mailto:dave-bu at graniteweb.com] 
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2006 2:13 PM
To: veritas-bu at mailman.eng.auburn.edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] NBU 5.1 and best VMWare Host backup practices

* Scott Jacobson <SJACOBSO at novell.com> [2006-08-31 09:18]:
> VMWare guru's
> 
> For now we are going with direct Native or Standard Client based 
> backups of a Hosts "Guests" (working just fine actually) rather that 
> snapshots.
> After scouring both WEB sites, I can only find information about 
> "snapshot" based backups for "Guests".
> What I'm looking for are references to the "Hosts" backup, 
> specifically, what files need to be backed up and used for a restore 
> if I needed to lay down a new OS and then restore the files necessary 
> that would allow me to then restore those Guests previously defined on 
> that Host.

It's pretty straightforward fo the most part.  Essentially you need to back up 
the config file for the vm and the vmdks.  Some details that are important are 
what version of VMware, planning a schedule to put the guest in a quite mode so 
the disk files can be backed up, etc.  You are basically doing a "normal" 
backup of the host system.  

Information about specific files will be somewhat dependant on which VMware 
product you are using, but the methodology is pretty much the same.

--
David Rock
david at graniteweb.com
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