AW: Backing up VMWare DSK Files using TSM 5.1

>Is anyone out there playing with VMWare ESX and TSM 5.1?  I am trying to
>backup the .dsk files but TSM is ignoring them.  Has anyone got any bright
>ideas on how to overcome this. We have even failed to backup the .dsk files
>when VMWare has been closed down.

Maybe virtual mount points could help, but we have some temporary space
available on the VMware machine's host disks, so this it what we do with the
guests system disk images:

- add a redo log to the guest disk, to unlock the dsk files (unless the
machine is down)
- copy the VMFS dsk-file to local vmdk-files (VMware workstation format),
using mkvmfstools -e
- commit and drop the redo log
- archive the vmdk files, with delete

Some advantage is that the VMFS volume where the disk resides on does not
have to be vmfs-mounted. Also the amount of time the redo log exists (and
probably fills up the volume) is not affected by availability problems of
the TSM server.

Usually it is a snapshot of a live system, with all its risks, something
like pulling out a hot-plug mirror, but it is nice the have last weeks
running system image installed in minutes, without downtime for backup.

Gruss, Andreas Kaiser

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Andreas Kaiser
SÜDKURIER GmbH, Medienhaus
Informationsverarbeitung, System und Netzwerktechnik
Max-Stromeyer-Straße 178
78467 Konstanz

Telefon:  +49 (07531) 999-1608
Fax:      +49 (07531) 999-77-1608
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