We looked at this from both angles. First from the point of creating a 
VMcluster of only guests that require backups and sub-capacity licensing and 
only backing up vm guests that require backups. Turned out we didn't have 
enough guests in any one site to justify licensing a 6 node - 8 core VMcluster 
for TSM.  
So we are looking deeper into sub capacity licensing and making sure there 
aren't any gotchas. It is the most cost effective way, but also doesn't 
penalize you if you need to eventually license the entire ESX node. 

However, I have come across a concern that hopefully someone can help me with. 
Right now we are preparing to deploy 3 node vmclusters to all remote sites. 
By our standards, there will be two or three guests that will require backups. 
Backing up the vm datastores has not really been discussed.

The scenario I'm concerned with is the possibility of storage becoming corrupt. 
What are some others using for full vmcluster recovery? Or is the most cost 
effective way, rebuilding the guests ?




-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Remco Post
Sent: Friday, September 25, 2009 9:00 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Backing up virtual machines

On 25 sep 2009, at 15:50, Buddy Howeth wrote:

> If you backup a V.M., you still need to install the windows client
> on each
> VM in order to get the file updates so there are no savings on
> licenses.

care to explain? The essence of VCB is to not have to install a client
on each VM.... And the number of clients installed actually has
nothing to do with the number of licenses you need, IIRC.

> We have about 20 VMs now which are backed up using VCB (Virtual
> Consolidated Backup).

--

Met vriendelijke groeten/Kind regards,

Remco Post