-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On
Behalf Of E Gold
Sent: Thursday, December 28, 2006 10:23 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: [Networker] vmware backups
Is anyone backing up EMC's vmware?
What is the best practice? To backup the vm main server and/or backup
each vm individually?
is there a legato plugin for vmware?
some of my vm instances have 300GB of data, so i don't want to back them
up twice.
thanks
Evan Gold
Financial Security Assurance
31 West 52nd Street
New York, New York 10019
212.893.2762
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
First, no, there is no "plugin" for vmware.
Next, yes, I backup each vmware instance as individual clients. Why?
Because that is the best solution for us. We run vmware on Windows and
since our Windows desktops are not on any enterprise backup it was the
best choice. There are not very many vmware installs either. The
desktops are imaged, so theoretically they are all the same and can be
reimaged when necessary. Anything that an individual wants to keep can
be saved to a logical network drive that is also on an enterprise
backup.
Pros:
- only the configured vm instance is backed up
- configuration is like any other client
Cons:
- cannot have multiple vm instances with same name or IP, our vm
instances are not dynamic so this is not an issue for us
- vm instance MUST be up and running during schedule backups (monthly
Windows reboots due to patching can be problematic)
- a client seat is used for each vm instance as they are each a unique
entity as far as anything on the network is concerned, not just
networker
Thoughts and other alternatives:
- if host system is backed up, an alternative method would be to
shutdown the vmware to have the vm files quiesced for backup
- have the owner of the vm instance take snapshots that reside on a
filesystem that is backed up by the enterprise
- filesystems can be shared between the vm instances and the host, if
the instance is imaged, then only the "data" files need to be backed up
- the vmware networking must be set up correctly to have external access
to the vm instance
- the implementation is dependent on what works best in your
environment, none of it is fool proof unless you can control the status
of the vm instances
Patti Clark
Unix System Administrator - RHCT
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
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