Does anyone know IBM servers? (ESXi backup question)

steinooo

steinooo

steinooo

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Hi all,

Does anyone know much about IBM servers and what options I have to backup VMs from ESXi are please? I have a x3650 M3 7945A2G which I can't see the back of to see what ports it has etc.

I would like to backup VMs on it but using the network to do this is tricky as there are only 10Mb ports free on the switch it is connected to.

thanks in advance.
 
if you have any budget and they are windows OS's Id recommend Mirosoft DPM, which can throttle backups etc however you do need another server / storage eg a NAS, if its a linux / unix os and you dont have a budget then sadly i dont know :(
 
we use vcbmounter to create snapshots across the network.

basically you use a mount commmand to mount the vm to a network location and then use a either copy or move command to back up the vm. afterwards you run the unmount command. Here is an example.

vcbmounter -h <vcenter> -u <user> -p <pass> -a name:<vm name> -r <UNC path to mount folder> -t fullvm -m nbd
xcopy /e/h/k/r/c/y <UNC path to mount folder>\*.* <UNC path to backup folder>*.*
vcbmounter -h <vcenter> -u <user> -p <pass> -U <UNC path to mount folder>

<vcenter> = vcenter server name

if you do move which is quicker you have to copy back the mount file to the mount folder after the move or you won't be able to unmount the vm. If a mount fails you will see the failed snapshot in the vmware event log and will sometimes have to manually remove the snapshot from the snapshot manager.

Here is a kb on it http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/mi...nguage=en_US&cmd=displayKC&externalId=1002978

To get vcbmounter i think it comes with vmware converter.

Just did a bit of research and i don't think vcbmounter works with esx 5. " New major or minor versions of the vSphere platform beyond vSphere 4.1 will not be supported with VCB." :(
 
Last edited:
Exposing a backup device which is attached to the ESXi host probably isn't ideal. You can do USB pass through but performance seems very hit and miss (mainly miss) eg VMWare forum thread
 
knowlesy said:
if you have any budget and they are windows OS's Id recommend Mirosoft DPM, which can throttle backups etc however you do need another server / storage eg a NAS, if its a linux / unix os and you dont have a budget then sadly i dont know :(
Click to expand...

I do have budget and they are Windows OS, thank you for your suggestion. I think a NAS would be a good way to backup.

groen said:
we use vcbmounter to create snapshots across the network.
Click to expand...
it's 4.1 so it should work, but like I say only a 10Mb switch port is available to me, so assuming with your suggestion I can only do full backups and not incrementals, this may take too long daily.

#Chri5# said:
Exposing a backup device which is attached to the ESXi host probably isn't ideal. You can do USB pass through but performance seems very hit and miss (mainly miss) eg VMWare forum thread
Click to expand...

Do you mean exposing the backup device to the VM? That isn't necessarily what I want to do .. In fact my original question was more related to the hardware fit of "what hardware device can I use with this server which is compatible with ESXi" as I can't find anything online except this USB 3 tape thing they do
 
groen said:
Surely the hosts are on gigabit ports though? just use the existing gigabit network out of hours.

Do you have vcenter and what license is the vmware on ? essential plus/enterprise ?
Click to expand...

Yes the host is on Gigabit port but a new device can not be - there is only one other gig port and it is being used.

No VCentre.

ESX is 3.5 and I think it's the lowest paying license, but I can't remember what those licenses used to be called, I can double check this tomorrow.
 
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