Backing up VMs to a portable NAS?

[phunkodelic]

I am looking at an inexpensive way to backup my virtual machines.  The best solution I have found is to use TriLead with something like a Lacie or a Buffalo portable NAS.  The issues here is they only support SMB.  I doubt this will work, or am I wrong?  If this does not work then what can I do?  The sole purpose is to run backups to the NAS and carry it off site for disaster recovery incase the faciltiy gets burns down.  My budget is VERY limited so I have to do this on the cheap.  Any recomendations greatly appreciated.

Thanks! 

[James Bowling]

It is possible to use SMB if using something like VMware Data Recovery.  What vSphere Licensing do you have?

[phunkodelic]

I don't have VSphere as my company is too cheap to buy it.   This is the backup software I am looking at: http://www.trilead.com/

[James Bowling]

Are you looking to just do full backups everytime?  Or do you want incrementals/differentials?  If the latter, then VM Explorer will not do these with the free edition of ESXi.

[DSTAVERT]

Most small Network Attached devices do support CIFS (Windows Network Shares). If you are trying to use the unlicensed Trilead it wants to write to a local drive. You can add a USB drive to the local machine and backup to that. You can use a NAS device with something like ghettoVCB script

[James Bowling]

I thought ghettoVCB required a licensed version of the hypervisor?  In his case he doesn't have a licensed version of ESX(i).

[phunkodelic]

I am planning on buying the software, all though I may go the free route.  The Lacie 2big Network devices support SMB but do not say they support CIFS. Based on that am leary about using a Lacie to do this.  I just looked at Buffalo and they have the same issue.  SMB support but not CIFS.  I see on the internet where people using Linux have mounted Lacie devices using CIFS, but I am concerned that a ESXi box won't be able to mount it.  Has anybody done this?

[DSTAVERT]

SMB is an another reference to Windows Shares. If you need to plug and unplug I would simply use USB or eSATA locally attached disks to the Windows Workstation that has your Trilead software.

ghettoVCB2 requires a licensed version. ghettoVCB requires SSH access or it can be executed directly from the host machine via cron.

[ericsl]

Phunk,

Our cloud backup solution works with the free version of ESXi (by working at the guest level). No software to buy.

Also, please consider working with your management to let them know/determine the Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) of the solutions you want to use. Knowing these numbers will help you get the budget you need. Very important for CYA (covering your arse)

See: http://cxobriefing.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64:business-continuity-establish-rpo-and-rto-for-it&catid=34:faq&Itemid=30

Check it out www.mymanagedbackup.com

Thx,

Eric

[RicardoMiguel]

Greetings.

You could also check if the External Disks you planning to use support NFS, because if that is the case, you can use them to mount the NFS in ESXi and create a DATASTORE, despite of the limitations of a DATASTORE in NFS, you can still use it, for your purposes.

It brings the disavantage, that you only will be abble to use it in ESXi, but it's an idea.

Hope it hepls.

Best Regards, Ricardo Miguel.

[ericsl]

Most NAS units, such as Netgear, etc.., will support both NFS and CIFS on the same share. This is nice because you can backup the VM's with a windows client AND access them with NFS. Very cool.

Eric

www.mymanagedbackup.com