Backup images + all snapshots

[hardyke]

Hi,

Last few months we have deployed a vSphere environment that we are using for training purposes.

We run a dozen of different training on this environment with dedicated images per student. For ease of use we have created 3-5 snapshots per image so that during a training we can easily provision a class, skip some labs, ... .
As this is a non critical environment we have not foreseen any form of clustering or shared storage. But we are now looking for a backup solution and I have deployed VDP. This seems to work fine but when restoring it always restores the latest snapshot that was created when backing up the system. Unfortunately it does not backup all the existing snapshots which is a major issue for us.

At this time when all images are created we just copy on file level all the folders to a different backup server but as more and more different training sessions are added ( + more and more ESXi hosts ) we are looking for something we can run automatically.
Any idea which solution would match these requirements?

Thanks.

[ldelloca]

Hi, all backup software based on VADP libraries from VMware can only backup the latest state (the running state) of a virtual machine.

What you can do is to copy the entire content of the VM folder like you are already doind, or schedule it. Veeam for example can do VM and File copy from datastores, and you can schedule those copies.

Luca.

[hardyke]

Is Veeam the only solution as I dont have the budget now to buy another piece of software.

What alternatives are there in place?

[ldelloca]

Well, since you already access the datastore to manually copy the content of the VM folder, you can enable ssh on the ESXi host and use some bash scripting to run from a linux machine, or via PowerShell, depending on your preferred platform.

Luca.