Veeam and ESXi - least expensive way to backup 3 vms?

[DustinTrap]

So, I've got an ESXi host that is dual socket and runs 3 VMs that I need to backup. Veeam seems to be the go to product but I'm not in love with having for drop over a grand just for it because my boss spec'd a dual socket box.

Can I run Veeam from a single socket box that's not virtualized and use the lan to connect to the dual socket ESXi hist? If so, that'll cut my licensing in half. I'm not too worried about performance since this is a pretty small environment we're working with.

Oh, storage will be on a Iomega px4-300d which is on the VMware HCL.

thanks!

[markokobal]

Hi,

Just use the free VMware Data Recovery appliance ... it works perfectly for small to medium infrastructures...

[a_p_]

How did you license ESXi? If it's the free edition, you will not be able to use a commercial backup application anyway and may want to take a look at e.g. ghettoVCB (http://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-8760)

In case you licensed VSphere Essentials, you may consider a 2 sockets Veeam Essentials package which is way less expensive than standard licenses.

André

[DustinTrap]

We're using VMware 5 Essentials, with the $500 license cost. Does VMware data recovery require Vcenter? If so, we don't have that with our license, afaik.

[a_p_]

To answer your question first. Yes, VMware Data Recovery requires an instance of vCenter Server (which btw. is included in every Essentials kit). However, unfortunately VMware Data Recovery is only included with Essentials Plus or better (see http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/vsphere_pricing.pdf page 9)

André

[DustinTrap]

I see, thanks for the clarification. For some reason I thought vCenter was Essentials Plus only. This is a little off topic, but since Vcenter is included, that means we'll be able to use Vmotion if\when a second ESXi host is setup.

Back on topic, since I don't have the Data Recovery tool, what should I do? I know I can use the built-in backup tools of SBS 2011 to backup to an iSCSI share on our NAS which I can then rsync off-site. Would that be a recommend option? What's my best option?

[ashleymilne]

Actually if you are only licensed for VShpere Essentials you don't get vmotion, that only comes with the VSphere Essentials Plus license.

I am not sure what your best optino is, perhaps you might want to look into Appasure I have no idea of what their pricing is like compared to Veeam or VRanger, however you are pretty much stuck since you have two physical CPU's, that always boosts the prices up. Whatever you do, don't start using snapshots as backups, its against best practices and a very bad idea.

[markokobal]

Hi,

I suggest you upgrade to Essentials Plus and thus get the VMware Data Recovery plus some other very usefull features ... it might cost you less then buying additional Veeam licenses...

[DustinTrap]

Mark, I can see the logic in what you're talking about but I don't have another 4k for upgrade licensing. To be honest, we're deploying this in the next week or so, the VMware license hasn't been purchased yet since we don't even have the server in house. We're using some dev hardware on an evaluation copy of vSphere. If my dumb questions haven't clued you in, we're new to virtulization at this level. :smileyhappy:

Anyway, dropping $4500 for the license of Essentials Plus isn't in the budget. We were planning on $4-600 for Veeam but didn't realize the dual socket license was going to double the costs. I can get Veeam for $1200 but that just seems like way too much product and too much money for what we really need. I'm half tempted to save the funds and just rely on NTBackup in Windows SBS 2011. Would I regret that later?

[markokobal]

Hi,

Well, Dustin ... I see that you really are new in the virtualized world ... unfortunately the first rule of this world is "virtualization is NOT cheap at all" ... If your budget is not fat enough to hold Essentials Plus and if you actually only have one host, then just stick with the free ESXi license ... you'll gain absolutely nothing (except the support, which you can find in these forums anyway...) with the Essentials package (you don't need vCenter for one host).

So, put your money in the bank or invest it in your business ;), go with free ESXi and do the backups with the integrated Windows Server Backup to some external USB drive ... yes it's a poor's mans solution but will be good enough for you (Windows Server Backup can do a full restore).

Then raise your business ;), get the Essentials Plus license and upgrade you environment to 1+ hosts and use VMware Data Recovery for backup ... I really can't stress enough how good is this product if properly configured. Then raise your business again and go with Enterprise Plus license - this is when the virtualization really starts to ease your life... This is exactly the scenario which I went through in my company and the only thing that I regret is buying the Essentials package some year ago ...

Welcome to the virtual world! :smileywink:

[ashleymilne]

I would say yes, you will regret it if you only use NTbackup. In a disaster scenario you'll still need to recreate the VM, reinstall SBS, reconfigure everything from your very detailed documentation and then restore your data. If you can tolerate a day or more of downtime then sure, but if you don't have the budget for something like Veeam then maybe at least getting a copy of Backup Exec for SBS and doing backups to an external drive might be better then NTbackup.

[DustinTrap]

I've got the budget for Veeam, it just seems like a overpriced investment. But, I'm sure I won't be saying that when the time comes for a late night recovery from a dead host.

:smileyhappy:

I'm checking with my distributor to see if I can get any deals on Essentials Plus. If I get lucky there, I'll use the DR. If not, it's going to have to be Veeam.