vSphere Essentials vs Plus Backup

[kungpow]

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/small-business/essentials-kits.html

Does vSphere Essentials or vSphere Essentials Plus come with backup software or they just enable the backup api so that you can use supported 3rd party backup programs?

[mcowger]

Plus includes VDR, which is actual backup software.  Essentials just enables APIs.

[Virtualinfra]

vSphere Essentials and vSphere Essentials Plus both enables backup API.

vSphere Essentials Plus Includes VDR which is a vmware backup tool. refer below link for comparsion between Essentials and essential plus.

http://www.vmware.com/products/datacenter-virtualization/vsphere/small-business/essentials-kits.html

[kungpow]

There's a big price difference between vSphere Essentials and vSphere Essentials Plus.

If I go with the vSphere Essential (not plus), what backup program do you recommend and how much is the license?

Thanks

[mcowger]

Consider just doing standard in-guest backups.....

[Virtualinfra]

As mentioned in the pervious update consider doing agent backup- Means as we do backup for physical server.. just install a agent on the virtual machine and schedule a backups.

[scottyyyc]

I've had great success with Veeam. It's super easy to set up and use, and works simply and effectively. It's a backup program that you just don't have to constantly fight.

[kungpow]

If I have a mix of physical and virtual esxi 5.0 servers, I don't really want to manage two different backup systems. Eg. Veeam for virtual servers and symantec system recovery for physical servers.

Can Veeam backup physical servers as well? If not, I'm thinking of going symantec system recovery since it can backup both physical and virtual servers.

[GregecSLO]

Huh I use VCB..

OLD but it still works with all hosts and with latest converter it even restores Server 2008 R2 guests :smileyhappy:

[scottyyyc]

Veeam only does Virtual, unfortunately. If you need physical, then perhaps you need to use another product, at least temporarily.

I currently use Backup Exec (used Veeam at a previous company), and I would take Veeam any day of the week. I find BE to be slow, cumbersome, and painful all around. 

[kungpow]

scottyyyc, you should take a look at symantec system recovery. It does image backups and very use to use and you can restore to physical or virtual server easily as well. I used to use Symantec Backup Exec and like your said, it's cumbersome and slow.