Aug 20
VMware Consolidated Backup
Craig Eidelman
I have been working at C/D/H for just under a year now and am finishing my MBA at Wayne State University (WSU). I have a solid background in Microsoft infrastructure solutions, along with application virtualization using Citrix and server virtualization using VMware. Recently, I began working with SharePoint and am very excited to pursue that technology. I have a background in healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing and financial services. I recently became engaged and am looking forward to graduating this fall from WSU.
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Articles by Craig Eidelman
VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) is a great solution for backing up your virtual machines. If you own VMware Infrastructure Foundation (Standard or Enterprise editions), it is included in the licensing costs. VCB is not a standalone backup solution; it integrates with your existing data backup solution to schedule and run the backup tasks. If you are backing up Windows virtual machines you can even restore individual files from the backup file to the virtual machine. With this solution, you no longer have to install individual backup agents on each virtual machine, just on the VCB proxy server.
If you have to purchase individual agent licenses, this solution can significantly lower your licensing costs. The VCB proxy server sits between your backup software and your VMware environment. The VCB proxy server connects directly to your SAN, so it off-loads the traffic from ESX server as well as your production network. You also have to install an integration module, available from VMware.com or your backup software provider’s website. The integration module allows the backup software to talk to the VCB proxy software.
If you decide to implement VCB, you should first go to the VMware website and download the latest version of the software. Next, download an integration module for your backup software. If the integration module for your backup solution is not listed, contact the manufacturer to see if it is supported. After you get the software downloaded, install it on a separate physical Windows server. You will need read-only access to the VMFS volumes where your virtual machines are running, so the machine needs an HBA card if you are using a SAN. The VCB proxy server needs to contact Virtual Center, so make sure that both servers can contact each other. Once it is installed, you can begin to back up and restore your virtual machines.
