Backing Up and Restoring ESXi Guest Virtual Machines
Last Updated on Monday, 22 November 2010 14:25 Written by Joe Aldeguer Friday, 20 November 2009 11:49
I was searching for a backup solution for my guest virtual machines on my VMware ESXi host. The solution had to be a free solution at the moment since we had a temporary spending freeze on our IT budget. I was fortunate though to have come accross this article covering cool free tools to use for Virtualization. One of the products the author talked about was a free backup solution for ESX server created by Trilead.com called VM Explorer. The free version allows backing up virtual machines on an ESXi host, whereas the paid version allows scheduling backups. and storing backups on a NAS. In my opinion what really stood out comparing the backup from trilead to other backup solutions was their pricing. There were no extra costs associated with CPU, Socket, etc required by other ESX backup manufacturers. These added pricing costs become unattainable to small IT shops such as ours. Trilead only charges for the license on each installation, that's it! Needless to say I just had to try it out. These where the steps I took installing, backing and restoring guest virtual machines using the free version of VM Explorer.
Disclaimer: There is no guarantee this will work for you. Created for author's personal use.
I went ahead and installed VM Explorer on my Windows 2003 server which will act as the backup host and storage for the backup VMs. The first time you launch the VM explorer it gives you three menu links to choose from. Since this is a fresh install I will add an ESX host to backup.
Note: My ESXi host has update U4 installed. Something to consider before applying the latest ESXi update. I am using VM Explorer build 1.6.8. Trilead will soon release version 2 which supports vCenter.
Clicking on the VM Explorer desktop icon brings up the control panel menu.
Add an ESXi host.
The Pro version allows you to use the options SSH (SCP) to transfer files and the VMX agent to produce faster copying. With these settings enabled I was averaging copy speeds of 10 MBs to 11 MBs. Without these settings enabled my average copy speed was topping out at 4 MBs.
Trying to expand the managed ESXi for the first time VM Explorer needs to search for all of the guest VMs. Expand the ESXi host to show all running guest virtual machines.
Right click the guest virtual machine you want to backup.
Choose location where to store backup VMs by clicking on Choose Parent.
I actually prefer to use the last option. Click OK to proceed with backup. Initially the backup creates a snapshot of the VM which only takes seconds. The snapshot of the VM is what gets backup so the VM can remain running. After the backup VM Explorer deletes the snapshot it created. Depending on the speed of the network, nic cards, and type of network wire used are the factors which affect how fast the back gets done. In my test lab backing up a Windows 2008 server with 20 Gigs hard drive space took about 8 hours. Even though I was doing the backups on a separate subnet using gigabit switches and gigabit nic cards. I was only averaging 3 to 4 Mbs copy speed. This was due to the network wire I was still using which is the older CAT5. I will soon replace this with CAT6. According to the FAQ on trilead.com website the pro version offers faster copying.
Doing a restore was super easy. This could either be done by going to the start page of VM Explorer or using the File Explorer to browse to the location of the backup directory. Once in the file explorer navigate to the backup directory | double click the most recent date of the backup | right click the vmxbackup.xml file choose restore | clicking on Choose Parent will allow which datastore currently inused by your ESXi host to restore to. I chose my Primary datastore | click on the Register using the | renaming the VM being restored | then click OK. As a side note I store my backups onto an external 1TB drive connected to my Windows 2003 server using Firewire. This allows me to take the backup offsite. I also use at least two drives for my backup rotation.
Preparing a VM which just got restored by VM explorer. In your VMware infrascture client or vShpere client as it is now called. Connect to your ESXi host. I noticed in my test restore my vm did not get registered. This was easy enough to fix by going into the datastore under the configuration | storage | my primry datastore | folder of VM which got restored | then right clicking the .vmx file of the vm which then allows me to add to inventory.
Starting a restored VM. When I tried to start the VM I just restored an option came up which asked about the uuid of the VM. I normally just choose the option keep.
The boot up process proceeds. I also noticed when Windows 2008 server first started it seemed to be stuck showing a black screen for a quite a long time at the console. I then just decided to forcefully stop the VM then start it back up this time the normal boot up process came up. After which I was able to login with my Windows credentials, ping the network and everything else seemed to be working just fine.
I also did a restore on my Linux Debian mail server. When the server booted up, it booted up as if it suffered a crashed state where it checks the journal for any file corruption. I wasn't really too concern since the file system I am using for my Debian mail server is EXT3. This too booted up just fine with all of the services being offered by the server working without any problems.
I also did try other free backup scripts available online. This did work but I found them to be error prone due to my incorrectly typing a wrong VM name being backup or incorrect backup path, etc. I am comfortable using command line but the ease of managing my backups using point and click with the ability to do editing using the integrated SSH client interface offered by VM Explorer is hard to beat.
I can't wait to for next year's IT budget to be available. I have already put in a request for my CIOs approval to purchase the pro version of VM Explorer. I am quite satisfied this will be our backup solution for our ESXi server. With competitive pricing Trilead.com is offering, small IT shops such us ours are not left out enjoying the benefits offered by virtualization. Until VMware offers competitive pricing for backup solutions geared to small businesses not wanting to take full advantage of ESX server's features like VMotion, Virtual SMP, DRS. Companies like Trilead will meet those needs quite nice.
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Comments
VM1:storage1 --> VM2:storage2
VM2:storage1 --> VM1:storage2
Basically, cross VM host backup?
vm explorer1 sends the backup of VM1 (image) to VM2 storage located on another ESX2 host.
vm explorer2 sends the backup of VM2 (image) to VM1 storage located on another ESX1 host.
The VM explorer interface does allow you to do it. On the first vm explorer1 add ESX2 in the datacenter. Then on vm explorer2 add ESX1 in the datacenter.
Having done all of that you can now choose the target host to send your backups too. I'm not sure though if this is doable with the free version of VM explorer.