Agent for VmWare or old simple VCB

[mauspe]

Is it still possible to use only vcb without the VmWare agent to backup an ESX server ?

I mean as for Backup Exec 11D !!

If possible is it supported ?

thanks

Maurizio

[mauspe]

After trying i can say that i can do a backup of an esx server without using the VMware agent and only using VCB. My question is : Using only VCB (with version 12.5) is a supported solution by Symantec ? Have i to buy a VMware agent license or i can simply use VCB as for previous Backup Exec versions ?

thanks 

[bjash]

 You can run your VCB backup as a pre-command in your BE job.  I don't know if it is supported or not, but I know that a lot of people use this method for their VCB/BE VMWare jobs and you can even place several VCB commands into a BAT file to run in sequence prior to your BE job.

[teiva-boy]

 Works yes, supported no.  But there are a lot of how-tos on the web and on Vmwrae forums.

[Jean-CharlesD]

Just to add my word, I've been working on the backup part also for VMWare and...

BE 12.5 VMWare Agent offers you unlimited BE Agent for your VMs hosted on the VMWare host. So if you have 6 VM running, once the VCB backup is done, BackupExec 12.5 does a GRT scan to allow individual file restore.

If you want to ease VCB jobs, give a look to VCB Management Console
poleexpertise.canalblog.com/archives/2009/03/25/13137198.html

communities.vmware.com/blogs/vcbMC/2009/04/25/vcb-management-console-106-beta

But for support you are alone...

[bjash]

This looks a lot better than the command-line approach if you're doing VCB snapshots separately from BE.  Do you know if it offers integration with BE?

[Symanticus]

Hi Guys, can i have a look at the manual vcbmounter example script to backup and restore VM on ESXi please ?

[bjash]

 Here are two examples that we use:

The first example connects via iSCSI (as we use iSCSI between our ESX host and SAN) to connect directly between the SAN and VCB Proxy:

vcbmounter -h virtualcenterORvmservername -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD -a ipaddr:IPADDRESSOFGUESTVM -r D:\OUTPUTDIR -t fullvm


The second example connects through the ESX host (useful if you VM is not on a SAN or on local disk storage):

vcbmounter -h virtualcenterORvmservername -u USERNAME -p PASSWORD -a ipaddr:IPADDRESSOFGUESTVM -r D:\OUTPUTDIR -t fullvm -m nbd

[Symanticus]

thank you for your generosity in letting me know the script bjash !

now i know the difference that using VCB script i couldn't run a prebackup script from: http://www.yellow-bricks.com/2008/01/04/vmware-consolidated-backup-and-deleted-files/

[bjash]

 I much prefer VCB over a disk shrink script.  VCB (IMHO) does a good enough job in getting the VMDK sizes to a manageable level for tape backups in my setup.

[Symanticus]

ok, bjash, how do you run the pre-backup script then for the Windows VM before executing the VCB script ?

[bjash]

I put the commands into a batch file and call the batch file as a pre-command to the job (given if your total VCB commands run within the allotted time for a pre- command).

Otherwise, just run the batch file as a scheduled task in Windows if your VCB backups take a very long time (mine take about 8 hours, so I start them on the task scheduler and schedule the BE job to off them to tape 12 hours later).