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Minimum VMWARE vSphere (ESXi 4.0) license for Backup Exec 2012

MrPureLife
Level 3

Hi,

I plan to backup VMware host by using Backup Exec 2012 with Agent for VMware and Hyper-V.

Now I use free edition of VMWARE ESXi 4.0 (result with backup fail when try to create snapshot)

after I find information they told Backup Exec 2012 cannot backup free version of ESXi 4.0

Please help me about:

1. Minimum version of VMWARE ESXi 4.0 to buy upgrade for able to use with Backup Exec 2012 (Essential, Essential Plus or Standard?)

2. When Backup Exec 2012 try to create snapshot of guest VM, how much host disk space use to store snapshot

    (in this case, I will backup Guest VM with 500GB harddisk but host has only 100GB of disk space, can BE create snapshot and backup this guest?)

 

Thank you

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Hi,

 

Standard would work.

How much space is required? Vmware's standard free disk space for snapshots is 20%. The size that BE would make is variable depending on the size of the VM.

Thanks!

View solution in original post

6 REPLIES 6

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Hi,

 

Standard would work.

How much space is required? Vmware's standard free disk space for snapshots is 20%. The size that BE would make is variable depending on the size of the VM.

Thanks!

Sush---
Level 6
Employee Accredited Certified

If with the available disk space ESX is able to take a snapshot of the VM then Backup Exec will also be able to do it as it uses VStorage API for backups.

As Craig suggested it would be receommended to have more than 20 % available.

 

Thanks,

-Sush...

MrPureLife
Level 3

1. Can I use Essentials or Essentials Plus? (need to save costs)

2. I will backup 700GB VM guest to NAS and available disk space is 100GB, can I backup this VM guest?

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

Hi,

 

This is becoming a VMware query to be honest. The only way to know whether or not you can backup the VM is to run a backup.

100GB of an 800GB LUN = 12.5% free...it SHOULD run, but having come from a situation where the 20% free capacity wasn't adhered too, what happens is that if the snapshots aren't cleared and the datastore becomes full, VMware willc ome to a grinding halt. No snapshots will be possible, no DRS will be possible, and chances are good your VM will become totally unresponsive until you clear the snapshots manually.

Check the link below for further information on what you're asking:

http://www.vmware.com/files/pdf/VMware-vSphere-4-Essentials-Editions-DS-EN.pdf

Thanks!

 

MrPureLife
Level 3

I will test again.

 

Thanks

Colin_Weaver
Moderator
Moderator
Employee Accredited Certified

Not sure about VMware 4, However VMware 5 Essentials and Essentials Plus do not allow Hot Add backups.

http://kb.vmware.com/selfservice/microsites/search.do?cmd=displayKC&externalId=2001113

Now you might not be intending to use that transport mode so finding out whether VMware 4 has the same limitation may not be important to you, it is stil worth you being aware of it.