Hello everyone,
we are building environment that will require us to make backups of all virtual machines on host machine, but also all of their snapshots. It is snapshot-centered environment that will have a specific snapshot of virtual machines assigned to every user, so we cannot reorganize the structure of the environment. We have used Backup Exec as our backup solution, however we have noticed that it only does back up VMDK file and some XMLs (VMX information, I presume). We have already contacted Veritas Technical Support and received information that it is not possible to backup the snapshots. But we have a different approach idea and we would like to know if it would be possible to make it work.
Our environment is built as a disk matrix (Dell EqualLogic PS4210X) connected to 2 ESXi hosts by iSCSI and managed by vCenter. Backup Exec is currently connected to vCenter to perform backup and installed on Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (Dell PowerEdge R430) physical machine.
So what we are thinking about is to connect Backup Exec directly to the disk matrix and perform a file system backup, instead of virtual machine backup. This way we could back up all of the snapshot files as well. During backup all of the virtual machines would be powered off to avoid making changes on them during backup.
What we would like to know is:
- Is it possible to make Backup Exec read the files on matrix, while the matrix is connected to the ESXi hosts as well, or do we have to make dedicated connection and disconnect ESXi during backup?
- Is it possible to connect Backup Exec directly to the matrix and read the data? It could be problematic as the filesystem on matrix may not be readable by Windows Server?
- Do you have any other ideas to make backups of all machines and all of their snapshots?
Thank you in advance for any information provided.
Regards,
Victor.
