SSR for VMWare ESXi V4.1 and for Microsoft Hypervisor 2008

[nuance3]

We are virtualizing several MS servers onto both VMware and Server 2008 Hypervisor.  We currently own many licenses for SSR Server version.  I'd like to know the best practice for using SSR for the VMWare host, the Server 2008 Hypervisor, and the operating systems of the virtual servers (all MS 2008).

1.  VMware-- I believe I need a license for SSR for Linux to create an image of the VMWare host, then run SSR for Servers on the individual virtual machines.  Non-OS drives (data) we backup to tape; we generally don't make images of the large data drives.  Does this sound correct?

2.  Microsoft Hypervisor-- SSR for servers for the host server 2008 machine, then SSR for servers for the virtual machines running on the hypervisor.  Is this correct?

Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

[criley · Accepted solution]

In terms of licensing, you should look at the Virtual Edition which is the most cost-effective way of licensing virtual environments:

http://www.symantec.com/business/system-recovery-virtual-edition

1. For VMware, we don't support backing up the host with SSR. We only support Red Hat & SUSE with the Linux Edition. You will need to install SSR inside each VM to protect them.

2. For Hyper-V, you have 2 options:

a) Install SSR only on the host and backup the entire host (including all running VMs). This is good for DR purposes.

b) In addition to the above, you can also install SSR inside each VM and back them up the same way you would any other physical server. The advantage of doing this is that you can then do granular restores (file/application level restores).

Hope that helps.

[nuance3]

Thank you for the clear response.  I will need to find a VMware solution for backing up the VMWare host itself.