NetApp have finally released the latest and greatest version of their SnapManager for VI product.

An essential addition to any infrastructure running both VMware & NetApp it allows guaranteed crash consistent versions of Virtual Machines to be replicated to secondary sights.

New functionality and enhancements include:

• Singe file restore (SFR)
• A single wizard for creating manual and scheduled backup jobs
• New backup job options:
  • The ability to include independent disks
  • The ability to exclude specified datastores
  • The ability to trigger prebackup or postbackup scripts per backup job (the scripts must be in the server/scripts folder on the SMVI server before you can select them in the SnapManager 2.0 for Virtual Infrastructure user interface)
• An advanced find option to search for specific backup jobs:
  • Most recent backup (default)
  • Backups within a specified time period
  • Backups that include VMware snapshots
• New restore granularity option (besides SFR):
  • VMDKs

So a lot going on here and certainly worth the wait.  You can grab a copy now from the NOW site.

Edward L. Haletky has put together a rather comprehensive overview document of backups in a VMware virtualised environment that can be found here on vmprofessional.

It covers everything from the speed of the backups to level of compression gained using the following tools:

• VCB (Included with VMware ESX)
• Vizioncore vRanger (~
  
  Backups, esXpress, VCB, vRanger

I stumbled across a new feature overview of what was esxReplicator, but is now called vReplicator:

Replicator_Overview – PDF

Replicator_Overview – Doc

There are a number of very cool new features, that make it an even more salable product than it was before, including:

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Everybody is well aware that PlateSpin makes some great products (PowerRecon, PowerConvert), but it sometimes seems difficult to justify the costs against free VMware alternatives (Capacity Planner, VMware Converter).

However, all it takes is a 15 minute demonstration of their products and it becomes immediately obvious why the money should be spent.

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esXpress is not a new product to the market. I remember using this in the early days of ESX 2.5 and liking the product, but hating the interface.

Don’t get me wrong everything in the Linux based console worked and did everything that you wanted it to do, you just didn’t want anyone to come along and play, unless they knew exactly what they were doing.

However, they now have essentially created a virtual appliance and it runs within its own enclosed VM. I have always been a firm fan of backup specific machines, so this seemed ideal straight away.

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I got talking to an Alliance Representative at Acronis today and I mentioned that I use their software at home. He seemed quite pleased that he had met someone that had first hand experience of their software.

They seem to be looking for ways into the Virtualisation market and are looking to seriously compete with the likes of DoubleTake and Vizioncore.

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