VM-Aware

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 (~£300 per ESX host socket)
• PHD esXpress (between £250-£1000 per ESX host)
• HP VMM (Free, of sorts)

The article really does go into great detail, even discussing each tool in depth after the comparison matrix.

It is an ongoing document so hopefully it will include Veeam Backup in the next release.

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. (more…)