Virtual Machine Backup Guide ESX Server 3.0.1 and VirtualCenter 2.0.1 Virtual Machine Backup Guide Virtual Machine Backup Guide Revision: 20060925 Item: VI-ENG-Q206-216 You can find the most up-to-date technical documentation on our Web site at http://www.vmware.com/support/ The VMware Web site also provides the latest product updates. If you have comments about this documentation, submit your feedback to:
[email protected] © 2006 VMware, Inc. All rights reserved. Protected by one or more of U.S. Patent Nos. 6,397,242, 6,496,847, 6,704,925, 6,711,672, 6,725,289, 6,735,601, 6,785,886, 6,789,156, 6,795,966, 6,880,022, 6,961,941, 6,961,806 and 6,944,699; patents pending. VMware, the VMware “boxes” logo and design, Virtual SMP and VMotion are registered trademarks or trademarks of VMware, Inc. in the United States and/or other jurisdictions. All other marks and names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective companies. VMware, Inc. 3145 Porter Drive Palo Alto, CA 94304 www.vmware.com 2 VMware, Inc. Contents Preface 7 1 Introduction 11 Backup Concepts 12 What to Back Up 12 Virtual Machine Contents 13 Accessing and Managing Virtual Disk Files 14 Backup Components and Approaches 15 Backup Approaches 15 Using Traditional Backup Methods 16 Traditional Backup Considerations 16 Backing Up the Service Console 16 Backing Up Virtual Machines 17 Backup Client in a Virtual Machine 18 Backup Client in the Service Console 19 SAN Backups 20 NFS Backups 21 Using VMware Consolidated Backup 21 VMware Consolidated Backup Advantages 21 2 VMware Consolidated Backup 23 VMware Consolidated Backup Overview 24 VMware Consolidated Backup Usage Models 24 Consolidated Backup Software and Hardware Requirements 25 How VMware Consolidated Backup Works 25 Before you Begin 26 VMware Consolidated Backup Workflow 26 Creating Snapshots 28 Performing Image‐Level Virtual Machine Backups 29 Performing File‐Level Virtual Machine Backups 29 Considerations When Creating Snapshots 30 VMware Consolidated Backup Limitations 30 VMware, Inc.