How to Backup Virtual Machines on a Standalone ESXi Host
Reasonably often, those people face problems being able to back up their VMs regularly by using incremental backups. Therefore, this post will discuss a solution for VMware ESXi Free version incremental backups.
ESXi free supports Windows and Linux operating systems and offers robustness and stability. The need for VMware ESXi backup is rising, and many cyber threats are lurking around the corner.
Why VMware ESXi cannot be backed up with regular backup software?
Standard methods can not back up ESXi Free because the functionality of the ESXi API is limited to read-only access. Thus, creating an image during the backup operation is impossible, which is necessary for a consistent backup state.
Even more complicated is the recovery, which fails at every step. The third-party solution will resolve this limitation offered by the manufacturer, similar to an experienced administrator.
The VMware ESXi third-party backup solution should allow you to connect through vCenter and automatically restore virtual machines, including multiple hosts.
These powerful features include a complete framework for protecting any server infrastructure, with components such as Hyper-V Backup/Restore, SQL Server Database Backup/Restore, and Exchange mail servers.
It should also support virtual machine replication from the data warehouse to the data warehouse and from host to host to have an exact copy of the virtual machines ready to start in the event of a breakdown or failure of the main machine.
Replication can also be planned and performed in multiple destinations, enabling an optimal deviation policy.
SSH uses access directly to the ESXi server for switching operations and calls the required commands locally. Copying new data to the backup repository and then continuing in the same way as with the paid version of vSphere.
Prerequisites
- Machine running VMware ESXi Hypervisor
- Any of the following protocols for backing up your device to the vCenter server: FTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, or SCP with enough disk space and access to the device
Backup features
- Quick backup and recovery using VMware CBT (Modified Block Tracking) uses the VDDK 7.0 library;
- Data shop level duplication to save space;
- Support for vSphere 7.0 and ESXi 7.0;
- Entire VM or file-level recovery (for Linux or Windows). It also supports converting to another vCenter or ESXi host;
- Multi-lease for service providers (or for internal use of larger organizations). Each tenant can be granted privileges for backing up and restoring particular vSphere objects;
- HTML 5 web-based user interface;
- Linux based, so you do not need an additional license;
- No agent;
- Built-in deduplication and compression.
VM replication
The VM replication will allow you to make an exact copy (clone) of the selected virtual machines to another ESXi host or other data store.
This fully automated feature is helpful for the deviation policy because it allows you to immediately restart the virtual machine clone from its backup if the primary machine stops working.
Consequently, it is an incremental replication using CBT technology, which transfers only the modified blocks to the virtual disks after the first full copy, thus guaranteeing maximum speed and maximum efficiency.
Conclusion
So, to perform an entire VMware ESXi backup procedure, you should lean on a third-party backup solution as it will take care of your crucial data.
