TI Enterprise + VMWare - Backups live on the fly?

[mrees]

Hello everyone..

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck getting True Image Enterprise to work OK with VMWare Server (free ed, not ESX)?

What we are hoping for is the automatic backup of Virtual machines live on the fly without shutdown or suspend scripts.

At the moment as a test we are using XP 64-Bit as the Host and Server 2003 64-Bit/ Exchange 2007 as the guest VM. We would need the Server 03 and Exchange system to be backed up successfully through a copy of the VM (not actual machine).

Is anyone out there doing any backups of Virtual Environments without the need of shutting down the VM's first?

I did a few tests running Acronis Home, but the Vm's used to get shut down incorrectly and in turn, the databases on our test Small Business Server Virtual Machine got corrupted :(

Thanks for taking the time to read my post

Regards,
Matt

[Acronis Support]

Hello mrees,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Remote Server Backup Software (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIESWin/).

Please see chapter 6.3.4 "Database support" of Acronis True Image Echo Enterprise Server (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIESWin/features.html) User's Guide (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/download/docs/) for detailed information on backing up databases.

If you have any further questions concerning Acronis software, please feel free to submit a request for technical support (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/support/) or post any of them on this forum. We will certainly try to help you in resolving any issues.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov

[mrees]

Thanks for the response, but whats up with the template robot response?

I want to hear in black and white if this is possible.
Ive scoured through the manual looking for information of Virtualization and nothing was really mentioned. So I cant see how the area on databases will help me much.

Can someone else respond if possible?

Thanks so much

[Acronis Support]

Hello mrees,

Please notice that Acronis True Image 11 Home (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/trueimage/features.html) does not support backing up of running databases.

We recommend you to use corporate version of Acronis True Image (http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/) installed inside the virtual machine environment you wish to back up.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov

[mrees]

Thanks for your response, however my question still hasnt been answered.

DOES True Image Enterprise support backing up Virtual Machines live on the fly?
Not INSIDE the virtual machine, the actual VM Server running the virtual machines.

Does TI support this?

Thanks and regards,
Matt

[arthurw]

ATI only images what's on the disk. If your virtual machine hard disk (eg vhd or vmdk) file is on the particular physical disk you're imaging, then, yes, that's also backed up and in the TIB archive. I've frequently imaged a partition with a 'live' vhd file (ie the VM using that virtual disk), and it works. Of course if you have another physical drive mapped from inside your virtual machine, then you will need to ensure that ATI also images that particular volume to ensure everything is in sync.

[mrees]

Thanks for the post Arthur
My biggest fear is that the VMDK file would get corrupted (as its done by using Acronis Home).

So before you backup your live VM's, you dont need to shut them down or suspend them?

Cheerz for the post.

[jeremyotten]

Live backups of VMDK's is't supported not even By Echo. Backup must be done inside the VM

[grs]

I've been doing this as of fairly recently on a few of my Linux systems (windows and linux VMs) - presumably this will work similarly with a Windows host. It causes a bit of a pause, but not so much that connections drop.

(Note that I am not using this with Acronis, but it should work as well there as with any backup software)

The "vmrun list" command provides a list of running VMs by the full path to their vmx. The output of this can be fed into a series of "vmrun snapshot" commands to snapshot the running VM, thereby providing you with a consistent copy of the virtual machine state for your backup. Run the snapshots in your "pre-backup" script.

Unlike ESX, which can have unlimited snapshots online, VMware server can only have 1.

If necessary, you should be able to restore your virtual machine's directory from the backup, then run "revert to snapshot" from the vmware console (or "vmrun revertToSnapshot") to return the virtual machine to a consistent, runnable state.

[grs]

I should probably also add that I am doing this with fairly incidental application servers and similar virtual machines that maintain nominal state. If you're running databases and require transactional consistency, this is probably not the way you want to do it. YMMV.

-G

[Acronis Support]

Hello mrees,

Please notice that jeremyotten is correct. Acronis True Image can back up a running virtual machine from outside, but in most cases it'll be corrupted after restore. The recommended way it to install Acronis True Image inside the virtual machine environment and back up that way.

Thank you.
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Marat Setdikov