NFS data replication of virtual machines

[Marcus]

Hello,

currently we're using iSCSI to store our VMware virtual machines. We backup the virtual machines with scripts inside each ESX server. The scripts are using the vcbmounter command to create snapshots of the virtual machines harddrives and to copy the machines to an Open-E NAS. From there Backup Exec backups the files on tapes.

Well, my question is now: If we change the storage for the virtual machines from iSCSI to NFS, can we use the Open-E data replication to copy all files of the virtual machines files to the second NAS? Will this work if the virtual machines are running? I'm not sure, but I think VMware is locking the VMDK files. Has anyone done this and can share his or her experience?

Thank you very much,
Marcus

[SeanLeyne]

...currently we're using iSCSI to store our VMware virtual machines. We backup the virtual machines with scripts inside each ESX server...

What version of ESX are you running?

If you are running vSphere/v4 you should look at using the VMWare VDR v1.1 tool. It provides very good functionality (including de-duplication).

We are using it to backup our 43 VMs on our ESX cluster, while there are some things you need to watch for in its operation, it has been very fast and reliable.

[SeanLeyne]

I forgot to add:

1 - you can setup VDR to use either an iSCSI volume or an NFS for the VDR destination media.

2 - The VDR tool is a free download from the VMWare site.

[Marcus]

Thank for naming the VMware VDR tool. I was not know this tool. We'ew going to use vShpere 4 Essential Standard soon. So the VDR is not free for us ;-( but there are free tool like ghettoVCBg2 ;-)

Anyway a backup on storage side would be nice.