Backup /VMFS directly to a Tape

[Marcolino-CEA]

Hello ALL,

My firt topic.

I've a ESX 3.0.0 in a HP DL385 with HP StorageWorks Ultrium 960. I planned backup the /VMFS in a tape, but in the console of ESX the command mt not work.

The question:

If I to install the package of mtx of a RHEL 3 in one they file system in the console of ESX, this is not contrary the license of the use of Vmware ESX 3.0.0?

Tks,

Marcolino

[ronzo]

Hi Marcolino-

You can basically install what you want in the COS, VMware has a list of what should not be messed with. Most packages should be fine.

But please consider, you want to hook up a tape drive to an ESX host, and when you normally have a problem with the tape drive, you have to reboot the server it is attached to. And rebooting an ESX host because of a tape drive issue won't be fun.

I have quite a few Linux servers with tape changers using MTX...

You would be better using a 3rd party backup tool and sending your backups to another host, then writing to tape from there.

thanks

ron

[petedr]

What we do is send our backups to a central backup server and then write to tape from that server. As ronzo also mentioned although it can be done I wouldn't recommend hooking a tape drive directly to your ESX host.