Can VMBK.pl backup all VMs from one ESX server?

[koit]

I have several ESX servers in a farm.

I want to use one dedicated ESX server for VMBK backup.

This server will not host any guest VMs.

Is it possible to run VMBK from this server to backup all VMs from the other servers?

I'm using Virtual Center so it should be possible to send snapshot commands from the VMBK server via VC to the other hosts.

Can someone help me out with this one.

Some configuration tips would be nice.

[Seraph]

Hi,

We have vmbk.pl running, but it has to run on every esx server.

what we do is we configure the same scripts on every esx server to backup a server and run it on the same time.

So it does not matter on witch server the VM is at that time it will be backup up.

cheers,

[admin]

Hi there, not to take anything away from VMBK, but I've written a backup script that allows you to backup VMs on another ESX server or point it directly at your VC server, which you might be interested in.

Here's the thread:

http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=87527&tstart=50

[koit]

Thanks for your info.

Does the script have the same functionality as the VMBK script? If not what's the differences?

[admin · Accepted solution]

It does basically the same thing, i.e. backup VMs and create restore scripts, send email reports, etc, but the feature set varies slightly. Off the top of my head the only major differences are it currently doesn't support FTP targets, or backup agents, but does support using a VC server so is DRS aware. There's a full feature list in the README that comes with it and an overview on the download page.