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#1 2019-06-06 12:59:00

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

Our setup is this:
- NAS storage host running NFS server
- ESXi free host machine running <10 VM's from local SSD datastore, backup folder from NAS NFS mounted as datastore
- Devices are connected on gigabit LAN, potential upgrade to 10Gbit LAN if gigabit lan doesn't suffice
- VM sizes range from 5GB to about 60GB currently, I don't expect them to grow larger than ~120GB

What we want to achieve:
- Automatic backup every time interval (every week or something)
- Backup should include the snapshots of the VM
- Automatic removal of "old" backups, either by setting maximum size of backup storage, or by setting to keep X previous backups

Nice to have:
- Compression and/or deduplication on the NFS backup store


It seems to me the different "Diff" packages use is only sending delta info over the network/to the backup store as to reduce network traffic and increase backup time. This doesn't seem to be of crucial interest to us (potential nice to have).
It seems to me that XSITools would allow the deduplication that I put down as a nice to have, requiring the Pro version.

I can't for the life of me find if the must have features I described can be achieved on the Free version though. For example: I can't find the documentation that clearly states that ESXi VM snapshots are preserved, even though I see some talk about it on the forum. In one of the videos it shows a backup with Vmkfstools where it states it's deleting all snapshots: this would be unacceptable for us at this moment.

Maybe someone can shed some light on this.

Last edited by fsolsup (2019-06-06 12:59:58)

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#2 2019-06-06 21:42:29

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

[b]XSIBackup-Free[/b] offers all the features of the Pro version, so that you can try everything. The main cut downs are: no "Trivial Check" or backup certification for replicas made with [b]--backup-prog=OneDiff[/b] and no restore module for the deduplication engine [b]--backup-prog=XSITools[/b]

Thus, you can make regular backups by means of [b]--backup-prog=Vmkfstools[/b], which is fully functional or replicate VMs with no data verification. [b]--backup-prog=Vmkfstools[/b] deletes all snapshots, but [b]--backup-prog=XSITools[/b] keeps all existing snapshots.

So, you can download the Free version, perform some test backups with [b]--backup-prog=XSITools:z[/b], see if it suits your needs in terms of speed and manageability and then buy the Pro version once you know the tool is right for you.

[b]--backup-prog=XSITools:z[/b] works locally and over IP too. If you plan to use it over IP you should patch XSIBackup to improve transfer speed. This patch providex multiplexing on the SSH channel.

[url=https://33hops.com/xsitools-speed-up-data-transfer-throughput.html](c)XSITools: speed data transfer throughput up[/url]

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#3 2019-06-11 17:28:41

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

Running some tests I'm starting to see some issues with [b]--backup-prog=XSITools:z[/b]. I get the following error:
[i]XSITools Error XSITCMP1: /vmfs/volumes/volname/Backup is an uncompressed repository, you cannot backup to it with compression enabled[/i]

Everything seems to work fine if I disable compression (by not using :z). I can't find this error in the documentation. The NFS share is mounted as NFS3.

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#4 2019-06-13 11:57:42

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

The message is quite clear. You created a non compressed repository by running some none compressed backup. Now you are trying to use compression on a non compressed repository and you get that message. Everything is working as expected.

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#5 2019-06-13 13:31:01

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

I got this message on the first run where it created the repo itself, hence why I'm asking why it would create a non-compressed repo when I'm explicitly asking it to make a compressed backup.
I'll try making a new backup to a new empty folder to see it that produces different results.

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#6 2019-06-13 19:37:58

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

That is virtually impossible, you can check the code if you will. The XSITools module reads the pre-existing .xsitools file in the root of the repository to know whether it is compressed or not, otherwise it creates a new one. Something like a quick non compressed try followed by a new attempt must have occurred.

In any case, just delete the repo and start again, the solution is simple.

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#7 2019-06-17 17:15:02

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

I indeed did not delete the .xsitools file as it didn't show up with regular ls (and I did not initially use -a). Thank you for this pointer, all seems to work now.

Can I ask why the snapshots aren't deduplicated when backing up with tool XSITools:z? Is there some reason behind this design choice that I'm not seeing? It's not vital to us, but it would be nice if there's some way to enable this as we have some vm's with large snapshots that are similar/the same between backups.

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#8 2019-06-18 16:44:09

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

Snapshots contain data that is not prone to be reduced by using deduplication. They normally contain new data generated by users or applications which is quite random. It could be compressed though and still save some space.

On the other hand some people like to keep snapshots at hand, so that they can use them in case they need to.

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#9 2019-06-18 18:00:11

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

This seems like a usecase assumption to me. Is there any way to force deduplicating snapshots as well? It seems every backup it copies the same snapshots that were also present in previous backups, thus wasting a lot of space (as our snapshots are >20GB in some instances). I know this is not how most people use vm snapshots, but since this is already the workflow our client already uses we have to run with it as best as we can.

Thank you kindly for your time and responses so far smile

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#10 2019-06-19 16:42:29

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

We are finishing the test phase of a new product: XSIBackup-Datacenter, which has been programmed in C+Assembly, it will be much more powerful than XSIBackup-Pro, both in terms of compression ratio and backup and replication speed, while keeping the same XSIBackup principles. All Pro users will have an upgrade path which will deduce the amount they paid for their Pro versions.

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#11 2019-06-19 17:02:13

fsolsup
Member
Registered: 2019-06-06
Posts: 6

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

What will pricing be like for a small business operating only 1 or 2 physical servers? XSIBackup-Pro was of interest to us since we don't have big money to throw around on very expensive licenses.

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#12 2019-06-20 14:42:26

sistemi
Member
Registered: 2017-08-29
Posts: 74

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

[quote=admin]We are finishing the test phase of a new product: XSIBackup-Datacenter, which has been programmed in C+Assembly, it will be much more powerful than XSIBackup-Pro, both in terms of compression ratio and backup and replication speed, while keeping the same XSIBackup principles. All Pro users will have an upgrade path which will deduce the amount they paid for their Pro versions.[/quote]

COOL! Waiting for it, time and size are my worst enemies!

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#13 2019-06-21 11:56:07

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

We are still internally debating the price, nevertheless it won't be much, it's price to feature and performance ratio will be much higher than XSIBACKUP-PRO (which we believe to be quite good) and existing users of XSIBACKUP-PRO will only pay the difference.

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#14 2019-06-21 16:40:09

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,072

Re: Understanding the capabilities of XSIBackup

You can already download XSIBackup DC at this link, please read the manual, the concept is similar but the command line options and the way they are used change a bit. It is in fact a lot simpler to use than Classic XSIBackup.

[url=https://33hops.com/xsibackup-vmware-esxi-backup.html#prodchart](c)XSIBackup-DC Product Page[/url]

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