Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software

fuzzyduck

Member

Registered: 2019-04-25

Posts: 14

Only backup on change?

Hi,

is there a way to only add a VM to a backup job when it has been changed/used? Like check for vmdk filesize/dates etc?

Now i have included a VM on a daily cron but which has been turned off for quite a while, but i want it scripted just in case. Unfortunately it now keeps pumping gigabytes from disk to disk on a daily basis.

thanks

admin

Administrator

Registered: 2017-04-21

Posts: 2,055

Re: Only backup on change?

You can use Rsync to replicate the VM, that will compare checksums and just transfer bytes that have changed. Nonetheless the only way to know whether a disk has changed or not is to run a checksum on the whole disk, which will take some CPU time, the bigger the VM the longer it will take.

You can script it on your own by making some assumptions. You can assume that if the date of the files hasn't changed the disks themselves have not changed either. Rsync has an option to work on file dates, but doesn't work in ESXi so you would need to do it on your own.