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#1 2017-11-22 12:15:36

chaos_prevails
Member
Registered: 2017-11-22
Posts: 2

backup to subfolder on same datastore as VMs reside

Dear forum,

I have a ESXi 6.0 Server with two datastores, both used for VMs.

I'm in a network used by other companies (+network infrastructure is out of my control) so I don't want to use NFS (krb5p is not supported yet, not even by esxi 6.5). I looked into ssh tunneling NFS but there seem to be some pitfalls (locking, localhost forward) and performance issues.

I also don't want to use rsync because I would need to give away root access to the backup server (login with public/private key). Also network outages could leave my VMs with unused snapshots which I would need to consolidate afterwards.

So my plan is to:
1) backup to a subfolder on the local datastore (Raid 5) where some VMs are running
2) have a constant sshfs connection from the backup server to the datastore-subfolder and copy the backed-up VMs to the backup server via a cronjob at the backup server.
3) limit backup amount with backup-room so I don't fill up the datastore

Beside the increased disk write use during backup (only once weekly, it's disaster backup; file-based backup is done differently), is there something gravely speaking against it?

To put it in perspective: it's a total of 4 VMs to back up (2x Windows, 2x Linux, in total not quite 400GB). Probably I need to add another VM sometime next year

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#2 2017-11-22 16:17:23

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,057

Re: backup to subfolder on same datastore as VMs reside

If you don't have other option, then don't backup to the same data store where the VM to backup is, this way at least you'll split the In traffic from the Outgoing one.

Nevertheless you'll suffer from a clogged disk controller while you are performing the backup, so VMs on both data stores will function more slowly. That is the price to pay when you are short of resources.

If you can afford it, I would suggest that you buy the [https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-vmware-esxi-backup.html]Pro version[/url], as it will offer you other tools that will minimize the impact, like [https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-onediff.html]OneDiff[/url], which allows you to backup just differential data. By using OneDiff you will be copying just the changed bytes since last backup, of course the first backup will be full.

We don't usually take the chance to promote the Pro version in the forum, but in your case, the benefit would be obvious. We are currently offering a Black Friday discount coupon that you can use to get a 10% rebate, voucher is XSIDREWYH

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#3 2017-11-22 16:58:22

chaos_prevails
Member
Registered: 2017-11-22
Posts: 2

Re: backup to subfolder on same datastore as VMs reside

Hello,
thank you, and I got the black Friday discount per mail smile

However, this should be a simple solution without much configuration or features (oneDiff, etc). It has to be robust and secure in our environment (thus alas, no NFS).

2 of the to backup VMs will be on the other "fast" R10 datastore, the 2 remaining VMs (in total ~200GB) will be backed up to the same R5 datastore .

BTW it's a HP DL360 G6 with 4xSAS R10 and 4x SATA R5

Last edited by chaos_prevails (2017-11-22 16:59:08)

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#4 2017-11-22 19:27:42

admin
Administrator
Registered: 2017-04-21
Posts: 2,057

Re: backup to subfolder on same datastore as VMs reside

You have a nice server, but the controller will saturate anyway, the only thing is that it will take shorter with faster disks.

Just give it a try, I don't know if you can afford to have a slow server during the night, if so, you can use the Free version.

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