©XSIBackup-Free: Free Backup Software for ©VMWare ©ESXi

Forum ©XSIBackup: ©VMWare ©ESXi Backup Software


You are not logged in.

#1 2018-01-16 17:35:13

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

onediff and xsitools question

I'm wanting to something similar to what is described in the blog post https://33hops.com/xsibackup-pro-onedif … olicy.html.

The issue is that I'm backing up to a NAS that is connected as a datastore.  If I run xsibackup using xsitools I do not have a way to specify the source location for the backups so it just backs up the VMs on the local server.  Any thoughts on how I could accomplish this backup scenario?  Presently I'm doing full backups every weekend but would like to switch to onediff backups but keep a few of the past backups.

Offline

#2 2018-01-17 07:58:17

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

Re: onediff and xsitools question

You can use OneDiff locally, from your VMs' datastore to a different datastore and then XSITools to a deduplicated repository. The only thing to be concerned about, is that if you use the same NAS or disk both as the source and target, your effective speed will be drastically reduced, probably to 50-40%

Offline

#3 2018-01-17 12:17:12

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

Re: onediff and xsitools question

I’m not concerned with the performance hit as the destination is purely for vm backups.

Can you provide me an example of the command necessary to run the xsitools and specifying a source other than the vms stored locally on the esxi server you are running from?

Offline

#4 2018-01-22 00:06:24

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

Re: onediff and xsitools question

I'm sorry sir, but we don't understand what you mean.

Offline

#5 2018-01-22 02:05:59

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

Re: onediff and xsitools question

A sample of my test backup commands.

/vmfs/volumes/m630-1_local/xsi-dir/xsibackup backupID=00 --time="Sun 00:00" --backup-prog=onediff --backup-point=/vmfs/volumes/Nas_Backup/VRTX-VMs/onediff --backup-type=custom --backup-vms="WVM12R2-DC02" --mail-from=xsibackup@domain.com --mail-to=email@domain.com --smtp-srv=smtp --smtp-port=25 --smtp-auth="none" --smtp-usr=any --smtp-pwd=any --on-success="backupid->01" --on-error="backupid->01"

/vmfs/volumes/m630-1_local/xsi-dir/xsibackup backupID=01 --backup-prog=xsitools:z --backup-point="/vmfs/volumes/Nas_Backup/VRTX-VMs/onediff/xsit-$( date +'%Y-%m')" --backup-type=custom --backup-vms="WVM12R2-DC02" --mail-from=xsibackup@domain.com --mail-to=email@domain.com --smtp-srv=smtp --smtp-port=25 --smtp-auth="none" --smtp-usr=any --smtp-pwd=any --override=xsibakfilter

The second command initiates another backup across the WAN.  What I would like to do is make a copy on the NAS of the backup created by the first command.  I realize this will have a disk performance hit but will still be faster than another copy across the WAN.  How do I specify in the xsibackup command with xsitools just to make a copy of those files rather than make another backup of the local VMs?

The destination (/vmfs/volumes/Nas_Backup/) is a datastore located on a NAS not another esxi server.

Last edited by ajarrett (2018-01-22 02:08:07)

Offline

#6 2018-01-29 20:02:19

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

Re: onediff and xsitools question

Any thoughts on this or is it even possible since we are backing up to a datastore connected NAS?  As mentioned I can't run the xsibackup on the backup location so that it looks local there as it's a NAS not a esxi host as what it appears the xsitools is expecting.  Or if you have another solution for making a copy at a remote location I'm willing to try just about anything.

When I was creating backups local they were completing in a few minutes even doing full backups.  Now that the backup is crossing the WAN it takes several hours which the onediff would fix if I could keep incrementals as well.

Offline

#7 2018-01-29 22:27:19

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

Re: onediff and xsitools question

Dear Sir., we now, at least have a glimpse of what you might be trying to achieve.

Yes, you can perfectly do that, but I detect that you might be assuming wrong premises. You are probably thinking that if you issue the second backup to the same NAS where the first backup was made, the data will be moved only inside the NAS device, is that right?, which is plainly a wrong asumption.

That NAS device is attached to the ESXi server as a local datastore. It does not matter whether it's placed in a local LAN or over a WAN. All data will travel through whatever network acts as the carrier to the ESXi host memory and from there to the destination datastore, so you will not only be transferring all data through the WAN, but you will be doing it twice.

To achieve your goal you need another ESXi server on the other side.

Offline

#8 2018-01-30 21:15:47

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

Re: onediff and xsitools question

I see your point.  I do actually have another esxi on the other side that can be used and is attached to the same NAS storage. 

What would be the command that I would issue to that esxi server to duplicate the backups that have already been completed?

Offline

#9 2018-02-22 19:26:02

ajarrett
Member
Registered: 2018-01-16
Posts: 9

Re: onediff and xsitools question

So with the ESXi that is on the same LAN as the NAS what command would I execute to make a copy of the files on NAS rather than a backup of the VMs on that particular ESXi server?

Offline

Board footer