markmaytum Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Anyone successfully backing up an ESX 3.5 server with 7.7 yet? More importantly, successfully restoring? :-) Was it pretty straightforward (the 7.7 addendum seems so), did you run into any unforseens? I'd like to switch from vRanger (which is expensive) and start doing image and file level backups from Retrospect. Retrospect Server, VirtualCenter and VCB are all installed on the same server, ready to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted March 17, 2010 Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 I gave up on 7.7 so haven't got around to testing it. I currently just install the client on each VM and backup any important data that way. Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markmaytum Posted March 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 Ok, well...guest level backups are sooooooooo 2002. I'm really looking for a VCB success story out there. VCB compatibility is one of the reasons we purchased the 7.7 upgrade. We've also downgraded to 7.6 because of the memory leak/exchange -557 problems, but those seem to be fixed with the latest patch. Time to take another crack at 7.7. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 (edited) Yeah, but remember, RS is about 5 years behind the rest of the backup market, so it's only 2005 in Retrospect time. Having taken a look through the 7.7 user guide it looks horrendously complicated, for what should be a pretty straight forward operation. I don't recall other VM backup solutions needing so much manual intervention. i.e. I would have hoped there was a VM backup menu option in Preferences, where you configure the IP(s) of your VM host server(s), username and password. Then, as if by magic, the VMs appear in the list of RS clients the server can backup and work exactly as a 'normal' server would, with the small exception of an option in the client config to backup as an VM image, rather than treat it like a nomal server. Right now it looks a bit of a hack. I have a veyr good friend who is a Senior VM Consultant, so I'll pass the instructions under his nose to see if he deems it as good practice. Rich ps. I would SERIOUSLY reconsider upgrading to 7.7 again until they release a fix for the matching problems... Edited March 18, 2010 by Guest Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markmaytum Posted March 24, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2010 Being intimately familiar with VCB and its CLI, I'd say what you're envisioning for Retrospect functionality is pretty darn near impossible (but I like the way you think!) VCB just doesn't work that way. Even vRanger (a pretty mature, enterprise product by all accounts) takes some time to wrap your head around, has a gui that looks like a** and on top of all that, is insanely expensive for backup "middleware". It is however, rock-solid reliable. We'll see if Retro VCB is... IMHO, Retrospect wasn't any more difficult to set up, offers way more functionality on the backend and is practically free for this single feature compared to vRanger. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richy_Boy Posted March 29, 2010 Report Share Posted March 29, 2010 Having spoken with my friend he confirmed it was a pretty standard VCB connection. He also mentioned that VCB will not be supported in the next version of vSphere..!? Rich Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
glaviolette Posted April 30, 2010 Report Share Posted April 30, 2010 Having spoken with my friend he confirmed it was a pretty standard VCB connection. He also mentioned that VCB will not be supported in the next version of vSphere..!? Rich That was my understanding as well.. http://app.connect.vmware.com/e/es.aspx?s=524&e=12880125 So where will that leave that feature in Retrospect? Any VADP integration plans for Retrospect? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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