The descriptions I've seen of the consolidated backup feature make it
sound like

You install your backup agent software (Networker) in the "backup VM"
You take a read-only snapshot of the disk from the server VM and present
it to the backup VM as another disk drive.
The backup VM moves the bits to your backup server.

My guess is it's Windows-only, though.

--Joe

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Legato NetWorker discussion 
> [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On Behalf Of Brian Narkinsky
> Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 9:36 AM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: [Networker] How to backup servers running on VMWARE....
> 
> IN ESX 3.0 there is a new feature called consolidated backup. 
>  Not sure
> exactly how it will work yet but, it promises to allow you back up the
> VM files but, still restore individual objects from with in these VM
> files.
> 
> SO you could back up a whole VM and then later restore 
> somebody's Excel
> Spreadsheet from this backup.
> 
> A lot of this will need to be fleshed out as ESX 3.0 becomes 
> mainstream
> but, it looks promising.
>  
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Legato NetWorker discussion 
> [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU]
> On Behalf Of Ken Gehring
> Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 9:02 AM
> To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
> Subject: Re: [Networker] How to backup servers running on VMWARE....
> 
> There are a number of ways to do it.
> 1) Best practice (and most expensive) is to install the 
> Netwroker client
> on each vmware instance.
> 2) Suspend each instance and then backup the entire instance (which is
> what we do)
> 3) Take a snapshot of each instance, and backup the snapshot.
> 
> If you are backing up the ESX servers over GB ethernet, then you can
> doany of the above. If they are backed up over 10/100 then use #1.
> 
> We backup our ESX server twice a day. Each time suspending different
> instances (separates our production and non-production stuff).
> 
> Ken
> 
> On 6/16/06, Shyam Hegde <hegde.shyam AT gmail DOT com> wrote:
> >
> > Hello Everybody,
> >
> > Greetings!
> > I have to configure a cluster of servers which are running 
> on a host 
> > with VMware ESX Server 2.5.0 build.
> > I want to know what are the best practices to backup 
> servers running 
> > on VMWARE hosts.
> >
> > I use NetWorker 7.2 and my backup server is on Solaris 9. 
> All backups 
> > are taken over the 10/100 (and some on Gig) LAN.
> >
> > Thanks in advance!
> >
> > Best Regards
> >
> > Shyam
> >
> >
> > ****** WISHING YOU ALL GREAT WEEK END! ********
> >
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