GhettoVCBg2 script is here for those of you who need to implement a backup of your virtual infrastructure. If you are on a tight budget. You can use this script for free to backup your VMs running under Free edition of ESXi 4 or ESXi 3.5 U2. No need for activating SSH too…
The authors, William Lam and Tuan Duong are having a great script repository here.
What's all the features:
– Support for logging (normal & verbose)
– Single VM backup list across multiple ESX/ESXi host(s)
– Credential-less backups (so long as host(s) are being managed by VIMA/vMA)
– Online back up of VM(s)
– Only valid VMDKs presented to the VM will be backed up
– Support for multiple VMDK backup per VM
– Preserve original powerState of VM(s)
– Ability to shutdown guestOS, initiate backup process and power on VM afterwards with the option of hardpower timeout
– Ensure that snapshot removal process completes prior to continuing the backup process
– VM(s) that initially contain snapshots and Physical RDMs (raw device mapppings) will not be backed up
– Support for VM(s) with Virtual RDMs
– Ability to specify the number of backup rotations per VM
– Output back up VMDKs in ZEROEDTHICK (default behavior), EAGERZEROEDTHICK, 2GB SPARSE or THIN format
– Ouput backup VMDKs using either BUSLOGIC or LSILOGIC adapter type
* Fully support VMDKs stored across multiple datastores
* VM snapshot memory and quiesce options
* Debugging mode
Experimental Features
* Individual VM backup policy (supported on ESX(i) 3.5u2+ & ESX(i) 4.x+) NEW!
The primary motivation for ghettoVCBg2 was to provide ESXi users with access to the utility without relying on unlocking and utilizing the unsupported console. To satisfy this requirement, the rebuilt framework takes advantage of the VI Perl Toolkit/vSphere SDK for Perl which is present in the VIMA/vMA virtual appliance provided by VMware. As a result, ghettoVCBg2 provides a more proper backup solution that administrators can utilize in their virtual infrastructure.
This script has no GUI. You must know how to corectly setup this thing to work. All the documentation about the GhettoVCBg2 is available here.
There are actually 2 great blog posts from Raj Perumal explaining how to correctly setup this script:
Part 1 and Part 2. But in his version (dating from April 2009 he is using SSH for the setup).
Source: VMware ESX and ESXi script ressources
