VMware vSphere Backup

This Protected Item backs up VMware vSphere virtual machines by connecting directly to either a vCenter server or an ESXi host. Guest virtual machines do not have to be offline for the backup to happen.

For each virtual machine selected for backup, eazyBackup takes a snapshot of the VM, then streams all necessary files (including the vmx configuration, vmdk disks, and other files) into the Chunking engine, optionally using Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for improved performance. eazyBackup then frees the VM snapshot on the host. The machine running eazyBackup does not require any temporary disk space.

Performance

Large disk image files are streamed from the datastore to eazyBackup. A large amount of traffic takes place over the internal network. For the best performance, eazyBackup should be installed as a VM on the same ESXi cluster and/or specific host that it is backing up.

You can choose how many VMs eazyBackup backs up at a time. Backing up multiple VMs at a time may increase performance.

Changed Block Tracking can be used to read only blocks that have changed since the last successful backup. Additionally, unallocated disk areas are skipped (Standard and CBT) to further improve the backup performance.

If Changed Block Tracking is used, eazyBackup accesses the VMware datastore using the NBDSSL protocol with fastlz compression mode for improved performance.

Requirements

Desktop Client
    Only available for Windows x86_64 clients
    Running on the same network with the target ESXi/vCenter
Server
    vSphere 6.7 (ESXi or vCenter) or later.

Role

Global
    Enable methods
    Disable methods
Datastore
    Allocate space
    Browse datastore
    Low level file operations (ESXi: FileManagement)
Virtual machine
    Provisioning
        Allow read-only disk-access
        Allow virtual machine download
    Snapshot management (ESXi: State)
        Create snapshot
        Remove snapshot

Protected Item configuration (desktop client)​

Select VMware vSphere on the protected item list.

Select vSphere API under Connection and click Configure... to enter user credentials.

Populate vSphere credentials. Make sure that the credentials used has the required roles set. See vSphere Connection for details.

Run Test Connection to check the connectivity of the client to the host.

Click on the plus sign on the right to start selecting virtual machines. All virtual machines can be backed up by selecting the top level VMware vSphere. Individual virtual machine selection is also possible as well.

Select the backup type to use for all selected virtual machine. See options for more details on the possible modes.

Details

vSphere Connection​

eazyBackup connects to the vSphere server using the vSphere's SOAP API (VADP). eazyBackup transfers files from the datastore NBDSSL protocol.

Setting	Detail
Server	The vCenter/ESXi host. Also accepts host:port in case the host is running on a custom port.
Thumbprint (Optional)	If supplied, this will be the SSL certificate hash used to compare against the received server certificate for extra security.
Allow invalid SSL certificate	Ignore SSL certificate validation errors
Username/Password	vCenter/ESXi credentials for authentication

Options

Latest VM state (Changed Block Tracking)​

• Recommended for best performance.

• Back up only changed disk sectors since the last successful backup (this option can be selected even for the first backup job).

Latest VM state (Standard)

• Back up current state of all disks and VM configuration. Past snapshots will be flattened, resulting in a single disk with the most recent state.

Virtual Machine List (web)​

When configuring VMware vSphere protected item using the web UI, there are some manual options which can be configured for a more customized selection.

• Include All Virtual Machines: Backup all virtual machines on found on host. Selecting the top level item in the picker will select all and apply this filter. This is useful for dynamically include new virtual machines to the backup without having to reconfigure the protected item.

• Include specified Virtual Machine: Only virtual machines with matching name will be backed up.

• Exclude specified Virtual Machine: Virtual machines with matching name will be skipped.

• If manually specifying a virtual machine, a couple of formats are accepted

  • [datacenter-name] vm-name to back up a specific VM on a datacenter

  • vm-name to target all matching virtual machines across all datacenters

Notes

For Changed Block Tracking and Standard mode

• Performance is optimized by seeking over unallocated disk sectors.

• Data transfer occurs over the NBDSSL protocol.

• Separate snapshot files are not included in the backup. Current VM state is flattened in a single disk image.

• Disks with independent disk mode is not supported and will be skipped during the backup process.

Restore

eazyBackup can restore the vmx, vmdk, and other files to the local disk. You must then copy them to the ESXi datastore, and import the VM from the ESXi/vCenter interface.

eazybackup also supports restoring directly to the datastore.

If backup is made while a VM is running off a snapshot, the resulting disk will be a flattened version of the snapshot branches. Do the following to reimport this virtual machine.

• Update VMX config with scsi0:N.fileName =

• (Optional): Reclaim disk space (vmkfstools -K ) to reset unallocated spaces for improved backup performance.

If CBT was enabled. It is recommended to disable/restart CBT before the first boot.

Granular restore of single files and folders is available for supported filesystems.