Free ESXi 5 Backup Solution

[Frink]

I have several physical servers running ESXi 5 and would like to back up the VMs that they host.

Does anyone know a simple free backup solution to perform the following:

[ul]
[li]Scheduled backups of running VMs to a Windows file system folder on a physical file server, and recovery[/li]
[li]Recovery of backups[/li]
[li]Reliable, with reasonable speed[/li]
[/ul]
Individual file recovery would also be nice, but not essential

If there are no products available, is there a scripting solution?

 

[itsp1965]

Take a look at Veeam

http://www.veeam.com/virtual-machine-backup-solution-free.html?ad=menu

 

[ArizonaGeek]

That version of Veeam is free, I am not sure it will back up the free version of VMWare. The only thing I know that will back it up is to write a script for it. Try it and see, I would be curious to know if it will back up the free version.

Cheers
Rob

The answer is always "PEBKAC!

 

[NortonES2]

Or try the VMWare Data Recovery appliance

-------------------------------

If it doesn't leak oil it must be empty!!

 

[Frink]

Cheers,
Veeam does work but it uses unsupported API's so is not guaranteed in the future.
VMware Data Recovery needs vCentre, which I don't have.

Scripting may well be the only answer. Has anyone tried this?

 

[biglebowski]

What os are the VM's running?

Biglebowskis Razor - with all things being equal if you still can't find the answer have a shave and go down the pub.

 

[Frink]

They are all W2K3 and XP at the moment. Will be W2K8 and Linux in future