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Ok thanks for the reply how much is a full version? And does this come with a backup solution built in ? 
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Ok thanks for the reply how much is a full version? And does this come with a backup solution built in ?

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Hi,<br />
I am after some advice on the best way of backing up my virtual servers.<br />
I a running vmware ESXi 3.5 (free version) with 5 virtual servers all running Windows OS.<br />
I would like to take some regular backup of the vmdk files just in case of a disaster.<br />
I am currently switching off the servers every week and downloading the folders from the Datastores to a external data drive, is there a better way of taking regular backups, not just file level but the whole server?<br />
Thanks
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Hi,
I am after some advice on the best way of backing up my virtual servers.
I a running vmware ESXi 3.5 (free version) with 5 virtual servers all running Windows OS.
I would like to take some regular backup of the vmdk files just in case of a disaster.
I am currently switching off the servers every week and downloading the folders from the Datastores to a external data drive, is there a better way of taking regular backups, not just file level but the whole server?
Thanks

How to backup vmdk files vmware ESXi 3.5

VMware, a software company founded in 1998,  was one of the first commercially successful companies to offer x86 virtualization. The storage company EMC purchased VMware in 1994. Dell Technologies acquired EMC in 2016. VMware’s parent company is now Dell Technologies.

VMware has many software products that run on desktops, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and macOS, which allows the virtualizing of the x86 architecture.  Its enterprise software hypervisor for servers, VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi), is a bare-metal hypervisor that runs directly on the server hardware and does not require an additional underlying operating system.

VMware

Virtualization is the act of creating a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, including (but not limited to) a virtual computer hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or computer network resources. Virtualization is usually the creation of a system that executes separate from the underlying hardware resources, or the creation of an entire desktop for systems located elsewhere, similar to thin clients.

Virtualization

Microsoft Virtual Server was a virtualization solution that facilitated the creation of virtual machines on the Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows Server 2003 operating systems. Virtual machines are created and managed through a web-based interface that relies on Internet Information Services (IIS) or through a Windows client application tool called VMRCplus. Features included Linux guest operating system support, Virtual Disk Precompactor, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), x64 host operating system support, the ability to mount virtual hard drives on the host machine and additional operating systems support, including Windows Vista, and a volume shadow copy writer.