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tratti

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backup virtual machine, rsync inplace is ok?

I want to backup VM every night.
I've made a script that suspend VM and then make a backup by rsync with option --inplace.
I've seen that each file is recreated and the total time to make about is more than 1 hour.
First question : is the option "inplace" correct?
Second question : is there anyway to make a faster backup? thank you
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larstr
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What VMware product are you using?

For hosted products (Server, Player, Workstation) such a rsync solution is good, while on ESX there are other methods too.

For shorter downtime it's also possible to take a LVM snapshot right after the VM is suspended, then start the VM and backup the snapshot.

Lars
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tratti

ASKER

VMware Server
Hi,

for ESX you can use VCB, Veem, vRanger, esXpress or Platespin products for the backup purpose.
At the moment Veeam is the best choice for us.

If you use VMware Server or Workstation you can use rsync or whenever you want as a normal files (only verify that your utility can support file greated than 2GB).

Hope this can help you,
Giovanni Coa
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ASKER

what is vmbackup exactly? it makes a copy by rsync?
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ASKER

another useful info : my virtual machine is splitted into 2gb files...
vmbackup doesn't use rsync, but the effect is the same. vmbackup is open source so you can probably modify it to use rsync if you want. Having the vmdk split in 2GB files is fine.

Lars
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but using rsync with inplace is correct?
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giovannicoa
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I've checked and the "--inplace" option is very longer than without it... it takes about 2 hours and without it only 1 hour!