Articles relating to Virtualisation

VMware

VMware Backup

External Articles: Introduction

External Articles: Symantec Products

Symantec produce several extremely good software packages for backup of virtualised environments.
  • Symantec NetBackup with VCB Video Tutorial
    Comment: Superb video tutorial, highly recommended.
    Link Walkthrough Guide: Watch this video second to see how VCB is used in practice.
  • Fast and Simple Recovery of Your VMware Virtual Infrastructure (Symantec Backup Exec 12.5)
    "Backup Exec 12.5 Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI) brings the advantages of VCB—such as off-host backup—while removing some of the challenges of implementing a script-based VCB-based backup solution.".
    Link Walkthrough Guide: Read this well-written article third.
  • Backing up VMware with Veritas NetBackup (v6.5.2, Jan 2009)
    "Is it best to protect the virtual machine by backing it up via a NetBackup or PureDisk™ client? Is a NetBackup client inside the Service Console the answer? What about VMware Consolidated Backup? The advantages and disadvantages of these three backup configurations are discussed in detail in this document".
    Link Walkthrough Guide: Covers much the same ground as the above article, but with reference to NetBackup, read joint-third.
  • Using Symantec Backup Exec 11d for Windows Servers with VMware (May 2007)
    Comment: A slightly non-current but highly informative, recommended article.
    Link Walkthrough Guide: Read this informative article forth; the 2009 paper (above) has a better presentation style.

External Articles: VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) - scripting

The Symantec products work with and build upon the VCB framework but one can natively use VCB commands from either the ESX service console or a backup proxy server, usually Windows Server 2003.