jgreco
Resident Grinch
- Joined
- May 29, 2011
- Messages
- 18,680
I wouldn't install Veeam on any machine! I use GhettoVCB it's FREE and it works flawless
I already mentioned ghettoVCB upstream, so I'm not sure what this message is addressing.
With the free ESXi, you are severely limited because you do not have the VMware API's to work with, so you do not have access to things like the CBT API.
GhettoVCB carries a significant I/O penalty in that it forces the hypervisor to do a complete backup of each VM, which means it is reading each VM from storage and then writing it out to the backup target. This is a LOT of I/O, and also a lot of disk space on the backup datastore, especially if you do not have deduplication (or if you use compression). The big advantage to GhettoVCB, in addition to being "free", is that it also works on the Free ESXi because it does not require the CBT API.
Most other backup products prefer or require CBT access in order to perform their magic. This results in substantially less work for the hypervisor, in most cases, and also usually substantially less disk, but you do need to be on one of the paid VMware product tiers.
because it's CLI most people are to LAZY to learn how to use it. Most people just want to point and click.
This is probably an unfair characterization. The tool has some significant drawbacks, and most environments that have significant size would find that the additional disk space required to hold multiple full backups of their VM inventory is fairly expensive, and may even cover the cost of a CBT-capable tool. Further, as ghettoVCB is not sanctioned by VMware, any support issues that arise are not supported, and most business or enterprise deployments require the ability to get technical support from both VMware and the vendor of the backup software.