Before you do anything you have to create a dumpdevice. Once that is created I was able to backup no problem. This was done with Owner Rights to this Database in MS SQL 2005.
EXEC sp_addumpdevice ‘disk’, ‘anynameyouwant’, ‘E:\backup\databasename.bak’
BACKUP database databasename TO anynameyouwant
GO
Picking the right strategy for backing up VMware Virtual Machines (in this post we are talking VMware ESX Hosts and VMs) like backing up physical machines can be mind boggling. What is the best choice? This depends on many factors but we are going to focus on one product that has proven itself over the course of time for me.
For this blog post I am talking about backing up a Windows VM running under VMware ESX 3.5 or 4.
esXpress is what I have found to be the best back up software for VMware ESX virtual machines. If you haven’t used esXpress lately you have not used esXpress at all.
If you have used esXpress before you were most likely used to either Full or Delta backups. Well all that has change. Full and Delta are still an option but the DeDuplication appliance (this is just another VM running one your VMware ESX host) is amazing.
First off they use Block-Level Backup instead of file-level. This gives you the ability to back up only the individual blocks inside of a virtual disk (.vmdk file) that have changed since the previous backup and creating a “virtual full” backup every time.
The first few backups are a little slow since they do a lot of verifying on those first few. But after that they fly.
The backup is done to a SMB or a NFS target. The down side to this is you are backing up to a unit that is difficult or impossible to take off site. But wait they thought of that too. The DeDuplication appliance has Samba and you can have a Windows share or a mapped drive with the whole virtual machine files ready to copy off to tape or other removable media. The folder has everthing you need to replace the virtual machine. I am talking the vmdk, and the vmx files. All you would have to do is copy these over the a data store and add it back into inventory and you are ready to go.It assembles these files from a complex folder system on your target backup device. Also it is always checking to make sure it has sound backups.
So far we have talked about backing up the whole machine. What if I only want a single file. Simple all you do is go into the web interface in for the DeDuplication appliance click on FLB on the menu bar and there are all your VMware virtual machines. Simple drill down to the date then the vmdk drive, folder and finally the file you want to restore and it is as easy as that. It will save this or multiple files in a zip file and download it to your workstation and you can copy if from there to anywhere you want.
In a future post we are going to talk about some tips on installing esXpress.
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