I get asked many times, “How do I Backup my Virtual Machines on my VMware vSphere 4.x, 5.0 ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.0 servers?”
Hopefully, this will answer that question.
Firstly, download VMware vCenter Converter v5.0 for free from here. Yes it’s FREE.
We usually use VMware vCenter Converter for Physical to Virtual (P2V) or Virtual to Virtual (V2V) conversions, but it can also be used to Convert or Export (“Backup”) a virtual machine to disk. We can then use VMware vCenter Converter to Convert or Import (“Restore”) this virtual machine to another VMware system.
Best answered with a quick 5 minute video clip, to set the scene:-
Source Server – esx3iserver
Destination Server –nas (Western Digital World Book NAS), with a share called backup (\\nas\backup)
Virtual Machine to Backup – TestXPforEE
I’ve also connected to the NAS share from the converting Server (could be a workstation OS), to show the files being copied and exported to the share. (\\nas\backup). When selecting the destination source, virtual machine type, it does not matter what we select if imporing, restoring to VMware vSphere, as converter will be able to convert it back, if you want to use the virtual machine for VMware Workstation, VMware Player or Server, select the correct VMware virtual machine version.
[flv:https://andysworld.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/VMware-vCenter-Converter-Backup1.flv 480 360]
In this way virtual machines which are Powered-On or Powered-Off can be Converted, Exported or Backed Up!
Andysworld! Moto: A BACKUP IS NOT A BACKUP, IF IT’S NOT STORED IN THREE PLACES!
How to restore in this blog – New HD Video: Restore a Virtual Machine using the FREE VMware vCenter Converter to VMware vSphere 4.x, 5.0 ESXi 4.x, ESXi 5.0, ESX 4.0
