VM Explorer - Part 2

VM Explorer - Part 2

I've decided to split this post in two to give the operational side a bit more focus. I got a license so now can do some testing to see how the product operates in more detail. 

One small bug I found is after setting it up you can't just create a schedule to backup all VMs. Even enabling the sceduler doesn't permit you to click on the Add button!! You have to create a single VM backup job and THEN you can click Add in the scheduler to create a "Multi VMs" job!! 

Here is the Add Task Element screen depicted in the documentation but you can't access it until you create a single vm backup schedule! 

Now I can create a Multi VM job. Select the Host, in this case my vCenter:

 Click Select VMs, you then need to Click Add All or just select those you want:

The next option appears to be more for replication or backing up to an ESXi Host:

 The usual VSS options:

 I didn't change anything here:

 You can power off VMs if you want:

 And you can verify the backup, I assume this just checks it boot ok and provides a screenshot:

One interface quirk to be aware of is on the left. The Task Schedule applies to the task shown on the left. If you Click Add as I did it adds the Multi VM backup to the same schedule task. You can choose copy task and create an independent schedule task to use for other backup jobs instead.

This construct makes it awkward to assign schedules to particular jobs but there are a few quirks about the interface like this but once you're aware you will be able to work through it and achieve the desired result. 

So, I'm going to create a Multi VM backup job with one VM, run it once and then move the VM to a different Host. I want to ensure the backup job will follow the VM, basic stuff but important when using DRS. So, I did an initial backup , then moved it and here is the second backup job:

So it found the VM after it was moved and I didn't refresh the hosts, good so far!
The 2003 VM is an 8GB disk, thin provisioned. It has about 4GB of data. This is the VMware Datastore footprint:

 This is the backup footprint afterwards:

So that's a full 8GB used on my backup server. Ok, I could store it on Server 2012 R2 and use DeDuplication and I turned off compression so let's try a few of those options. First I'll enable incremental backups:

Now, let's do another backup, we get an error, ouch:

So let's clean down the backup folder. And note to self - configure the backup jobs the way you want them in the first place!!! This approach worked and here we have a small file and each incremental creates a subfolder with changes in it:

Now, let's try compression. The options are not available:

I can compress but only if incremental is not selected!

Finally because of the way you select VMs, there is no option to automatically add new VMs. 

Task History is available to monitor jobs both current and historical:

Well, that's about all I'll have time to play with. The product supports Tape and replication so there is more to it than just backup. Check out the feature table and backup to cloud options as if the price point is attractive it might suit your needs. Just take time to get used to some of it's quirks and ensure you are comfortable in it's use. 

I definitely feel like improvements are needed but hopefully the suggestions forum and feedback the team receive will drive this to mature the product beyond there it's at. They are releasing new versions regularly so keep an eye out for future changes!