Книга: Mastering VMware® Infrastructure3

esXpress

esXpress

esXpress is a virtual infrastructure backup solution created by PHD Technologies. The latest version as of this writing, esXpress v3.1, is a unique solution that involves the use of a small, low-impact virtual machine called a virtual backup appliance (VBA) that provides a sophisticated backup technology to a VMware virtual infrastructure. Although the product sits inside a dedicated virtual machine, the backup destinations include all of the following storage targets:

? FTP

? SSH

? CIFS/SMB (Windows file shares)

? iSCSI (VMFS)

? Fibre channel (VMFS)

esXpress installs a GUI helper virtual machine that provides for the configuration of the backup process but once configured is not required for the execution of the backups. The product is licensed and installed on a per-host basis. Uniquely it is not licensed per socket or per core, and therefore does not penalize you for having a well-stocked set of equipment for your virtual infrastructure. This also means that esXpress will scale with your hardware without any additional costs. Today your server might have two quad-core processors, but the future might see an upgrade to four quad-core processors. Such a change will not incur any additional costs for the esXpress deployment. And it gets better; PHD does not charge you for licenses for esXpress installations on ESX Server hosts that will only serve as restore targets. The licenses come in four different types: free, LE, Pro, and Enterprise. The differences in the licenses revolve around the number of simultaneous backups, bandwidth throttling, and full versus differential backup capability.

Once configured, when a backup job is instantiated esXpress will perform a consistency check across the VMX, VMSD, VirtualCenter, and datastore. Pending a successful consistency check, it will take a snapshot and create a VBA to manage the backup process. The number of simultaneous VB As a host can support is based on the number of cores in the physical server (and of course the license purchased). A server with eight processor cores can spawn eight VBA virtual machines, each responsible for the backup of an individual virtual machine. Upon completion of the backup, the VBA is deleted from disk. As backups are completed, new VBAs will be spawned to continue the process of backing up all the desired virtual machines.

The backup procedure of esXpress is completely integrated into VirtualCenter, thus eliminating the need to use any other interface or software application. However, for those times when access to VirtualCenter just isn't possible, a console session (or SSH session via putty.exe) can be used to configure, manage, and administer the backup processes. esXpress adds features like compression and encryption to provide enhanced efficiency and encryption to its product.

By default, esXpress performs full backups on the first day of the month and complements that with a differential backup every other day. The differential feature allows for the efficient use of space for storing backups.

Perhaps one of the most unsung features in esXpress is the ability to replicate backup data to alternate locations. By including a replication technology in the product, esXpress offers a true disaster-recovery solution that provides administrators with an easy off-site recovery process. Using the replication feature to send backups to another VMFS datastore in another location means that virtual machines can be powered on in the remote location when disaster occurs.

In all, esXpress offers a unique product with a great level of functionality.

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