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VMworld 2009 Booth Talk – esXpress 3.6 Backs Up ESX VMs without VCB

PostDateIcon September 4th, 2009 | PostAuthorIcon Author: Rich Brambley

One of the Solutions Exchange theater presentations I sat through was at the PHD Technologies booth. I watched a presentation on their latest product release, esXpress 3.6. Backing up virtual machines (VMs) is a constant and important concern of virtualization administrators, and esXpress offers a unique, award winning alternative. Up to 16 simultaneous live backups or restores per ESX host is possible without impacting ESX Service Console resources and without configuration of additional VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) infrastructure.

The secret to esXpress is the use of VBAs (Virtual Backup Appliances). A VBA is a prebuilt software solution running on it’s own Linux OS that runs as a VM along with the production VMs on each ESX 3.x /4.x host. There are no agents to install in the VMs being backed up, nor any dependency on APIs. A single Configuration Virtual Appliance must run somewhere in the environment to provide a esXpress management console that enforces global configuration settings across all the backup VBAs. A fourth VM appliance can also be added to the solution to serve as a deduplicated, backup destination target VM. Other possible backup destinations are SMB, SSH, FTP, and VMFS repositories.

Some other quick highlites of esXpress 3.6:

  • VBAs power off when not performing backups
  • PHD recommends creating resource pools to control memory and CPU usage during backups, and tuning disk throttling to preserve storage I/O.
  • esXpress boasts of deduplication compression ratios of 25:1
  • VBAs provide fault tolerant backups because if a host fails, all VMs are automatically backed up by the local VBA on the host they are VMotioned / failed over on.
  • VBAs compress backups before leaving the host
  • esXpress 3.6 introduced multi user File-level restores. The compressed backups are available as a share from the backup target without the need to mount the VM’s .vmdk disk.

Finally, each esXpress backup is compacted into a self extracting backup archive. This means that whether you have esXpress installed at your location or not you can still restore a VM. This feature provides incredible flexibility for shops that are comfortable with manual recovery processes.

esXpress does require a lightweight management agent to be installed on the Service Console. This software is not utilized in the backup jobs but is there for local status and scheduling purposes. This dependancy keeps esXpress from being a solution for ESXi. I asked if a console-less version was in the works, and I was told it is on the immediate roadmap.

For more on esXpress check out PHDvirtual.com’s product web page:
 
ESX Server Backup | PHD Virtual Technologies | VMware Data Recovery


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PostCategoryIcon Posted in esxpress, vmworld | PostTagIcon Tags: , , , , ,
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  • Sean, Theron,

    Nurses, Tattoos, taunts to the crowd, or an upside down billboard, the point is being remembered. Being remembered for something "bad" is acceptable if your offering is still worthy of looking past the "rough edges".
  • Agreed. I do think that things are changing though. there's enough *FLASH* that being remembered for something "good" will be an edge. The problem then for vendors becomes defining "good" vs "bad". Agreed that the "rough edges" are often times the things that make people stop and see what's going on.

    For me, the standard 10x10 with backdrop+small table+flashing pens+smiling sales people only serves to tell me "chances are this company does not innovate".
  • @vseanclark Don't confuse "lack of professionalism" with "the complete and utter disregard for the traditional for-profit framework." Not saying that's what they're doin' just saying that business 1.0 doesn't have to be the framework for every company.
  • Don't forget the disregard of the dignity of nurses everywhere, too. :)
  • Oh, don't get wrong, poor taste is poor taste, but a suit and marketspeak doesn't hold a candle to mohawks, tattoos, nose rings and a solid technical discussion. The nurses? they could've kept them at home. If I was their marketeer I'd have hired a tattoo artist and had Dave King from Flogging Molly taunting the passing crowd. Then again, that's why I'm not a marketeer.
  • Caleb Shay
    It's not like I got the tattoos FOR VMworld, and I haven't had a mohawk for two years now...
  • Caleb,

    LOL! At least this conversation is not about YOU wearing a nurse's outfit!
  • And with that I concede defeat. :) Solid technical discussion trumps all.....but they still have an agent installed in the service console.
  • Good point. Pretty sure that equates to a win for you However, I expect the service console model to be fully replaced by an ESXi style model about the same time VMware releases their Linux VC Server and VIC they announced @ VMworld 08. Goat legs and coffee are on me.
  • Great booth talk posts, Rich!

    I continue to have love/hate thoughts about EsXpress.

    Love: backup stored as simple zip file, aggregate speed, use of virtual appliances, price...

    Hate: service console agents of any kind, amount of virtual appliances needed, lack of professionalism at VMworld (traditionally).

    Their company continues to hang around though, so one of these days I should give them a shot. But they will have to drop the service console agent requirement first. I can put up with other rough edges, but service console agents are just icky. :)
  • Rich, "dr. Evil"

    There is quite a few info I just learned from your replies and in depth explanations. Some of them I would have to see and "touch" too... I was not aware that esXpress uses it's multiple backup helper appliances - would have to "test and see" first. You certainly have already done that .. -:) VDR (Vmware data recovery) uses just one...

    Still I like the idea "ability to use a VMFS LUN or a deduplicated VM appliance as a
    backup target in effect keeps the backups off the LAN too (until you move
    them to tape or another disk repository), but requires provisioning extra
    disk space just for the backups." To provision an extra disks or. buying an extra server ... here is the dilemma.

    I'll be preparing my VCP 4 to be passe in 2010. I still have a long way to go...
  • I'll be definitely looking forward the console-less version since the COS won't last forever... Like VDR (VMware Data Recovery), ESxPress doas great job beeing a VM...No need to have an extra hardware to run it...
  • Dr.Evil
    Vladan, I don't think it is fair to say that that esXpress does not need to have an extra hardware to run on... VMs cannot run on air, and this is hard to argue.

    Because esXpress approach requires installing multiple backup helper appliances, dedupe appliance and UI appliance, this reduces the number of production VMs you can run on your ESX hosts, so you need more ESX hosts.

    Just to make it easier to understand the issue, imagine that your ESX hosts are running at full capacity today, and you need to install esXpress. The only thing you can do is to buy additional ESX host, which is typically about 10 times more than cheapest server you could use for VCB (VCB requires almost no processing power).

    So all this "no extra hardware required" push is nothing but pure marketing which has nothing in common with reality...
  • Vladan,

    Whether the extra hardware for VCB is worth it is debatable for me. The fact
    that VCB enables LAN free backups is nice. Every company has to do their own
    math to figure out if the windows VCB proxy licensing, hardware, VCB holding
    tank storage, and extra configuration makes sense.

    esXpress' ability to use a VMFS LUN or a deduplicated VM appliance as a
    backup target in effect keeps the backups off the LAN too (until you move
    them to tape or another disk repository), but requires provisioning extra
    disk space just for the backups. Again, you have to do the math to see what
    makes the most sense.
  • Tom
    Very good software, support is usually quite good too.
    Pricing is per host, MUCH better than per socket pricing, which sucks.
    Tom
  • Tom,

    Thanks for bringing up pricing. I meant to work that in the post. Yes,
    pricing per host is a very attractive model with esXpress.
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