Data Protection for VMware and Application Data in Mission Critical Environments

Backup through proxy server
By integrating a third-party backup application with VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), the backup
through proxy allows LAN free backups of virtual machines at the file and image level, and requires
deployment of the VMware VCB framework. This method allows taking the backup load off the ESX
server by having a third party host perform the backup. The third-party host has access to the same
SAN volumes as the ESX server. The VCB framework allows the ESX server to flush the file system
before creating snapshots of VMDKs to be backed up. A vLUN driver within the framework allows the
VMDKs to be presented to the third party backup host for access. Finally, scripting utilities are
provided to assist with automation.
Challenges:
1. Simplicity depends on integration with third-party backup application.
2. File level recovery requires that a backup agent be installed in the guest
3. Without VSS, windows image level backup are crash consistent
4. VCB (VMware Consolidated Backup) does not provide support for enterprise applications like
Exchange, Oracle, SAP, and SQL.
Figure 4: Backup via proxy server
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