Specifications

Administration Guide
152 VMware, Inc.
! Recover!from!catastrophic!failures!in!which!your!entire!virtual!machine!is!
damaged.
VMware!ESX!Server!provides!several!approaches!for!backing!up!your!data,!whether!to!
tape!or!to!another!system!over!the!network.!The!best!data!protection!for!your!virtual!
machines!is!achieved!with!a!combination!of!these!approaches.
Using Tape Drives with VMware ESX Server
This!section!describes!how!to!make!tape!drives!available!to!both!your!virtual!machine!
and!your!service!console.!The!management!interface!allows!you!to!allocate!a!SCSI!
controller!to!the!service!console,!to!one!or!more!virtual!machines!or!for!use!by!both!
environments.!To!make!a!SCSI!tape!drive!available
!in!a!virtual!machine,!you!must!
allocate!the!SCSI!controller!to!which!it!is!attached!for!use!only!by!virtual!machines.
You!can!check!the!allocation!settings!for!the!server’s!SCSI!controllers!in!the!
management!interface.!On!the!Status!Monitor,!click!the!Options!tab,!and!click!Startup!
Profiles.
Backing Up from Within a Virtual Machine
One!approach!is!to!back!up!a!particular!virtual!machine’s!data!as!if!it!were!on!a!physical!
machine.!You!can!run!either!a!direct!backup!tool!or!the!client!component!of!a!
client‐server!backup!tool!within!the!virtual!machine!and!configure!it!for!direct!access!
to!the!network!or
!tape!drive.!
Backing!up!from!within!a!virtual!machine!allows!fine‐grained!recovery!of!your!data.
! You!can!restore!file!data!by!the!individual!file.
! You!can!restore!database!data!using!the!normal!database‐specific!method.!
If!you!need!to!restore!the!virtual!machine!from!a!backup!made!from!within!the!virtual!
machine,!recreate!the!virtual!machine!and!load!recovery!software!into!it!before!
restoring!data!from!the!backups.
To!configure!a!virtual!machine!so!you!
can!use!a!tape!drive!from!within!it,!see!“A d d i n g !
a!Tape!Drive!to!a!Virtual!Machine”!on!page 121.
CAUTION Do!not!reassign!a!server’s!only!SCSI!controller!if! the!service!console!is!
running!from!a!drive!attached!to!that!controller.!If!your!system!is!configured!
this!way,!you!must!add!a!second!SCSI!controller!to!control!the!tape!drive.
NOTE You!can!also!use!a!virtual!machine!to!run!the!server!component!of!a!client‐server!
backup!product,!provided!you!give!it!access!to!one!or!more!tape!drives.