Snapshot alternative for VMware 4 - RHEL5.5 VMs
 

imaging a situation where your vCentre is so locked down that the only thing you can do is: mount iso's and stop/start VMs.

This is what i have. What i dont have, is a method of backing up my VMs. The options that i see are available as I see it, following a catastrophic failure of the VM e.g rm -rf / whatever, are:

1. backup the template after the initial build/create iso, then following failure, restore using a backup restore tool
2. platespin - but that means i need a seperate server to store backups
3. some sort of internal (to the OS) snapshot - such as the way that windows restore points are set.

Remember - there is NO way to get to the vmdk.

Option 1 is looking like the most viable method at the moment.

How could i make option 3 happen? clonezilla doesnt support incrementals. It also doesnt support hot cloning i.e. filesystem needs to be unmounted. Is there any way of creating a system restore point?

Any suggestions?

If you don't have access in vCentre then it would seem that you're an operator not an admin, have you spoken to the admin/s about backup strategy ?

<edit>Sorry, just re-read my post .. I wasn't intending to demean your position or skills, just meant that you should find out what the current process is for backups</edit>

dont worry about it.

With the lack of rights that we have at the vcenter operator is probably the right word.

I know this is stupid but: there is no backup strategy, yet, at the bare metal, level. i'm looking, for an operating system level, tactical plan.

nevertheless, my orginal question stands; is there a way of taking system restore point within redhat that i could save off remotely.

LVM snapshots maybe ... ?

To answer your question about "restore points," no, not really. The only thing that's close to the same is the kickstart setup that will allow you to create a system without having to go through the setup routine.

Now without knowing more about the system, I can't say definitively which approach to take, but if you want to create a full system backup, the easiest way would be to use either bacula or amanda. Both are enterprise-level backup systems that will provide scheduled multi-level (incremental, differential, and full) backups to various media (hard drive or tape drive or both).

To me, bacula is the easier of the two, but YMMV, and I would recommend that you get some sort of control panel with either one.

Your saying you only have something like "stoping starting your vm" kinda privilege at your Vcenter...and no way to get vmdk..

So with this aspect, admin access rights can be done inside your created VMs, right?

You can simply utilize "rsync or Rsnapshot" with this. Its built-in on almost all linux distro anyways. All you need is an ssh connection to your created VM with "administrative privileges" whether its linux, unix, or windows VM.

On your linux box, which will act as your backup server or mirror:
(you can even use NAS e.g. WD Mybook Storage -this also has built in rsync)

1. Use rsync command with ssh (Backup Server):

# rsync [OPTION...] [USER@]Your_VM_HOST::SRC... [DEST]
-it will create incremental backup of your VM to [DEST] which is your (Backup server)

2. or Set-up Rsnapshot (Backup Server) rotating daily, weekly, monthly and so on...

Rsnaphot Configuration tips:
-Your snapshot root is your back-up folder located at your Backup Server. (It can also be NFS mounted)
-Specify backup points of your VMs at the backup section. This will be access through ssh

On your VMs:

1. Setup your ssh connections and that's it! You can also generate ssh-keys for automatic login. (VM)

With this setup, you can now have incremental backup of all your VMs that you have specified in your Backup server.

Hope I somehow did get what you are tryin to point out.

Cheers!!!