Backing Up VMware Virtual Machines (legacy backup format)

System Requirements

Component	Requirement
Operating system	Windows Server 2008 R2/2012/2012 R2/2016/2019/2022, Windows 10/11 (Pro, Enterprise)
Virtual Environment	vSphere version 6.0 or higher

Download Backup Agent VM Edition for Windows

To download a Backup Agent VM edition, proceed as follows:

1. Go to the Downloads page, and select the Backup Agent Virtual Machine edition.
2. The Backup Agent VM edition is ready after a short time.
3. When the build is ready, you will be able to see it in the Downloads panel as a sandbox build.

To make the Backup Agent VM edition accessible to your customers, click Make public.

After the build is public, your customers will be able to download it.

Licensing

There are two types of licenses for the Virtual Machine edition:

• Virtual Machine Edition license. This is the main license that covers 2 processor sockets
• Virtual Machine Socket license. This is an additional license that covers 1 processor socket

For example, if you have a vCenter server with two hosts with 2 processor sockets per each (i.e. 4 in total), you will need 1 Virtual Machine Edition + 2 Virtual Machine Socket licenses.

Back up VMware Virtual Machines

Managed Backup supports the backup and restore of virtual machines located and managed by the ESXi server which is a part of the VMware vSphere product. Therefore as the target for a backup, it will be necessary to specify vCenter or ESXi Host.

Step 1. Click Backup VMware on the toolbar to start the VMware Backup Wizard.

Step 2. Select storage where you want to back up your VMware machines.

Step 3. Name your backup plan.

Step 4. Select "VMware Host Server" you want to back up and specify login and password for access. It can be vCenter or ESXi Host and you can use an IP address or machine/hostname. If the target which you chose is vCenter then a list of hosts from the server will be requested, and the host can be selected from the list.

Step 5. Choose the virtual machines to back up. Provided are three options:

• Back up all Virtual Machines - initiates backup of all virtual machines on the selected host.
• Back up all only running Virtual Machines - initiates backup only of running machines on the selected host. The stopped and not started virtual machines will be skipped.
• Back up selected Virtual Machines - allows to select virtual machine(s) from the list to back up.

Step 6. Specify Compression and Encryption options.

Step 7. Set up Purge options.

Step 8. Specify the Schedule. Here you can select one of the predefined schedule templates or set up a custom schedule.

Step 9. Specify the Full Backup Schedule options. Due to block-level backup usage, it is strongly recommended to run a full backup periodically. Otherwise, you will not be able to purge out-of-date versions (differential backups) because of their dependency on an initial full backup.

Step 10. Specify Pre/Post commands you want to be executed before and/or after the backup completes.

Step 11. Set up notifications.

Step 12. Review a Summary and finish the Backup Wizard.