If I am running a modern vmware ESXi system, I can drop in a statically linked rsync binary and rsync files to any destination over SSH.
I'm trying to understand why most (all ?) backup of vmware guests is not done this way.
If the VM is running, you can simply use 'vim-cmd vmsvc/snapshot.create' to create a snapshot and then rsync that snapshot to the remote host. (there's even an option to "quiesce" the snapshot)
OR, if you want a more robust backup, you can gracefully halt the VM and rsync over the vmdk file(s).
So … it seems like I am a simple shell script away from all the backups I ever wanted to do, simply and easily, using plain old rsync.
What am I missing here ?
Best Answer
Also see: Install rsync on VMware ESX 4.1 server