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I have a Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.1 (Tikanga) VMware ESX 4.1 (Kandinsky), and my plan is to backup the files from the box to a NAS in another host. I have already resolve the ssh connection of the two hosts and now I wanna use rsync to copy files from ESX to NAS and I wanna execute it via crontab. The NAS has an rsync installed but the ESX has no rsync installed. It already took me a week figuring out how to install rsync in the server, but I can't get it to work. Please give some suggestions, thank you so much in advance.

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    Don't do it this way. This is neither supported nor advised as a method of backing up your VMware host or the virtual machines contained within it.
    – Rex
    May 13, 2014 at 2:12
  • Just because something is a bad idea doesn't mean it deserves downvotes... But please don't do this...
    – ewwhite
    May 13, 2014 at 2:13
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    Thank you for your suggestons, but how should I backup the virtual machines in my VMware host to my NAS?
    – Harold
    May 13, 2014 at 2:15
  • I just search further more and did some experiments and took the risks. I downloaded some rsync scripts and copied it to the bin folder in my ESX and then surprise, it's now working perfectly.
    – Harold
    Oct 31, 2014 at 1:37

2 Answers 2

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VMware ESX/ESXi is not a general-purpose operating system. You really should not use rsync to back up your virtual machine data. If possible, try to use purpose-built backup application intended for VMware use or back up your VMs from within their respective operating systems.

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  • But is it possible for me to backup my VM's to my NAS (Network Attached Storage) in another host?
    – Harold
    May 13, 2014 at 2:19
  • I guess... What do you mean by "NAS in another host"?
    – ewwhite
    May 13, 2014 at 2:21
  • Sorry for making this somewhat hazy for you, I mean my NAS (Network Attached Storage) is the host itself. Both my VMware and the NAS are on a private network. The NAS serves as the backup storage of my other servers. I've been used to using rsync in my backups, but this time I encountered that rsync is not preferrable for VM's.
    – Harold
    May 13, 2014 at 2:24
  • Long time no update. I'm glad to tell you that I have successfully installed rsync on the ESX. Thank you for all your help and suggestions.
    – Harold
    Oct 31, 2014 at 1:35
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You can use any backup software that supports vmware. e.g. Veeam (Disclaimer: I DON'T work for veeam), or even VMware's own Data Protection Appliance.

I guess most of the applications are capable of backing up to a NAS share, either by running the Backup software on the ESX with the NAS mounted, or directly using NFS/CIFS.

Also, If I understand correctly, you have just one VM (RHEL) to Backup. You could just backup this VM using RSync (within the VM), not caring about ESX at all.

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