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My current setup:

Dedicated server running Vmware Workstation. The vm is Windows 2008 R2.

It is running great. My problem is the backup. I wrote a script, even used other scripts from the Vmware forums, and I can't seem to get it to start backing up. It's giving me an error 'failed to communicate' while it's bring it up. It acts like it is going to work, sometimes does, and sometimes errors out.

So, after a bit of research, I read that Workstation isn't really suited for a server os such as windows 2008. Is this true?

If so, should I be going to a different version of Vmware? If so, what version?

Keep in mind that we are only running 1 virtual machine and do not want to put out a lot of money for something that is running fine, I'm just having to jump through hoops to back up right now. Yes, that's a problem, but not a short term problem.

Can I go with something as simple as vmplayer and still be able to power down and bring it back up from a script? Does it work fine for W2k?

Anyone have any suggestions?

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    If you only have one VM, why are you using virtualization at all?
    – Michael Hampton
    Oct 25, 2012 at 2:32
  • We are using a rented server and if that server had issues or goes down, we can quickly bring our environment back up or move it to another server. We have a lot of setup in this virtual server and this allows us to move it quickly and be back running without having to do anything but install vmware. This also allows us to backup the entire server as it is.
    – ErocM
    Oct 25, 2012 at 2:34
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    You're right that VMWare Workstation isn't ideal in a server environment, the name kind of gives it away, try ESXi.
    – Chopper3
    Nov 9, 2012 at 13:18
  • How would you quickly move the setup if there were issues with the host server?
    – ewwhite
    Nov 9, 2012 at 13:18
  • Probably, backups made earlier and saved somewhere on a network share.
    – Volodymyr Molodets
    Nov 9, 2012 at 13:38

2 Answers 2

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If your rented server is windows 2008/2008 R2, you could look to use Hyper-V. If you have issues, your host could just install the Hyper-V role on another server and you could restore the server from backup to the new Hyper-V server.

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  • yeah we are looking at converting it to a hyper-v server. It has less overhead and is made for what we are looking at. Thanks for the input.
    – ErocM
    Nov 9, 2012 at 16:20
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I would shutdown the machine remotely via script attached to scheduled task and power the machine ON via another script attached to Scheduled task as well. Run backup in between.

How to remotely shutdown, restart or logoff on Windows host

VMware Player cmd startup script

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  • if we do not go with the hyper-v option then I will prob go with this one.
    – ErocM
    Nov 9, 2012 at 16:20

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