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I have a ESXi host with both Windows and CentOS virtual machines running. A couple of them are running SQL Databases (MSSQL and MySQL). I am trying to setup a backup strategy using the ghettoVCB script, I have successfully executed the backups and ready to test the restore functions. ghettoVCB takes backups of the VM without taking them offline by creating a snapshot of the running machine and then deleting it after a successful backup.

Since the resulting backup is an offline VM wouldn't that harm the consistency of the databases (and other applications running at the time of the snapshot) ? Is it reliable to use this snapshots as a backup ?

drcelus
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It depends if the VM was quieced prior to the snap, in the case of an SQL server this would need to be via VSS which is enabled by up to date vmtools and the request to do so. I don't know GhettoVCB but I do know the APIs it uses can issue a request to vmtools to quiece via VSS, whether it uses this or not I don't know but that's the only route to a genuinely coherent snap and subsequent restore.

Chopper3
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  • That's right what I was looking for. There is an option in ghettoVCB to take quiesced snapshots. – drcelus May 09 '12 at 09:55