VMware has a data protection product known as Data Recovery that is designed for vSphere 4 to protect VMs (virtual machines) from data loss. VMware Data Recovery is marketed as a product that can protect virtual machines that have been shut off, and it is able to reduce the overall cost of backing up VMs. It is a disk-based kind of solution. Both individual files and the VMs themselves can be recovered.
VMware Data Recovery functions by backing up virtual machines with a “snapshot” style backup system. In the recovery process, VMs can be restored back to a certain point in time. This process is akin to being able to get in a time machine, travel back in time, and start life over again at a set date and time, before everything went wrong. (Who doesn’t want a do-over button in real life? And when will Microsoft or VMware have it on the market?)
Because VMware Data Recovery has a central management interface, a single console can facilitate the backup administration through a plug-in. Storage space is conserved because of data de-duplication. Data de-duplication gets rid of redundant data and is particularly useful in backup applications. The rate of de-duping can be increased if a common destination disk is chosen. Note that block level de-duplication occurs, not file level de-duplication. De-duplication cannot be disabled with VMware Data Recovery.
This particular data recovery product uses a wizard-type approach to perform backup jobs to make the process more intuitive and simpler to deploy. Your actual servers themselves are not backed up, though – only your VMs are.
The downside to Data Recovery by VMware is that the manufacturer recommends that its product can allow for only 100 guest virtual machines to be backed up. So, beware of this constraint with this product. It also is not compatible with ESX 3.5 or earlier and it is not compatible with vCenter Server 4 Linked Mode.