ESXi

Basically a very simple setup, but have eluded me for some time now: Simply backup some running VM's on a ESXi 5.x to a FreeNAS NFS service. I'm running FreeNAS 8.2 (FreeNAS update routine is also give me some strange access rights errors lately, so never got round to updating the bugger) Shouldn’t be a problem with version 8.1 or 8.3.

Things might be done differently with better preference/lesser work. I'm no expert, so please let me know if your setup performs better, or to point out some stupid mistakes I have made. But the following will get backups of your VM's to a FreeNAS box.

I'm still struggling with some kind of synchronisation with Amazon S3 from FreeNAS. If you have done any kind of progress along offsite sync from FreeNAS or any throughs on this, please let me know.

All glory is going to William Lam (www.virtuallyghetto.com) for his work on ghettoVCB script. There is nothing original here, I just put some snips together.

VMware Knowledge Base: 1002491

Renaming using the virtual disk using the ESX/ESXi host console interface To rename the disk and its files using the vmkfstools command in ESX/ESXi host's console interface: Verify the virtual machine referring to the virtual machine disk is powered off and does not have outstanding snapshots. Remove the virtual disk from the virtual machine's configuration: Locate the virtual machine in the inventory using the vSphere Client. Right-click the virtual machine select Edit Settings. Select the virtual disk in question and take note of virtual device node (eg, SCSI 0:1) and the name of the datastore and directory in the Disk File field at the top-right. Click the Remove button to disconnect the virtual disk from the virtual machine. Open a console to the ESX or ESXi host. For more information, see Unable to connect to an ESX host using Secure Shell (SSH) (1003807) or Using Tech Support Mode in ESXi 4.1 (1017910). Navigate to the virtual machine's directory using a command similar to:

cd "/vmfs/volumes/Datastore Name/Directory Name/"

Obtain a listing of the files within a directory using the command:

ls -l

For example:

total 320
-rw------- 1 root root 8684 Aug 30 10:53 examplevm.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 21474836480 Aug 30 10:26 examplevm-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 482 Aug 30 11:26 examplevm.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Aug 30 10:33 examplevm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2724 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root 264 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmxf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39168 Aug 30 10:53 vmware.log

Rename a virtual disk using a command similar to:

vmkfstools -E OldName.vmdk NewName.vmdk

For example:

vmkfstools -E examplevm.vmdk examplevm-renamed.vmdkXXX

Note: Specify the descriptor file; the associated extent file is renamed in the process. Validate the files were renamed by listing the files within the directory using the command:

ls -l

For example:

total 320
-rw------- 1 root root 8684 Aug 30 10:53 examplevm.nvram
-rw------- 1 root root 21474836480 Aug 30 10:26 examplevm-renamed-flat.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 482 Aug 30 11:26 examplevm-renamed.vmdk
-rw------- 1 root root 0 Aug 30 10:33 examplevm.vmsd
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 2724 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmx
-rw------- 1 root root 264 Aug 30 12:20 examplevm.vmxf
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 39168 Aug 30 10:53 vmware.log

Re-add the virtual machine disk to the virtual machine's configuration. Using the vSphere Client, select the virtual machine and click Edit Settings. Click the Add... button above the virtual hardware list. Select Hard Disk and Use an existing virtual disk. Select the datastore and disk that was renamed. Confirm that the same SCSI controller type and Device Node noted in step 2c. Click the OK button to complete the configuration change.

Ever found out how commutative ESXi patches/updates are. Possible not all below steps are necessary, but it worked out fine. No lose of configuration data and so on. Started out with build 1117900. Did only 5.1 update 2 and 3.

I was sure I could go from 5.1 update 3 to 5.5 baseline. I found documentation for that - but possibly you could go directly 5.5 update 3. Not a test machine, so I took the conservative route. Let me know if you have been able to skip some of the steps.

Started from the bottom.