Opinions on PHD Virtual (Esxpress)

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Private Citizen

Gawd
Joined
Mar 15, 2002
Messages
782
I've been demoing backup solutions for VMware recently and wanted to hear any pros cons with Esxpress. There are plenty of cons on this forum for VRanger but not so much info on Esxpress to be found. Software seems solid to me but wanted to hear any first hand knowledge you guys might have that may help..
 
I have not personally used it, though it looks interesting at least.

What are your goals for a backup software? Maybe we can point you to the right solution.
 
AceXsmurF said:
I have not personally used it, though it looks interesting at least.

What are your goals for a backup software? Maybe we can point you to the right solution.
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Yes the software is very intriguing. There are some pretty cool Youtube vids also that gives a fair bit of insight too. They are releasing an ESXi capable version late October which is very cool looking. Anyway......

AceXsmurF, our goals are pretty straightforward. I just want to get vmdk level backups with File Level Restore capabilities. Also De-duplication is a must too along with ESXi support.
 
NetJunkie said:
Why not use vDR?
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(sigh)......To be honest I didn't actually get around to VDR until it was already too late. From what I can tell it is a lot like PHD Virtual in structure, no? Uses a VM to do the job? I understand that FLR is still experimental though? They may have fixed that by now.
 
Private Citizen said:
(sigh)......To be honest I didn't actually get around to VDR until it was already too late. From what I can tell it is a lot like PHD Virtual in structure, no? Uses a VM to do the job? I understand that FLR is still experimental though? They may have fixed that by now.
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vDR is a lot better than it used to be and I don't think FLR is still experimental. Windows has a GUI for it now. I'd try it before dropping money on another. And if you do drop money I'd look at Veeam. Good product and good company.
 
I use it to backup all my VM's to a cifs mount. It works great. I have the older "free edition" running on my 3.0 and earlier gear and the new PHD software running on my newer hosts.

Did you have any specific questions?
 
I have used it and ended up switching to Veeam as it kept causeing issues with the esx servers having to reboot.

Also it is hard to use where Veeam works easy and has already saved me.
 
Pulse said:
I have used it and ended up switching to Veeam as it kept causeing issues with the esx servers having to reboot.

Also it is hard to use where Veeam works easy and has already saved me.
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Interesting. Was PHD tech support not able to remedy your situation and what was causing the problem? Also what specifically did you find difficult to use with PHD as opposed to Veeam? Thanks.

RRLSi, have you had to restore an entire VM from backup yet in production and how did the process go for you? Also how reliable has the backup process been for you and has tech support been satisfactory? Thanks.
 
I personally have not had to restore yet. My coworker does most of the backup/restore duties and he's never had a problem doing a full restore. He tested it after we went to ESX 4.0. We're on some seriously committed hardware right now, and have never had problems with our hosts backing up, even with up to a 90-95% utilization on the hosts.
 
What are any good solutions (aside from utilizing the integrated CLI), for backing up a ESXi 3.5 (free) virtual machine. I have a script right now which does it, but are there any backup packages out there which will do the job for little to no cash needed?
 
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