Hi @Manikandn 

Thanks for the question, but it’s not exactly clear what the objectives or expectations are from the question.

I’m not sure if:

• You want to protect the ESXi host itself (not the VMs)
• You want to protect VMs on ESXi host

I don’t believe we have capabilities to protect ESXi host itself, but deploying a host should be a trivial task.

We do have some capabilities for protecting vCenter physical host if this is present in your environment: https://documentation.commvault.com/commvault/v11_sp20/article?p=125593.htm

If you want to protect VMs hosted on an ESXi host, then this should be as simple as configuring the VSA agent to the ESXi host address instead of the vCenter and use the ESXi host root credentials.

Thanks,

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Thanks for your response.

I want to protect the ESXi host itself. 

Thanks,

Mani

Hi Mani,

Backup only protects the VM’s for VMware (VMDK’s, VMX, NVRAM and logs), not the actual ESXi itself.
Can I ask what the need is to backup the ESXi OS/Configuration?
- In most scenarios if you lose a Host, you can just build a new one and add it to the vCenter. (Or if standalone re-add VM’s from Storage)

Kind Regards,

Michael  

For older ESX versions it was not recommended to install software when service console was available.

https://www.vmware.com/pdf/esx_3p_scvcons.pdf

“In general, VMware recommends that users avoid running third-party software in the VMware ESX Server service console”

For newer versions I think it is not possible to install Linux file system agent.

Hi Michael,

There is requirement from VM team to take a backup.

Thanks,

Mani

@Manikandn , to @Ledoesp ‘s point, what version are you on?

@Manikandn , following up on this thread.  Depending on your version, this may not be possible (and VMWare suggest you don’t run 3rd party software on the ESX server as well).

Honestly, deploying ESXi is a simple task for VM team administrators. All the VMware admins I worked with always preferred nothing to be installed on those hosts, to remain inline with the VMWare support.

You could always suggest them to script the copy of their ESXi(s) files/configuration to a non-ESXi host, where you would have a Commvault backup, if this is what they wish to protect.

@Manikandn , following up on this, with the advice received.  As many have mentioned, it is generally not recommended to back up the eSX server itself.

Hello, 

generally vsphere ESXi is deployed in cluster mode HA,DRS etc …  and replacing a host that is not responding is not a lot of time consuming if all is documented correctly :)

but you can automate the ESXi configuration with scripting, a lot of example are available. after the backup file is copied on a NAS for example, you can backup it up with commvault.