Rsync backups and VMWare binary blobs

[John Abreau]

On 3/14/07, Kristian Hermansen <kristian.hermansen at gmail.com> wrote:

> VMware has a feature called 'snapshots'.  Use it :-)  However, it
> won't save you if you actually lose the virtual disk.  Because of this
> abstraction, it is difficult to deal with.  That's why VMware created
> the VMFS file system that is used in ESX server.  It can do diffs of
> virtual disks.  However, you will pay a lot more than a Workstation
> license to get that feature.  Maybe someone else has a better
> suggestion?

I've been making backups by hand for now, by manually copying the
guest systems to an external usb drive periodically. But it would be
nice to somehow be able to include them in the rsync backups.

If I could mount the vmware filesystems when the guests are
suspended, then it would be fairly simple to back them up. I recall
seeing a Windows driver for mounting vmware volumes; is there a similar
file system driver for Linux?

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John Abreau / Executive Director, Boston Linux & Unix
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