What are you using for your vCenter backups?

[brianmat]

We currently have PHD Virtual in place but that is going EOL in January. They are trying to sell us on UEB but I am really done with Unitrends as a whole. The rotating sales weenies look at our support tickets when the reach out to introduce themselves and you hear the sound of dread over the phone.

We're looking at Veeam right now and that seems to be the de-facto product in the market. I just wanted to see what else might be out there worth looking at. We would like granular SQL Server recovery so that probably rules out a number of products.

So, what product(s) do you use to help prevent the end of the world?

 

[cheezehead]

Currently using Netbackup, formerly used Backup Exec. NBU sucks less than Backup Exec but it still slow on support for new technologies (needed to wait 3 months for vsphere 5.5 support...who knows how long for Exch 16' support when it's released).

At the time we last changed backup software packages we had a hard requirement for tape support which outside of Backup Exec the only two options were DPM, Avamar, NetBackup, and AppAssure. Avamar got ruled out because of cost, AppAssure fell over trying to handle Exchange, DPM and the backup admin didn't agree which left NBU by default.

If we continue to have issues with NBU, I'm going to be pushing for Veeam.

 

[NetWise]

Used Backup Exec at one company up to 2012 and it was horrible.

Used NBU at the last company to do legacy backup to tape and NDMP. if you HAVE To do that, I guess the good. But NDMP and Tape are horrible in principal.

Been using Veeam since v4.x, put it in 4 companies I work for, now work for a Veeam Partner where I champion it and couldn't recommend anything else.

Over the years I've tried other options back to back. Trial. Or paid. Or free vExpert licenses. They're all lacking. Veeam 'just worked'.

My biggest public complaint with it is that each version they bump the price. Because they KNOW they're the leader in that space and want to price accordingly. As a business person I get it. As the licensee I'm less happy about it. But I understand it.

Under NO circumstances is the answer AppAssure or worse vRanger if you end up somewhere that has that. Just quit. At least THAT will work reliably.

As one of the other posters said NBU is HORRIBLE for taking months if not quarters to support new versions. I guess here not enough of a technology partner to participate in the betas for MS and VMware products. And I'll be damned it my backup solution is what will hold up my infrastructure upgrades. I mean it has to work but t shouldn't be THAT far behind.

I think Veeam offers a competitive trade in credit in not on the sales side but could find out.

That's my $0.0157 cents. ( I'm Canadian it's worth less due to exchange....)

 

[whitey]

ZFS snapshot send receive :-D

 

[GuybrushThreepwood]

Give Nakivo a try, we're using that at work.

 

[legopc]

I set up a Veeam server on someone else's server and that has worked perfectly for quite some time now. I really have not had any issues with Veeam and would recommend it. I used VMware VDP before this and that was terrible, it kept throwing errors and every once in a while it would just stop working and I had to redeploy the entire VM.

 

[badskater]

It all depends for my tastes, size of a company is something to think about. Just to give you an example, Veeam wasn't enough for our needs, so we went with a solution from our storage provider, EMC. So, we're using Avamar + DataDomain. There's also NetWorker that usually works well, it all depends on the size of your backups as usual. (We have PBs of backup at work, and that was our main issue with Veeam, too much data for it, couldn't follow our needs)

 

[brianmat]

It looks like we'll be going with Veeam. Unitrends deemed us to be too small to bother with an demo of their granular recovery. I was appalled when I saw the email chain where they basically said exactly that. So far Veeam has been very responsive and setup a great demo. We're not big, but to me the value of a company shows how they treat you when you are NOT their biggest customer. We had been with Unitrends for 3 years and I can safely say right now I would not piss on them if they were on fire.

It looks like we'll come out cheaper switching to Veeam than doing a UVB to UEB upgrade.

 

[badskater]

It looks like we'll be going with Veeam. Unitrends deemed us to be too small to bother with an demo of their granular recovery. I was appalled when I saw the email chain where they basically said exactly that. So far Veeam has been very responsive and setup a great demo. We're not big, but to me the value of a company shows how they treat you when you are NOT their biggest customer. We had been with Unitrends for 3 years and I can safely say right now I would not piss on them if they were on fire.

It looks like we'll come out cheaper switching to Veeam than doing a UVB to UEB upgrade.

That's also something I like with Veeam. They don't care how big or small you are, they're gonna do their best to show their products. They'll even admit if another product is better for your size (in my case, it happened)

 

[whitey]

It all depends for my tastes, size of a company is something to think about. Just to give you an example, Veeam wasn't enough for our needs, so we went with a solution from our storage provider, EMC. So, we're using Avamar + DataDomain. There's also NetWorker that usually works well, it all depends on the size of your backups as usual. (We have PBs of backup at work, and that was our main issue with Veeam, too much data for it, couldn't follow our needs)

We use Avamar + DataDomain as well at our big shop. Pockets be DEEP though, better be w/ a EvilMachineCompany logo on it.