Backing up a single VMDK file

[moctad_harry]

The Challenge - We have a VM that acts as a template gold image for 40 Window Server 2019 Session Hosts, this VM has 1x 100GB disk with the attributes set to multi-writer, its a known limitation that Veeam BR can't back these up, so skips the VM. (The VM is always switched off, except monthly when we update it)

My Solution - Create a File Copy job that pulls the VM config files (.flat-vmdk,.vmdk, vmx etc) and sends them to a Veeam repo on a schedule. So if anything happened to the production storage we could rebuild this VM.

My Challenge - I don't want to keep copies of these VM config files ad-infinitum, but Veeam's File Copy doesn't seem to support retention. In my eyes that leaves me with two options, turn off scheduling and run it as and when. Or get a PowerShell script to delete copies older than X months.

Any advice or better ways of doing it would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Harry

Support Case ID #04443290

[Vitaliy S.]

Yes, you can use the last line in the Summary page (command line) to create your own script that would basically copy all files and then remove old ones. This even can be done as a part of a single script and Windows Task Scheduler, so that you don't need to run this command manually. Thanks!

[moctad_harry]

Thanks Vitaliy, I will look into this CLI option and the option of turning the VM into a template in vCenter too.

Appreciate it.