Concurrent backups and changed block tracking

[Felix]

Just wanted to know if it's possible to run multiple backup jobs on the same VMs without messing up changed block tracking.

I'm currently backing up to an internal RAID and then copy the latest full .vbk to an external USB drive for offsite storage, but with a 650 GB .vbk this is really slow, so I'd prefer to do direct backup to USB. This should be possible with the changes in 4.1.2 even when rotating backup disks.

[Felix]

OK, after reading the FAQ, I guess I can answer myself:

Q: Will the changed block tracking "brake" if I backup and replicate the same VM? Or backup the same VM with different jobs and/or different servers?
A: There will be no issues, changed block tracking is designed to handle such scenarios.

[Alexey D.]

Hello Felix,

Yes, this answer in the FAQ suits your first question, so there will be no issues.

Concerning direct backup to USB drive: this is possible with vSphere 4.1, you may want to refer to this topic for further reading: vSphere 4.1 and USB Passthrough. Hope this helps!

[Felix]

I'm using a physical backup host, though I've still got a vSphere license, so I might switch it to virtual on vSphere 4.1 migration, if I can get satisfactory USB performance.

[Gostev]

You can backup directly to USB drive with physical host - no need to switch to virtual...

[Felix]

Yea I know, just saying that virtual would be interesting if USB performance would be on par with physical host. But currently it seems to be limited to about 7mbyte/s, judging from the above mentioned forum post.

[Gostev]

Read the above mentioned forum post until the end

[Felix]

Well, I've done my own testing on two systems and both only gave 6-7 MByte/s throughput, I've posted details in the above mentioned thread.