Veeam Licencing
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The backup APIs are missing from ESXi free edition, so you can't use any version of Veeam to back it up.
If you need to find an inexpensive/free solution, install Hyper-V instead of ESXi, then you can use Veeam free to back that up.
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Ah, yes. I remember that now! Sorry.
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Would you consider using Veeam Endpoint Backup on the servers that are on ESXi free?
You can send the backup files to your main Veeam repository -
Yes. Although my current task was to install a Smoothwall firewall on the host and I doubt that it would be a good idea to install backup agents on a firewall.
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You back backup the Smoothwall configuration separately, and in the event you need to completely wipe & reload it, just install & restore config?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Ah, yes. I remember that now! Sorry.
But HyperV has the APIs for free, so there is a free option that Veeam and Unitrends support.
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Yes. Although my current task was to install a Smoothwall firewall on the host and I doubt that it would be a good idea to install backup agents on a firewall.
So don't. You can use something like clonezilla to create the occasional backup. Assuming you aren't making changes daily, taking the Firewall offline one in a while to do a full backup shouldn't be that big a deal.
And there's always @dafyre solution of backing up the config itself and reinstalling in case of failure.
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@dafyre said:
You back backup the Smoothwall configuration separately, and in the event you need to completely wipe & reload it, just install & restore config?
This is the correct way to do it. You don't backup the whole thing, just a tiny text file that holds the configuration. You restore using an image if you have it or from building from ISO if you do not and just apply that text file. Faster to restore, tiny amount of storage for backups. Much better design.
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Thanks all. Taking the Firewall offline once in a while would be a big deal. Mainly because I'd have to come into work out of hours, probably on a Sunday, which I always try and avoid.
Smoothwall includes a backup utility that backs up the required files. It then has the option during an install to read this backup and update the installation accordingly. But there is a gotcha. It only supports floppy disks or floppy disk images. I can manually extract the files from the floppy disk image file using something like 7Zip, and then manually upload these files onto your Smoothwall server using Putty, but it is not trivial. Or I can use floppy drives, but who has floppy drives these days?
I am now going to look into VShpere virtual floppy drives and hope to use that.
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How did they end up with a limitation like that? That seems crazy.
