Free and Efficient VMware Backup Software for Linux

Case: Linux based backup software for VMware environment?

From home desktops to enterprise servers, from physical machines to virtual machines, the Linux operating system is everywhere. Linux has the advantages of free, stable, not easy to be attacked, and open source. This means that it provides the greatest extent of freedom, including the freedom to redistribute copies and distribute the copies to others, like the famous Ubuntu.

If you are using Linux system to deploy your VMware environment, for example, the type-1 hypervisor VMware ESXi, you must need a Linux-based backup software for VMware VMs protection, just like the case above. This article will present you a free and efficient VMware backup software Linux, AOMEI Cyber Backup.

A free VMware backup software for Linux – AOMEI Cyber Backup

You may still struggle to choose a suitable VMware backup software for your Linux environment, because Windows has a very high usage rate for a long time, and there are still many backup software that do not support Linux.

Fortunately, free VMware backup software AOMEI Cyber Backup focuses on enhancing the customer experience and has made changes to this situation. Now except for Windows, you can also install and run AOMEI Cyber Backup on Linux environment and use it to backup your VMware ESXi VMs.

For Linux, AOMEI Cyber Backup supports:

• Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
• Ubuntu 20.04.2 LTS
• Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS
• Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS

AOMEI Cyber Backup allows you to create complete and independent image-level VM backups for both paid and free versions of VMware ESXi and Hyper-V, without installing an agent on the host and the guest machines.

To avoid mis-operations, it also allows one administrator account to create multiple sub-accounts with different limited privileges. For Linux, the Root Account of the Super Administrator in Linux are supported.

How to backup VMware ESXi VMs on Linux

AOMEI Cyber Backup provides an intuitive GUI operating interface and simplifies the backup process into 3 easy steps. With simple clicks you can create a complete backup task that covers multiple VMs, and with a highly customized backup schedule that runs automatically.

Next, I will show you how to perform VMware backup Linux. Before you start, you will need to install the software on Linux. You can click the following button to download the freeware.

Install AOMEI Cyber Backup on Linux

1. Unzip the AOMEI Cyber Backup folder with root privileges through the following command.

tar -zxvf AOMEICyberBackupTrial.tar.gz

2. Install AOMEI Cyber Backup with root privileges, run the command:

./AOMEICyberBackup/setup.sh

Or you can also open the AOMEI Cyber Backup folder and execute following command to install.

./setup.sh

3 steps to backup VMware ESXi VMs using AOMEI Cyber Backup

1. Bind Devices: Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware > + Add VMware Device to Add vCenter or Standalone ESXi host. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, and Schedule.

• Device: cover multiple VMs on the host within one backup task.
• Target: select to back up to a local path, or to a network path.
• Schedule: choose to perform full, differential or incremental backup, and automate execution according to the frequency you specified.
• Email Notification: send email notification when the task is completed or abnormal.

3. Run Backup: Now you can click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.

Created backup tasks will be listed and monitored separately, for restoring, progress checking and schedule changing.

While the Free Edition covers most of VM backup needs, you can also upgrade to enjoy:
▶ Batch VM backup: batch backup large numbers of VMs managed by vCenter Server or standalone ESXi hosts.
▶ Backup cleanup: Configure a retention policy to auto delete old backup files and save storage space.
▶ Restore to new location: restore entire VM to the same or another datastore/host directly from the backup, saving the trouble of re-configuring the new VM.

Summary

Virtual machine backup is an important VM data protection measure to ensure timely data recovery in the event of a disaster. But if you deployed it on a Linux environment and thus want a VMware backup software Linux, there may not be many options available.

You can try out the free VMware backup software AOMEI Cyber Backup that can be installed and run in both Windows and Linux environments. In addition, as a dedicated virtual machine backup software, it allows you to centrally manage a large number of virtual machines, whether on VMware ESXi or Hyper-V, and greatly simplifies the backup process.

You can create daily, weekly or monthly automatic backup tasks to free yourself from tedious repetitive tasks, save time and greatly increase your productivity. Best of all, these features can be free.