2016-10-16, 23:10:38
Hello vmxvmr,
Welcome and thanks for registering.
I answered your questions in the VMware forums, but it will make sense to put the answers here as well. It is probably even better to continue the discussion down here instead of over at the VMware forums.
Let's try to answer your questions,btw thanks for your questions as it helps me to better understand what is needed/wanted.
It might sound weird that for a product that I have spent so much time on developing that I do not have a definitive answer on that yet.
If you want a ballpark number then the only thing I am willing to say is "less then 40 Euro", but I do not have an exact price at this moment.
This is also an open question. I will look into this.
You might not be the typical user, I assumed most users would not run servers with databases as VMs, of course the first question I get is someone who runs servers with databases .
For most people it would not be a nice thing to shut down the VM before a backup as it could interfere with their work.
The way it works in global lines is that Vimalin detects if your VM is running or not and if it runs it will run a snapshot in the background, then it copies the full set of data and commits the snapshot after the copy. So when you restore the backup you get back to the state of the snapshot. For a server there are basically two options, like you say shut down completely and start it up afterwards, or run the snapshot with quiescence so that files are forced to be written.
At the moment it isn't offering neither as I need to find a way to keep things easy to configure too. I'll add it as a feature request.
Yes, at the moment it does not change the state, just adjusts how to backup the VM.
All of that is fairly easy to setup in the scheduler. You can roll over data and assign multiple schedules to a single VM to tweak it exactly to your likings.
Not at this moment. Which is logical as Vimalin doesn't restart the VM. Interesting idea though had not considered it.
Also never considered that so not at this moment, but it sounds interesting. Beware though that if you change the files (like compressing) that the md5sums no longer match and the file sizes will be off so Vimalin will complain if you select the backup job in the backup archive screen.
It does make an md5 hash of every file and store that in the archive database. I considered compressing the archives, but as it requires extra testing and making sure that no things happen like filling up a disk that has a VM running on it I have postponed this functionality until the basics work well. So the first version of Vimalin is more basic as I would have wanted, but it is best to first have a proven rock solid base as to have a lot of fancy features.
Having said that, it is high on my wish list and parts of the application have been designed to foresee this.
Hope this helps,
--
Wil
Welcome and thanks for registering.
I answered your questions in the VMware forums, but it will make sense to put the answers here as well. It is probably even better to continue the discussion down here instead of over at the VMware forums.
Let's try to answer your questions,btw thanks for your questions as it helps me to better understand what is needed/wanted.
Quote: * How much will it cost when it is released?
It might sound weird that for a product that I have spent so much time on developing that I do not have a definitive answer on that yet.
If you want a ballpark number then the only thing I am willing to say is "less then 40 Euro", but I do not have an exact price at this moment.
Quote: * How will it be licensed? Can I use it on multiple personally owned Macs (with a similar license to VMware)? I run virtual machines on my desktop iMac, a Mac mini server (the firewall is a virtual machine appliance), and occasionally a MacBook Pro laptop when I am away from home.
This is also an open question. I will look into this.
Quote: * How does it work? Does it shutdown the virtual machine first, then copy the entire virtual machine package, then restart the virtual machine?
Note: I would like a backup product that can be configured to shutdown the virtual machine before the backup starts, to guarantee that it is in a restorable state if I should ever need the backup. Some of my virtual machines run as Windows Servers with open, active databases on them
You might not be the typical user, I assumed most users would not run servers with databases as VMs, of course the first question I get is someone who runs servers with databases .
For most people it would not be a nice thing to shut down the VM before a backup as it could interfere with their work.
The way it works in global lines is that Vimalin detects if your VM is running or not and if it runs it will run a snapshot in the background, then it copies the full set of data and commits the snapshot after the copy. So when you restore the backup you get back to the state of the snapshot. For a server there are basically two options, like you say shut down completely and start it up afterwards, or run the snapshot with quiescence so that files are forced to be written.
At the moment it isn't offering neither as I need to find a way to keep things easy to configure too. I'll add it as a feature request.
Quote: * Does it check the running state of the virtual machine (running, suspended, or shutdown?) in order to leave it in the same state when it is done?
Yes, at the moment it does not change the state, just adjusts how to backup the VM.
Quote: * How does it manage backup file accumulation?
Note: I would like to keep a certain number of backup copies (say, two month's worth of weekly backups), and then have the backup program start deleting the old backups to avoid running out of disk space.
All of that is fairly easy to setup in the scheduler. You can roll over data and assign multiple schedules to a single VM to tweak it exactly to your likings.
Quote: * Can it perform other actions, such as a Disk Cleanup, before restarting the virtual machine?
Not at this moment. Which is logical as Vimalin doesn't restart the VM. Interesting idea though had not considered it.
Quote: * Can I configure it to run one of my shell scripts when a backup completes?
Also never considered that so not at this moment, but it sounds interesting. Beware though that if you change the files (like compressing) that the md5sums no longer match and the file sizes will be off so Vimalin will complain if you select the backup job in the backup archive screen.
Quote: * It would be nice if it could be programmed to compress the backup, save an MD5 hash of the compressed backup, and then delete the original backup, for example, which would save a huge amount of disk space.
It does make an md5 hash of every file and store that in the archive database. I considered compressing the archives, but as it requires extra testing and making sure that no things happen like filling up a disk that has a VM running on it I have postponed this functionality until the basics work well. So the first version of Vimalin is more basic as I would have wanted, but it is best to first have a proven rock solid base as to have a lot of fancy features.
Having said that, it is high on my wish list and parts of the application have been designed to foresee this.
Hope this helps,
--
Wil