There is a 3–2–1 principle when it comes to backups, which mentions that an offsite backup is necessary. Therefore, backing up VMware VM to external hard drive is really a good idea.
Basically, there are 3 available ways to backup VMware VM to external hard drive:
- Download VM files from datastore
- Export VM to OVF/OVA template
- Backup VMs using third party software
The first 2 ways are practical when you only need to backup several ESXi VMs, but if you have multiple VMs to backup, the third way can provide more efficiency.
Way 1. Download VM files to external hard drive
1. Access to VMware ESXi web client, and power off the VM you want to backup.
2. Navigate to Storage page and click Datastore browser.
3. Open the VM folder and select the VM files, click Download on toolbar.
4. In the pop-up windows, specify the external hard drive as the download destination, and click Save to download the VM files.
Way 2. Export VM to OVF and save in external drive
1. Access to VMware ESXi web client, navigate to Virtual Machines page and power off the VM you want to backup.
2. Right-click on the VM name and select Export.
3. Click OK to download the .ovf file and .vmdk file.
4. Specify the external hard drive as the destination location, and click Save.
Above 2 native ways to backup VMware VM to external hard drive are available on all ESXi versions. But they can only back up one VM at a time, and require additional steps of registering or importing as new VMs when restoring.
Therefore, if you want to back up multiple or all VMs on your host, performing these backups one by one can be really laborious. You may get better help from dedicated backup tools.
Way 3. Backup multiple VMware VMs to external drive (free)
Here I will introduce a professional and free backup tool that can backup multiple VMs on the ESXi host in 3 easy steps, namely AOMEI Cyber Backup. Except for this, it also has the following benefits:
Agentless Backup: add VMware ESXi VMs to a central console for backup and manage without installing Agent.
Backup to Internal/External Drive: backup ESXi VM to any detected external drive, or network share directly.
Restore from Any Point: quickly restore entire VM from any backed up history version.
AOMEI Cyber Backup supports VMware ESXi 6.0 and later versions. Next, I will demonstrate how to backup multiple VMware ESXi VMs with it.
1. Access to AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware ESXi > + Add VMware ESXi to add a host. And then click … > Bind Device.
2. Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and set Task Name, Backup Type, Device, Target, Schedule according to your needs.
Using AOMEI Cyber Backup, you can back VMs up local drive, attached external drive, or a network path. Used paths will be saved in Favorite Storage for handy selection.
3. Then, you can select Add the schedule and start backup now, or Add the schedule only.
According to the 3–2–1 backup rule, it’s recommended to keep 3 copies of data, store backups on 2 types of media, and keep at least 1 backup offsite.
Therefore, you may copy VMware ESXi VM to external hard drive, copy ESXi VM to USB, or backup vm to synology NAS for example.
With native backup ways, you can easily backup single or several ESXi VMs. However, if you want to backup multiple VMs on the host, AOMEI Cyber Backup, the professional and free backup tool may help you better.
