You can use VMware tools to perform specific operations before or after a backup. For example, if a virtual machine hosts an Oracle database and you want to enable the hot backup of the database before performing the backup, you can run a script using VMware tools.
Note
For ESX version4.x, the VMware tools scripts should be located in C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware Tools\backupScripts.d.
If a virtual machine hosts a VSS-aware application such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange, or Oracle, enable the File System and Application Consistent option at the subclient level to provide the ability to back up the database and perform an image level application-consistent database recovery.
On Linux virtual machines, the script /usr/sbin/pre-freeze-script is executed when the software snapshot is created and /usr/sbin/post-thaw-script is executed when the software snapshot is finalized. Ensure that these scripts are executable by the VMware tools user. For information about open-vm-tools support, see System Requirements.
The following scripts are available to perform pre-freeze or post-thaw processing using VMware tools:
Operation |
Procedure |
Scripts |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the DB2 application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the DB2 database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the MAXDB application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the MAXDB database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the Oracle application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the Oracle database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the Sybase application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the Sybase database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the MySQL application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the MySQL database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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Scripts can be used to take a snapshot of a VM with the Informix application. These scripts enable VMware to suspend I/O updates to the Informix database until the VMware Linux guest snapshot is completed. |
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