BACKUP OF VMWARE AND HYPER-V
VM Explorer is a Backup solution that facilitates Backup and Disaster Recovery management activities in VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V environments. VM Explorer supports VMWare ESXi version to perform full backups and replications. VM Explorer integrates support for VMware ESX/ESXi (including ESXi free) and Microsoft Hyper-V in a single software.
Distributed by CoreTech · Backup for virtual environments
VM Explorer is a Backup solution that facilitates Backup and Disaster Recovery management activities in VMware ESX and Microsoft Hyper-V environments.
VM Explorer supports VMWare ESXi version to perform full backups and replications.
VM Explorer is easy to install and ready to use in minutes. The size of the installation file is less than 20 MB and the installation is done with just a few clicks. There is no need to add dedicated virtual machines on your virtualization servers.
Micro Focus VM Explorer has a much more advantageous cost per socket than Veeam, about half, furthermore the cost of renewing the product is very low. A single license can be used for both VMware and Hyper-V
The integrated scheduler allows you to perform automated and periodic backups of your virtual infrastructure. Furthermore, jobs can be started through the graphical interface or via the command line.
In addition to full backups, VM Explorer supports Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology to create incremental backups. You can restore from any version in the backup history
With the Replication function (point in time replication) you can replicate any VM on another host, an interesting feature in the event of "disaster recovery". Thanks to this feature the VM is automatically registered on the backup server and is ready to be started.
VM Explorer integrates support for VMware ESX/ESXi (including ESXi free) and Microsoft Hyper-V in a single software. With the same license you can connect simultaneously to VMware vSphere hosts (paid or free) and to hosts based on Microsoft Hyper-V. Those who use both platforms, perhaps with different customers, can therefore adopt the same solution, without wasting time learning the interface and operation of two different products.
The installation of VM Explorer is very fast and can be done in a few minutes. The size of the installation file is a few tens of MB and VM Explorer can be installed on any machine with a Windows operating system that has the .NET Framework 4.0. In fact, you don't need a dedicated machine, but you can install VM Explorer on any Windows server in your infrastructure. To further confirm the ease of use, VM Explorer does not require the installation of agents on the VMs.
The software can be used both in the traditional Windows-based interface (which is now considered obsolete) and through the convenient Web interface: the available functions are similar in every way, even if the only one that will be constantly supported by Micro Focus it's the Web one.
The backup destination is truly complete and constantly evolving and will soon also embrace all the other Micro Focus technologies, VM Explorer supports various scenarios as backup targets including:
Furthermore, it is possible to use public Cloud storage such as: Amazon S3, HP Cloud, OpenStack, Rackspace, but it is also possible to use your own cloud storage as a destination for VM backup, creating a private OpenStack Object Storage. For now the only SAN supported natively by the software is EMC's Scale IO.
If there are WAN network connections within the infrastructure (for example for wide-area replication) or if you want to use less space on the target system, you can perform dynamic compression of backups.
VM Explorer naturally supports VMware's Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology to create incremental backups. You can restore from any version in your backup history. For this, the software uses the VMware Virtual Disk Development Kit (VDDK) which must be downloaded and enabled to optimize the functioning of the product.
VM Explorer can automatically test a backup to verify that the VM boots correctly: a fundamental function to ensure the smooth functioning of the system. Thanks to a specific option, you can also receive an error notification when Microsoft's Volume Shadow Services (VSS) fails to create a consistent volume for backup, thus preventing problems related to suspended writes.
VM Explorer allows replication (point in time replication) of any VM on another host: a fundamental feature to guarantee disaster recovery procedures. Thanks to this feature, the virtual machine is automatically registered on the backup server and is ready to be started.
If Changed Block Tracking (CBT) technology is enabled, VM Explorer will only replicate changes that occurred to the new target host.
VM Explorer also offers built-in "file level restore" to restore individual files from any backup (FAT, NTFS, EXT, LVM and LDM) without necessarily having to restore the entire backup. With the new version, the "file level restore" of VM Explorer also allows the restoration of individual elements - mailboxes and emails - of a VM with Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 or 2016.
VM Explorer allows you to copy files and perform backups at maximum speed directly between ESX, ESXi, Hyper-V, Linux and FreeBSD servers. The only potential slowdown factors are available network bandwidth and disk speed. It can directly hook into any Linux or FreeBSD machine or VPS and use it as a backup destination.
It is very important to be able to count on a detailed report on the outcome of the backups performed. VM Explorer sends a notification via email containing all the information about the backups performed. These reports can be consulted and exported at any time.
There aren't many software for making VMware backups, so I decided to take some time and in a couple of days I did some tests in the laboratory. In the end I came to the conclusion that the best software for vmware backup are Veeam and VM Explorer, as they are the fastest ones. I chose VM Explorer because the difference in speed with Veeam was imperceptible and with the same performance you gain in ease of management and cost of the license.
System Administrator - Web Agency (Parma)
I have 1 physical server with Vmware free version, with 4 VMs, therefore a small environment with few demands. I needed a backup system that was easy to manage. I tried the free version of VM Explorer and I liked it very much because it has a very intuitive interface. Installation was quick and simple. For these reasons in the end I chose VM Explorer and bought the Professional license which does not have the limitations of the free one.
- Fabrizio G. | Owner - Services (Brescia) -
I met VM Explorer at a CoreTech event and knew Veeam well. I did not find any particular differences in characteristics between the two products. Our company serves many customers and we have decided to change the way we provide our services, moving towards the MSP model. We choose the backup software and we register the licenses to our company. Having to purchase several dozen licenses, one for each installation, the cost of VM Explorer was a decisive element of choice.
- Michael T. | Owner - Manages Service Provider (Milan) -
Micro Focus VM Explorer is licensed based on the physical CPU sockets mounted within the hypervisor hosts that contain the virtual machines from the backup environment.
Each installation of Micro Focus VM Explorer must be licensed with a Starter Pack, upon which additional CPU sockets can then be purchased to meet the requirements of your environment.
The Micro Focus VM Explorer Professional Edition Starter Pack includes the usage license for 4 CPU sockets. The Micro Focus VM Explorer Enterprise Edition Starter Pack includes the usage license for 6 CPU sockets.
So for example, a Professional license allows the backup of 4 VMWare (or Hyper-V) Hosts on which 1 physical CPU each is installed, or 2 Hosts on which 2 physical CPUs are installed each.
The individual CPU sockets are to be considered additional to those included in the starter pack.
Licenses purchased include 24x7 Micro Focus support.
Customers who wish to renew Micro Focus VM Explorer licenses that have not yet expired, or which have expired no more than 30 days ago, can refer to the prices published on the site; in this case the expiry date of the renewed product will be brought forward by 1 year compared to the previous expiry date.
For licenses that have expired more than 30 days ago, a specific quotation must be requested by writing to sales@coretech.it and a renewal will be quoted which will expire 1 year from order processing.
A different case applies to licenses purchased before April 2016, for which the non-socket model remains valid. At the moment, the transition of these licenses to the new licensing model is not planned, therefore customers who wish to renew such a license can refer to the renewal item with the note "Non-socket Licenses".
This renewal will bring forward the previous deadline by 1 year.
It is possible to upgrade the version from the Professional to the Enterprise version for both the Starter Pack and the additional sockets.
