How to Backup VMware VM to AWS Securely

The Benefits of Backup VMware to AWS

AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that connects to VMware workloads using AWS Backup gateway which you’ll deploy in your VMware environment. AWS Backup gateway discovers VMs through VMware vCenter Server, takes VM snapshots, and manages backup and restore data between AWS Backup and your VMware environment. You can use tags or VM Resource IDs or group assignment by VM folder or hypervisor to assign VMs to your backup policies, which centrally govern data protection of VMware VMs with supported AWS Backup services. After completing these steps, AWS Backup starts backing up VMware VMs to AWS Backup’s storage vaults.

AWS Backup support for VMware provides you four key benefits.

✲ Integrated Ecosystem: AWS Backup can be seamlessly integrated with other AWS services.
✲ Centrally management: AWS Backup provides you an automated solution to centrally configure backup policies helping you simplify backup lifecycle management.
✲ Security and Compliance: AWS provides robust security features and compliance certifications. By using AWS Backup, you can enhance the security of your backup data and ensure it meets various compliance standards.
✲ Scalability: AWS's vast cloud infrastructure enables you to scale your backup and recovery needs as your business grows, without the limitations of physical hardware.

How to Backup VMware Virtual Machine to AWS Automatically

Professional VM Backup software plays a crucial role in ensuring the safety and recoverability of virtual machines. It captures a point-in-time state of the entire VM, offering independent backups that facilitate fast and complete VM recovery. However, the high cost and limited accessibility of many professional VMware backup solutions can be a barrier for some users.

AOMEI Cyber Backup, a free VMware backup software that simplifies the process of backup VMware ESXi to AWS. It offers a range of features that streamline backup operations and provide peace of mind.

Key Features
🐱‍💻 Fast and Complete Recovery: With independent backups, you can recover your VMs swiftly from Amazon S3, minimizing downtime and data loss.
💡 Scheduled Backups: Automatically backup VMware ESXi backups to Amazon S3, reducing manual intervention and the risk of oversight.
📝 Centralized Management: Manage your backups from a single, user-friendly interface, simplifying the backup process.
🎊 Various Storage Options: Backs up data to multiple destinations including local disks, external drives, NAS, and cloud services like Amazon S3.

AOMEI Cyber Backup provides a free, accessible, and feature-rich solution for VMware backup. It empowers users to protect not only their virtual environments, but also physical environments, databases, and more, making it ideal for businesses data backup.

Download AOMEI Cyber Backup and start backing up VMware virtual machines easily today.

*You can choose to install this VM backup software on either Windows or Linux system.

Steps for Auto VMware Backup to AWS Easily

1. Bind Devices: Launch AOMEI Cyber Backup web client, navigate to Source Device > VMware> + Add VMware Device to add vCenter or Standalone ESXi hosts as the source device. And then click … > Bind Device.

2. Create Backup Task: Navigate to Backup Task > + Create New Task, and then set it up according to your needs.

• Device: cover multiple VMs on the host in one backup task.
• Target: selecting to back up to a local path, or to a network path. Used paths will be saved in Favorite Storage for handy selection.
• Archive: Check "Archiving backup version to Amazon S3" and Select a S3 bucket.

• Schedule: choosing to perform full, differential or incremental backup, and automate execution daily, weekly or monthly according to the frequency you specified.

3. Start Backup: Click Start Backup and select Add the schedule and start backup now or Add the schedule only.

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

To manage your archive tasks of VMware ESXi backups to S3 in "Backup Archive". For example, stop archiving, re-enable archiving, pause all archiving and start all archiving.

• Archive all backup versions: Start archiving from the first version of the backup task.
• Archiving from the last full backup version: The last full backup refers to the most recent complete copy of all data. Starting archiving from the last full backup means performing archiving operations based on this backup version, not starting from previous incremental or differential backup versions.
• Archiving from the next full backup version: Starting archiving from the next full backup version means that when the next full backup is performed, this version will be set as the new starting point for archiving operations.

A reliable backup tool ensures that you can swiftly restore your virtual machines in case of data loss, system failures, or disasters.

How to Backup VMware VMs to AWS via OVF template

In this guide, we're utilizing an on-premises VMware environment, deploying an OVF template within this setup, and establishing connections for VM workloads with AWS Backup. Prior to deploying the AWS Backup gateway, ensure that the following requirements have been met.

• The ESXi versions compatible for this setup are 6.7 or 7.0.
• Your VMs need to be operating on VMFS, NFS or VSAN datastores, whether they are hosted on-premises or within the VMware Cloud on AWS.
• To connect your VMware VMs to AWS Backup, you should deploy an AWS Backup gateway within your VMware infrastructure.

1. First, you should create a backup gateway using the AWS Backup console.

2. Then navigate to your VMware, choose to deploy a new virtual machine and select Deploy a virtual machine from an OVF or OVA file option. Click Next.

3. Click to select files or drag/drop the OVF file that was downloaded for the gateway deployment and upload the saved OVF template aws-appliance-latest.ova so that it can be used for the deployment. Click Next.

4. In the Select storage section, choose the datastore to install the gateway and continue to the Next page to select Deployment options.

5. In the Disk provisioning section, choose the Thick option and leave other parameters as default.

6. On the Ready to complete summary section, select Finish to proceed with the deployment.

You can check the task is already running in the Recent tasks pane down the vSphere client browser page.

7. Go to configure your backup gateway.

Conclusion

Backing up VMware environments is essential for data protection and disaster recovery. In this article, we explore the seamless process of safeguarding critical VMware virtual machines by securely transferring them to Amazon Web Services (AWS). By following these steps, organizations can ensure data security and business continuity while harnessing the power of AWS for efficient and reliable VMware VM backups.