Utilize local storage on a virtual appliance for backup storage

Summary

This article guides you on using DAS (direct-attached storage) as a backup target disk.

– .vmdk file attached on a virtual appliance.
– Physical hard disk attached on a virtual appliance by USB Passthrough of ESX(i).
– Physical hard disk (FC/DAS) attached on a virtual appliance by RDM (Raw Device Mapping) of ESX(i).
*Partitioning and the disk format (as Ext4) is required before attaching a virtual appliance.

The following introduces two examples of the partitioning and formatting methods:

Example 1.  Employ any Linux environment, excluding virtual appliances.
1) Connect the mentioned device to a Linux environment, excluding virtual appliances.
2) Partition using fdisk or diskpart.
3) Format as EXT4 using mkfs.ext4.
4) Attach to a virtual appliance.
5) Run the vmGuardian Web GUI and click Settings.
6) Select [Settings]>[Mount point]>[Add New Mount Point].
7) Select Type – Direct Attached.
Selected – ext4 device.
Click [Done].

The device can be referred to as a virtual appliance.

Example 2. Use ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment for vmGuardian:
1) Connect the mentioned device to a non-virtual Linux environment. 
2) Start the ActiveImage Protector Boot Environment for vmGuardian.
3) Select [Tools]>[Open Terminal] and Click [OK]. Run Terminal.
4) Partition it using fdisk or parted.
5) Format it as EXT4 using mkfs.ext4.
6) Attach as a virtual appliance.
7) Run Web GUI of vmGuardian and click Settings.
8) Select [Settings]>[Mount point]>[Add New Mount Point].
9) Select Type – Direct Attached.
Selected – ext4 device.
Click [Done].

The device can be identified on a virtual appliance. See the fdisk screenshot.

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