VMware Data Recovery 1.0 (vDR) vs Veeam Backup and Replication 4.1

Now that VMware Data Recovery 1.0 (vDR)  is released and  included with many VMware  bundles ( Other than VMware Essentials and VMware Standard Edition),  customers ask us questions on when to use vDR  1.0 vs. an enterprise solution like Veeam Backup and Replication 4.1. ( HiperLogic sells/supports both products.)

Our general opinion is that vDR 1.0 is not a production level backup tool yet , and everything vDR 1.0 does, Veeam Backup and Replication does ( e.g. data deduplication,  VSS support, full VM and file level recovery, etc). 

Note that vDR is a 1.0.x release. VMware rolls out great features on an aggressive schedule. However,  if 1.0, 1.01, 1.0.2, 1.2  bugs/issues with your backups gives you trouble sleeping at night, stick with Veeam Backup and Replication or similar enterprise level tool that is time tested and customer weathered.

The following table highlights some of the major differentiators that you will want to consider when trying to decide if vDR 1.0 offers sufficient protection for your environment.  

This is not an exhaustive list of course, this is just some of the “biggies”. The next release of Veeam Backup and Replication 5.0 will really set a new bar.

A study of companies that lost data in a disaster conducted by the U.S. Small Business Administration revealed 50% never reopened, and 90% went out of business within two years.  With a list price cost of Veeam Backup coming in at less than $1,000 per dual socket ESX server, Veeam Backup continues to be an excellent insurance policy against disaster for SMB and the Enterprise.

Updates ( Last Update 7/13/2010 for vSphere 4.1 )

vDR doesn’t support linked Virtual Center’s.

vDR appliance has a limit of 1TB per data store, max 2 data stores per appliance.

vDR 1.2 Now has File Level Restore (FLR) for use with Linux, though from the 1.2 release notes there are changes to the guests needed to work in many cases 6/11/2010