Server virtualization is quickly becoming a standard technology in many data centers today. While VMware augments hardware utilization significantly through the use of server virtualization, VMwareâ??s Virtual Infrastructure (ESX) 3 also introduces new issues concerning the backup and recovery of virtual environments.

It is important to remember that it is just as critical to protect data created and utilized in virtual machines as it is to protect the data that is located in a single physical machine. This paper describes several approaches that can be used to back up VMware ESX Server 3.x and its underlying components using Symantec Backup Exec 12.5 for Windows Servers and the Backup Exec Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure (AVVI). This paper also discusses the relative advantages and disadvantages of each method.