I've been doing a bunch of reading, not really able to sort through it all. Here is the config.
1 free ESXi server installed on a Dell server that is RAID 5 with 3 TB of storage. On that ESXi server I have one VM running Windows Server 2019. That server has an OS partition of 500gb and a data partition of 1.5TB. There is almost nothing on the data partition but it will end up with somewhere around 100-200gb of data on it over the next couple of weeks. It will grow over time of course, no one ever deletes data. :-)
That is the only server in place. We have 9 work stations running Windows 10 Pro that all have a share mapped to the virtual Windows 2019 server to allow for data sharing.
So the question is, what is my best and I suppose least expensive way to backup/protect the ESXi server and the VM(s) (maybe in the future another VM gets created there)? This environment is sort of unique because I only have the one server. What do I need to do to protect against a physical failure of the Dell server hardware? I was figuring I needed to backup both the Windows VM as well as the ESXi server. But is all I really need to do is backup the VM? If the hardware failed then I build a new ESXi server on new hardware, restore the VM to the new box and spin it up?
Thanks for any help/suggestions. This is my first real delve into the world of VMWare so trying to figure out sort of the best practices in this small office implementation.
Thanks,
Dan