vSphere Backup Manager

A web interface and CLI tool to automate, schedule, and manage snapshot-based backups for virtual machines on VMware vCenter/ESXi.

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• See requirements.txt (pyvmomi, requests, paramiko, zstandard)

Basic usage

python vsphere_backup.py --host vc.example.local --user administrator@vsphere.local --vm MyVM --dest /backups/MyVM --compress

Optional SFTP upload

python vsphere_backup.py --host vc.example.local --user admin --vm MyVM --dest /tmp/backups --sftp-host backup.example.com --sftp-user backup --sftp-password secret

Notes & caveats

• The script creates a snapshot on the VM and downloads the VM's .vmdk and .vmx files from the datastore while the snapshot exists — do NOT copy .vmdk without snapshot.
• The script attempts to use zstd -19 if available; otherwise it falls back to Python zstandard.
• SSL verification is disabled with --no-verify-ssl for convenience with self-signed vCenter/ESXi certs.
• Test carefully in dev before using in production. This is a minimal DIY backup tool and does not replace a full backup product.

Web GUI

A Flask-based web interface to manage your backups, schedules, and NFS mounts.

Running with PM2 (Recommended for Linux production)

PM2 natively supports Python applications and can keep the server running across restarts.

1. Install PM2 (requires Node.js):

   npm install -g pm2
   

2. Start the Web GUI: Using the provided ecosystem.config.js:

   pm2 start ecosystem.config.js
   

   (Optional) If you are running inside a Python virtual environment (e.g. venv), edit ecosystem.config.js to uncomment and point the interpreter to your venv's python executable:

   interpreter: './venv/bin/python3'
   

3. Useful PM2 Commands:

   • Status: pm2 status
   • Logs: pm2 logs vsphere-backup-manager
   • Restart: pm2 restart vsphere-backup-manager
   • Stop: pm2 stop vsphere-backup-manager
   • Setup auto-start on server boot: pm2 startup and then run the command it outputs, followed by pm2 save.