Which vmware ESXi backup option to choose?

Question

Backup

Good afternoon. I have 3 ESXi 6.0 hypervisors
. On the way, I bought vCenter for 3 hosts, 2 processors each (at the moment it was bought excluded for ease of administration).
With GhettoVCB everything is clear. Interested in the following:
1) Buying vCenter will give access to the vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP)?
2) Is it possible to somehow use vmware Data Protection on a " trial " hypervisor?
3) Veeam, the one that is free, how does it behave from experience?

And then a hard question: there is a server with 10Gb LAN and full of screws. What to install from the software (OS, protocols) for backing up virtual machines and how to organize the disk subsystem?

Answer 1

1) Not in the know
2) The trial hypervisor is complete.
3) The free Veeam behaves perfectly and in terms of backup it is no different from the paid edition, the mechanisms are the same.
Put linux there and just backup using CIFS, for example. You can put the 8th version in which there is a "bug" that allows you to use the backup repositories in the free version and backup via SSH.

Answer 2

1. the host itself must support VADP (read: be licensed)
regarding the hardware question: do you want to use "server with 10Gb LAN and stuffed with screws" as backup server & backup target ?