GhettoVCB

There's a script called GhettoVCB which creates and restores backups using snapshots.

On a linux machine:

# wget ghettoVCB-master.zip
# scp ghettoVCB-master.zip root@esxi:/

On the ESXi server:

~ # unzip ghettoVCB-master.zip
Archive:  ghettoVCB-master.zip
   creating: ghettoVCB-master/
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/README
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/ghettoVCB-restore.sh
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/ghettoVCB-restore_vm_restore_configuration_template
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/ghettoVCB-vm_backup_configuration_template
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/ghettoVCB.conf
  inflating: ghettoVCB-master/ghettoVCB.sh
~ # rm ghettoVCB-master.zip
~ # cd ghettoVCB-master/
/ghettoVCB-master # chmod +x ghettoVCB.sh
/ghettoVCB-master # chmod +x ghettoVCB-restore.sh
/ghettoVCB-master # ls
README
ghettoVCB-restore.sh
ghettoVCB-restore_vm_restore_configuration_template
ghettoVCB-vm_backup_configuration_template
ghettoVCB.conf
ghettoVCB.sh
 
/ghettoVCB-master # vi ghettoVCB.sh

 (ensure that VM_BACKUP_VOLUME is set to your backup volume. eg: /vmfs/volumes/backups/)

/ghettoVCB-master # ./ghettoVCB.sh -m "CentOS6"