Install vertical backup on esxi host:

# mkdir /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/verticalbackup
# cd /vmfs/volumes/datastore1/verticalbackup 
# wget http://verticalbackup.com/esxi/vertical
# chmod u+x vertical
# sha256sum vertical # 7eef0446e503cd011d50d12d49378db692b1b3dc13ba5da83c5a31602a8654e3

Initialize vertical backup:

# vertical init esxi-id /vmfs/volumes/backup

Backup vm:

# vertical backup vm-ubuntu
# vertical backup vm-ubuntu --exclude-disk *storage_1*