Storage management
By Kay Ewbank
Protecting your data is of paramount importance. Kay Ewbank checks out your backup options in the modern world.
HardCopy Issue: 54 | Found In: Systems | Published: 01/11/2011 | Last Revision: 15/12/2011
Data is one of the most valuable assets a company owns, so it’s important to keep it safe and well backed up. This used to involve a few tape drives scattered around the server room, but there are now many more choices available, and the task of managing data backups is in consequence itself more complicated. The important thing is to ensure all your data is backed up in a fashion that is appropriate to the requirements, and that your backup regime is manageable and auditable. The problem lies in knowing and being able to prove that you’ve backed up all the important files, that they’re stored securely, and that the backups could actually be restored if ever you needed them.
Configuring your backup devices from the home page of the Symantec Backup Exec console.
The software covered in this guide will help you manage your storage management, but you still need to decide on the physical location of your backups. Many companies choose to use hybrid backup, where data is backed up first onto disk, and then older or less important data is moved to cheaper tape storage. This technique is called Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM). The important thing about HSM is that the files are still available to the end user: if a user needs to access a file that has been moved to slower backup storage, they should be able to do so without needing to know where it is in the archive.
An increasingly popular alternative is cloud-based storage, and this too can be part of a HSM solution. Cloud-based storage gives you the security of off-site data backup, which may be a requirement for auditing or insurance purposes. It can also be less expensive, and avoids the trap of running out of space because you bought a backup device that turns out to be too small. The potential disadvantages of cloud-based storage are that your data is stored out of your physical control, and could quite possibly come under the jurisdiction of another country where the laws regarding data protection are different.
One feature that has recently become common is support for data deduplication. This is a technique whereby multiple data blocks that are identical are only stored once, with subsequent copies pointing back to the full copy. This can greatly reduce the space required as most data sets have large amounts of duplicate data.
The most important thing about storage management and backup software is that it’s easy to use, and that you use it. One day you will need to restore your data: make sure you’re ready for when that happens.
Symantec Backup Exec
Symantec’s main storage backup product is Backup Exec, with its sister product Backup Exec System Recovery as an alternative if you want to be able to restore entire systems rather than individual drives, files or folders.
Backup Exec can be used to back up data stored on both physical and virtual machines, and Exec 2010 added deduplication options so you can make efficient use of the space. The software has an easy-to-use console, and the software integrates with other Symantec products allowing you to set up rules that trigger a backup on alerts generated elsewhere.
The most recent release has a plug-in for VMware so that you can monitor VMware backups from the vSphere or vCenter side, showing information such as backup timing and the sort of backups that were carried out.
Backing up virtual machines
Some of the products covered here offer backup options for virtual machines, but in general these are additions to software that existed before virtualisation became popular. Here we look at two products that were specifically created for virtual machines.
Veeam Backup & Replication was created specifically for VMware ESX virtual machines. The software runs under vSphere and can be used to take image level backups of complete ESXi virtual machines.
One of the advantages it offers is the way it uses incremental backup to reduce the time taken for creating backup images. A number of products do offer this, but the way Veeam does it is quite clever. First a full backup is taken, after which incremental backups are used. Veeam then automatically writes the incremental changes into the existing backup file to create a new ‘synthetic’ full backup. You still get the benefit of incremental backups because it also generates a reversed incremental rollback file which contains the data from the full backup that’s just been overwritten. So you get the advantage of being able to go to the most recent file and get a full backup, but earlier data is still available if you need it.
While the software does back up entire VMs, you can also use it to restore individual objects at the file system or application level. You also get the choice of backing up on-site or off-site.
One advantage of Veeam is that all backups are automatically verified, so hopefully avoiding the problem of believing your backups work right up to the moment you need to get the data back. To do this Veeam makes use of the fact it is running in a virtual environment. Each time you take a backup, Veeam automatically creates a virtual machine in your own environment and runs that virtual machine from the backup file that’s just been created. The testing process starts the virtual machine and its operating system, and makes sure everything is working. The virtual machine that it creates is isolated from all your production and test machines, so the only drawbacks of this scheme are the overheads of having one more virtual machine running for the duration needed for a successful start-up.
Quest vRanger Pro is also designed specifically for VMware, including ESXi, and can be used to back up a whole virtual machine, an individual file or anything in between. You can also choose to back up just the changed information to make the process less resource hungry. Backups can be taken while the source machine is still running, and you can use multiple ESX hosts for simultaneous jobs, so minimizing the time spent backing up your systems. The product comes in two versions: the basic vRanger lets you back up and restore your files, objects and applications; vRanger Pro adds support for VMware replication to local or remote sites.
One advantage of vRanger Pro is that you can mix the type of backup you use to make best use of the licensing scheme. You can have some servers licensed for backup and replication, while less important servers are configured to be backed up but not replicated. This mix can still be managed from the one console, so you don’t lose track of what you’re managing but don’t waste cash either.
You can run backups from CIFS, NFS, FTP, and SFTP repositories, and choose whether or not to compress to save space. Backups can be run in real time, or scheduled to run under various conditions such as once every so many days, or when the amount of data to be backed up reaches a particular size. Quest vRanger Pro gives you the option of how you choose to make incremental backups. VMware does offer Change Block Tracking to work out which data has changed, but vRanger extends this to Active Block Mapping. Change Block Tracking is used to tell vRanger which data blocks have been changed, but this can waste time backing up deleted data. Active Block Mapping identifies and skips deleted and zeroed data blocks to save time and space.
One attractive feature of vRanger Pro is a catalogue of all the images in your backup repository so you can find the version you want more easily. You can search for specific files for restoration and right-click to select them for recovery.
The latest version of vRanger Pro has a Fibre restore feature that lets you send data over a Storage Area Network (SAN) Fibre Channel instead of clogging up your normal network with the extra traffic. This allows you to send several data protection streams at once without bringing the entire network to a standstill.
You can backup to disk or tape, with the option of a rolling backup where data is first backed up to disk and then migrated to tape as it ages. You can also choose to store a copy of your data remotely in Symantec’s Online Storage for Backup Exec. This gives you access to off-site storage from the Backup Exec user interface.
If you want to go for a completely cloud-based system then you can use Symantec Backup Exec.cloud. This service automatically streams an encrypted copy of your designated data to Symantec’s data centres, and the service can be deployed on both desktops and servers, and used to protect Microsoft application data. The service is subscription-based so you only pay for the storage you use. There are no per-user licence fees.
Backup Exec has good support for Microsoft applications such as Exchange and SQL Server. You can set up rules, for example, to say which data or mailboxes should be archived, and whether they should be deleted from their original location. You can also set retention policies to say how long data should be kept in the archive. One nice new feature in the latest release is an Outlook plug-in that lets users see their archived emails directly from within Outlook, so avoiding the need for end users having to search for archived emails outside their familiar applications.
CA ARCserve Backup
CA ARCserve is part of the large ARCserve family of products that covers all aspects of system management on a variety of platforms. ARCserve Backup is available in an all-inclusive version that can be used to protect both physical and virtual file servers, email servers, database servers and application servers. Alternatively, versions are available specifically by operating system, for file servers, or for application servers. Whatever machines you’re managing are shown in a single console, regardless of their physical location.
ARCserve Backup works with two other members of the family to provide backup of data from branch offices. ARCserve D2D can be used to back up to disk incrementally; ARCserve Replication can be used to replicate Windows, Linux and UNIX data from remote offices to a central location from where you can use ARCserve Backup or ARCserve D2D to take backups from the central Replica server.
ARCserve lets you choose the best location for your data so you can work with integrated disk, tape and cloud storage. There is also ARCserve D2D On Demand, the result of a partnership between Microsoft and CA which combines an on-premise solution with Windows Azure for added security and flexibility.
Backing up applications such as SQL databases or email servers can be tricky because of open files, but ARCserve has good support for such applications with protection agents for all the big-name SQL databases, SAP, Exchange, SharePoint and Microsoft Dynamics. If you’re backing up virtualised servers, ARCserve can be used with VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-V and Citrix XenServer.
The management console in ARCserve is clear and easy to use both day-to-day and if there’s a problem. Any potential problems are highlighted and you’re offered choices as to how to put things right. If something goes wrong and you need to recover a particular server, ARCserve suggests the best ways to work to get you up and running. ARCserve’s reporting is one of its strong points, with a good range of graphs and pie charts showing you at a glance data such as storage use, deduplication information and historical data.
NovaStor NovaBackup
NovaBackup is designed to be easy to use, offering a browser-based interface from which you can manage a variety of clients. Alternatively, you can control the software locally from the clients. Either way, you view your environment from a dashboard that shows you the status of all the devices you’ve defined as connected. If you want to carry out an action such as scheduling a backup, you use one of NovaBackup’s wizards.
NovaBackup comes in a number of versions depending on the type of machine you want to back up, with options ranging from PC and workstation backup to data centres with LAN, SAN, NAS and Virtual Server environments. Licensing in a virtualised environment is by physical server rather than virtual machine.
You can set up backups for specific files and folders, and in addition to working with file servers and PCs you can also use the software to back up SQL Server, Exchange and VMware virtual machines. The latest version of NovaBackup has support for differential backup, so you can back up only the data that has changed since the last time the backup was run, so greatly reducing the amount of time taken.
The options you get for storing your data ranges from DVD drives through standard disk drives and tapes to online storage across the Internet. There’s a wizard to help you select which disks to include in the backup, the backups can be set to run on a time schedule, and you can define schedules and then apply them to a set of machines. Applications such as SQL Server and Exchange Server can be backed up while users continue to access the databases or send and receive emails.
Scheduling a backup using NovaBackup’s Backup Wizard.
If you need to restore the data, you can choose the version to restore using a Time Slider view that essentially offers you a single restorable file set without the need to select the backup source device. Using the Slider, files are listed based on the range of time the backup was run. You can choose to restore specific files, and you have the choice of overwriting existing files or restoring to an alternative location.
In addition to offering online backup to single companies, NovaStor has an option for service providers. NovaBackup xSP is designed to give service providers, system integrators, resellers and other IT companies the means to offer customers backup services such as cloud backup. As a result, services such as Fasthosts’s Online Backup can offer smaller companies a secure and easy way to use online storage for a low monthly fee, giving customers the ease of use of NovaBackup without the overheads.
Acronis
The Acronis range comes in versions for server, small business server and workstation. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 offers both disk imaging and data backup. The software works with both Windows and Linux, and with physical and virtual machines. The virtual machines can be running on VMware vSphere, ESX or ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, Citrix XenServer, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization or Parallels Server 4 Bare Metal. All the versions use a management console to give you control for creating and running backup policies and specific backups, as well as restoring data and managing backup devices. If you want to store your data online there’s a separate version in Acronis Backup & Recovery Online which is fully integrated with the other products and is managed from the same console as Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.
Scheduling a backup from the Acronis Backup & Recovery management console.
The software can be used to create an image of the hard disk of a machine, including the operating system, applications, user settings and all data. You then use this if ever you experience a major crash to restore the entire machine. Alternatively, you can back up individual file types for particular applications, or choose to exclude particular file types to concentrate on business data. You can choose to use incremental and differential backups to reduce the time and space taken to carry out a backup, and block-level deduplication to create smaller backups.
If you need to restore specific data, you can view the files to locate the data you want. Acronis comes with integrated support for applications such as Exchange and SQL Server, allowing you to back up open files and if necessary restore down to individual email or record level.
Acronis has good support for virtual machines and, like NovaBackup, offers reasonable licence arrangements in such environments. Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Virtual Edition supports an unlimited number of migrations to and from one physical host, and you can use a single host-based agent for VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V to manage all the virtual machines on a host at once.