Continuous Data Protection PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance
Continuous Data Protection Current Situation The PowerVault DL Backup‐to‐Disk Appliance – Powered by Symantec Backup Exec offers the industry’s only fully integrated backup‐to‐disk solution with software factory installed. Industry leaders Dell and Symantec have co‐ developed this offering to give you easier management capabilities of the backup‐to‐disk environment. It’s an ideal way for any IT department to achieve faster, more reliable backups and restores.
The Solution: PowerVault DL Backup‐to‐Disk Appliance with Symantec™ Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server The PowerVault DL Backup‐to‐Disk Appliance includes Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server (CPS), a complement to Backup Exec for Windows Servers specifically designed for disk. Backup Exec CPS revolutionizes backups by eliminating backup windows, improving backup reliability, and featuring the industry’s first Web‐based end‐user file retrieval.
• • • Once‐a‐day backups—only capture a single point of recovery Increasingly complex management (incrementals, differentials, multivendor solutions, and so on) Questionable reliability Recovery The point of protecting data is ensuring that it is recoverable when needed. With tape backups, however, recovery can be a time‐consuming, bottlenecked process that makes it difficult to get the right file to the right person at the right time.
Because the backup resides on disk, it is much faster to restore. There is no need to locate the tape, load it, and then reload the data. It is faster and more efficient. Backup Process 1. A full backup of each file server is performed once a week. 2. Incremental/differential backups of each file server are performed daily, during off‐peak hours. 3. Backups can be migrated to tape for long‐term data protection or disaster recovery. Recovery Process 1. Users submit a file restore request to administrators.
1. Users save files to file servers (business server). 2. Continuous Protection Agent streams file changes to Backup Exec CPS. 3. Microsoft® Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) snapshots provide versioning and granular point‐in‐time recovery of files. 4. Backup Exec media server provides backup to tape for longer term retention or offsite storage. Recovery Process 1. Administrators or end users can retrieve previous versions of files using simple Web‐based recovery.
Figure: Continuous Protection Deployment Delivers Web‐Based File Retrieval Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server also reduces overall administration costs using Backup Exec Retrieve—a simple Web interface that enables end users to retrieve previous versions of files protected by Continuous Protection Server without contacting IT. Empowering end users to retrieve their own files frees up IT to focus on other business‐critical needs of the organization.
Figure: Backup Exec Retrieve provides Web Based File Retrieval Provides Comprehensive Protection: Just Add Data Built on the tried, trusted, and proven Backup Exec technology, Backup Exec for Windows Servers delivers continuous disk‐based data protection combined with traditional data protection to provide a comprehensive disk‐ to‐disk‐to‐tape solution, protecting business‐critical files, databases, and applications.
Features/Benefits Highlights Provides Continuous Data Protection Backup Exec provides real‐time protection of Windows file servers. The instant that files are changed or created, they are protected by Backup Exec CPS technology. After the first copy of a file is protected, only the changed portion of that file is protected—at the block level—by CPS. This efficient data protection technology reduces the amount of data moving across the network and the amount of data to protect—and recover.
Provides Snapshot Management and Grooming Backup Exec CPS provides snapshot management which gives administrators increased flexibility and granularity in managing their point‐in‐time snapshots. Because Backup Exec CPS leverages VSS for snapshots, a maximum of 64 snapshots can be saved on the storage volume. However, CPS is unique, as it enables administrators to define snapshot policies that control the specific periods of time snapshots are retained.
Figure: Remote Office Deployment Amount of Protected Data One of the key factors in sizing your data protection environment using Continuous Protection is determining the amount of data that will be sent over the network from the protected systems to the PowerVault DL Backup‐to‐Disk Appliance. After the initial data is copied from the protected servers to the appliance, Continuous Protection Server only copies new and changed data from the protected systems.
Network Bandwidth Another key factor in sizing your data protection environment using Continuous Protection Server is the available network bandwidth for backup operations. Network bandwidth is dependent on the type of network deployed in the data protection environment. The theoretical maximum network throughput values are as follows: • 10/100 Ethernet: 1.0 MB/sec – 10 MB/sec • Gigabit Ethernet (GbE): 100 MB/sec These rates are theoretical maximums, and actual throughput can be substantially less.
Installing Continuous Protection Server on the PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance NOTE: The following steps assume the PowerVault DL Backup to Disk appliance has been setup and configured for operation utilizing the automatic disk provisioning. In addition, the appliance will need to be restarted during this process to complete the installation of CPS. Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server requires drive letter access when installed on the PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance.
2. Determine a virtual disk where the CPS data will be stored. This location is referred to as a CPS Backup Destination from within CPS. Left click on the virtual disk and select Change Drive Letter and Path from the popup menu. Figure: Virtual Disks 3. Click Add from the popup menu. Select an available drive letter to assign to the virtual disk. Select Ok to continue. Symantec Corporation World Headquarters 20330 Stevens Creek Blvd.
Figure: Assigning a drive letter to a Virtual Disk 4. Using Windows Explorer, create a folder on the virtual disk that will store the CPS data. It is not recommended to use the BEControl or BEData directories on the virtual disk to store the CPS data. These folders contain the Backup Exec configuration information and backup data from Backup Exec defined backups. In this example, the folder CPS Data has been manually created to store the CPS data.
Figure: View of Backup Exec Virtual Disk from Windows 5. These steps can be repeated if additional virtual disks will be used as destinations to store CPS data. The system is now ready for installation of Continuous Protection Server. 1. Locate the Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server media that is included with your PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance. Insert the media into the optical drive of the PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance. 2.
5. The Environment Pre Check appears. Correct any items that are flagged with a Red X. Click Next to continue. 6. Enter the license keys for Continuous Protection Server. The Backup Exec Agent for Windows Systems is used to license Continuous Protection Server. The license keys are included with the PowerVault DL media kit. Click Next to continue. 7. Select the options to install locally to the PowerVault DL Backup to Disk Appliance. See the screen shot below for the options to install.
8. Enter the name of a new Backup Group. A Backup Group is a logical group of machines protected by CPS. If more than one Backup Group is created, only machines within the same Backup Group will be able to see each other in the CPS Administrative Console. Click Next to continue. 9. Enter the name and password of Administrator account for the CPS services to use. Click Next to continue. 10.
Figure: Continuous Protection Server Getting Started Screen This document is not intended to cover the installation of Continuous Protection Agents. Please refer to the Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server Administrator’s Guide for information on installing agents. Backup destinations must be setup before backup jobs can be configured. From the Getting Started Screen, select Step 2 – Create Backup Destinations. The Backup Destination Wizard will appear. 1. Click Next to continue. 2.
5. The next step is determining the snapshot schedule for the backup destinations. Snapshots can be created at regular intervals to provide a point in time view of the data in the backup destination. Set a schedule for the snapshots and click Next to continue. 6. Retention periods are used to determine how long each snapshot is available before being overwritten. Set a retention schedule for the snapshots and click Next to continue. 7. The properties for the backup destination have been specified.
Data Seeding Data seeding is the process of creating an initial copy of the backup data outside the Backup Exec Continuous Protection Server framework before any continuous protection jobs have been run. This is not required; however, copying the initial data using this methodology is beneficial in environments where continuous protection jobs are run over slow network connections such as a Wide Area Network (WAN).
Next, Backup Exec will be used to copy the data for the source system to the backup destination as part of the seeding process. Navigate to the Backup Exec U/I to for the next steps. 1. Select New Backup Job from Backup Exec. 2. Select the data on the remote system that is being protected by CPS backup job created in the previous set of steps. In this example, the folders dell, Documents and Settings, and SRD are being protected. Using the Selections tab, select these folders for the backup job.
4. Click Run Now to run the backup. A pop up may appear indicating that the job has been submitted. If the pop up appears, click Ok to continue. 5. Navigate to the Backup Exec Job Monitor tab and wait for the backup job to complete. 6. Once the backup job has completed, select New Restore Job from Backup Exec. The Restore Job Wizard appears. 7. Select the data that is to be restored as part of the seeding process. In this example, the folders dell, Documents and Settings, and SRD need to be restored.
Destination path is CPS Data. Append the source system name to the path. The source system name is the name of the system that is being protected by CPS. In this example, the source system name is DL2KW2K3. Append the drive letter of the source data from the source system to the path. In this example, the drive letter is C since the data being protected by CPS resides on the C drive on the system DL2KW2K3. The Restore to path: should read \CPS Data\DL2KW2K3\C. Figure: File Redirection Restore 9.
Repeat this process for each volume and system that is being protected by CPS. Now that the data has been seeded to the CPS Backup Destination, the CPS Backup Jobs must be started so that data will automatically be protected. 1. From the Continuous Protection Server U/I, select the Setup tab. Select the Backup Jobs folder. Right click on each backup job and select Properties. 2. On the Schedule tab, change the Run backups setting to either Whenever a file changes or According to a schedule.
