Local backup and recovery in virtual environments has seen significant improvements since its introduction more than 10 years ago. Today IT professionals can take advantage of several innovations that help to improve the speed and reliability of data backup and recovery that once claimed considerable space and expense in the datacenter.
Use Volume Shadowcopy Service (VSS) for Windows
Volume Shadowcopy Service or VSS is a critical component to data protection, but it does not apply to all systems. It is vital when you are working with systems running Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, or Active Directory, since these systems require special handling that is assisted by VSS. There are numerous published documents on how VSS works, but in simple terms, it provides you with the ability to perform application consistent backups. This is a Microsoft best practice that improves recoverability of these databases from backup. Failure to not leverage VSS can expose issues where the databases may not mount cleanly, or, even worse, could lead to data corruption.
Another benefit to VSS is the automation of log truncation. Each of these applications handles the truncation piece differently, but with the assistance of VSS it removes the need of having to perform this manually. Once a backup has been completed using VSS the database system would run through its own operations for executing the log truncation. This is especially important for Exchange because those log files could potentially fill up the drives and force the databases to dismount themselves without warning. In most cases, Exchange and SQL require special functionality outside the scope of what typical hypervisor tools will provide. Be sure your backup product can handle this additional functionality for those applications.
Make sure onsite solutions deliver recovery across a data continuum
It’s important to recognize that not all virtual backup products deliver the capability to assure dynamic granular recovery solutions. With IT professionals being asked to do more with less on a daily basis, it’s essential that you be able to recover and restore across the full spectrum of situations including restoring a file, an application object, a virtual disk or an entire virtual machine depending on the circumstances and criticality of the business service involved.
Instantly recover a file or folder - Your recovery solution should enable you to pull a single file or folder from backup storage without forcing you to recover the entire Virtual Machine. This obviously saves an enormous amount of time and effort.
Instantly recover an application object – Your recovery solution needs to handle the most common recovery tasks such as finding and restoring a deleted MS Exchange email, or locating and restoring a missing SharePoint document. In fact, the backup product should be able to expose backup data instantly for any application that may have recovery management tools built-in. SQL Server is an example because its management tools are sufficient for browsing and recovering database objects so long as the backup product can quickly expose that database.
Quickly restore a Virtual Disk – Most VM’s contain multiple virtual disks. It saves time and effort if you are able to recover only the affected disk or disks on a particular machine.
Rapidly restore a full VM – When restoring an entire VM, you want to be able to choose restoration options based on where and how the VM is being used in your environment. Incremental restores or rollback capabilities will allow you to restore a VM to a specific point in time in a matter of minutes by only recovering changes. In addition, if a VM that’s part of a critical application is deleted for any reason, instant recovery capabilities would allow you run the VM from the backup copy until such time that you can restore the VM.
Bottom line: You want to maximize your choices for recovery options by taking into account the need of that specific application.
These best practices lead me on to PHD Virtual’s Recovery Management Suite and why it’s the obvious choice for a full spectrum backup solution that covers every backup and disaster recovery need for a virtual environment!
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http://www.phdvirtual.com/recovery-management-suite/overview