Virtualization Technology will change the traditional file backup strategy

With the combination of traditional technologies and well-known enterprise file backup technology and some unique technologies in the virtualization field, virtualization technology has started to encourage users to reflect on their file backup strategies.
 
In the past, the vast majority of traditional enterprise file backup systems used a spinning disk to store short-term data and media data. tape libraries and software used for long-term storage were: IBM's Tivoli and HP's StorageWorks.
 
However, some people say that these tape libraries and software products alone cannot meet the needs of the virtualization field.
 
Stephen Balaouras, a senior virtualization strategy analyst at Forrester, said, "Of course you cannot wait and expect the system to back up your own files. In particular, more and more companies are currently using server virtualization technology in their core product environments. If the company has not yet begun to develop its own system file backup options, the file backup technology will become a major challenge ."
 
Traditional file backup systems and servers are in a one-to-one relationship. These proven backup systems and software support the storage area network (SAN), optical fiber, and the latest operating system and server hardware upgrades. However, these backup systems are not very suitable for complex virtualization systems (including multiple client operating systems on the same server.
 
Dave Russell, vice president of Gartner's server and storage research division, said he outlined three of the most popular virtualization file backup strategies. The most common method is to install software agents on each virtual machine, followed by traditional enterprise backup software. The second method is to create a virtual machine image, or use a Host Storage Service or a daily Snapshot technology that uses the number of logical units.
 
The third method is to use Vmware's integrated backup system software-to add the archiving feature to the virtual machine, which means that it only copies the files that have been changed since the last backup. In this way, the company can restore a single file, or even restore files on a single physical server with 30 customer operating systems.
 
"Most companies tend to adopt backup proxy and traditional file backup software, both of which are implemented by physical servers and are relatively simple," Russell said. However, this method proves that the cost is relatively high, because the number of virtual machines is large, the scale is large, and license is required at the same time ."
 
Vmware and other virtualization products include backup agents to help managers integrate traditional file backup processes into virtual machines. The core advantage of this policy is that the cost is low: the backup proxy is free, or only a very small fee is increased. On the other hand, the backup proxy prompts system administrators to adopt a fairly simplified approach: Administrators can archive the entire virtualization server, but cannot select the data volume or the customer's operating system. Server administrators recover specific components of data, or virtualize the volume of VM data (verify data integrity ).
 
Virtual Machine Snapshot technology
 
Russell said that a new trend for enterprises to create virtual machine data storage images is the adoption of Virtual Machine Snapshot technology, because this technology provides more flexibility and reduces costs, in addition, it makes the entire region of the company physical, so as to adapt to the disaster recovery system in the company's file backup strategy.
 
For example, in Immune Tolerance Network (ITN), a branch of the University of California Clinical Research Center team in San Francisco, a virtualized backup system is not just part of a disaster plan, assists researchers in clinical trials to combat disease.
 
ITN archives the logical unit numbers or the specific addresses stored in the disk drive. Redundant data is removed using the deduplication algorithm, which ensures the multi-terabyte archive of the virtual server. Researchers can query the attached archive logical unit number, which is almost impossible on physical machines.
 
Michael Williams said, "the traditional method is to put the tape into a file backup system for multi-server backup, but this method is outdated. Once you transfer the data to the virtual memory and separate the data storage on the physical disk, you will be able to perform very interesting work. When we provide a logical unit number, we can first achieve an excess subscription. One study thinks they have 2 TB of data storage ."
 
Williams said, but in fact, logical unit numbers are automatically streamlined, or based on Snapshot technology, physical disks are allocated enough storage space, which is about 20 GB for each physical disk. This data storage volume is backed up every four hours. This is the same as the backup volume of a hard crash backup (data is fully archived so that the previous state can be completely restored.
 
Williams explained that the archive system was subsequently transferred to a remote location in Hervey, using a wan to create a full image backup on the Serial Advanced Technology Attachment drive (low cost, veritas is used for further archiving.
 
He believes that snapshot technology is very beneficial to researchers because data recovery is simplified and faster than non-virtualization technology, but IT is still very complex for the IT environment. A scientist can ask for data recovery-similar to traditional storage recovery needs, but he does not need to wait for the IT system to enter the tape library before data recovery. However, the data recovery process supported by virtualization technology is more complex for IT systems, because its employees may have to recover from a point (located in an independent file backup system, such as a Veritas File) find and set a virtual logical unit number. End users can access the data of an event in just a few hours, which is much less than the previous time.
 
Another advantage is to include the deduplication technology. The deduplication technology is a processing process. It uses the backup software to identify the same data that appears multiple times, and deletes redundant data. Only one copy of the data is archived. For example, in ITN, there are 150 virtual servers and about one hundred Windows machines. The NetApp software can create a copy of the GB identifiable image for the Windows system, and create a fingerprint file (for identification) for each attached file-this can save disk space, because NetApp does not repeat the same Windows data.
 
Continuous Data Protection
 
The third popular method of virtualization backup is to adopt a continuous data protection system, such as Vizioncore vRanger or esXpress System of PHD Technology Co., Ltd.
 
Health No. 1 is a medical group whose trauma center, located in East Florida, uses a continuous data protection system. The company runs 300 clients on 19 VMware ESX servers connected to a TB storage Region network. Health no. 1 adopts IBM Tivoli for conventional backup. However, due to its large virtual server equipment, the company decided to add a continuous backup system.
 
Jeff Allison, a network engineer responsible For the virtualization program at health first, said, "We need less reconstruction time after a disaster. We use Vizioncore vRanger to perform hot backup for each virtual machine every night. The file backup process starts at five o'clock P.M. and runs on two different machines. We want to back up data on 230 virtual machines ." The remaining 70 VMS will be backed up in the morning. Allison says medical software is not affected by hot backup.
 
Allison explained that this IT environment in the trauma center and outpatient department has higher requirements on the normal operating time of the system, because the loss of data on medical devices poses a threat to the patient's life.
 
He stated that a test/development physical server could not be properly controlled, and 80 Virtual Development servers could not be normally used before the redundant Recovery Program was started. There is a continuous backup system. It takes only one hour to restore the system. Only one technician is required to perform the operation.
 
Danale University provides another example of continuous backup as its reason for using Virtual Machine images or proxies. Due to reduced disaster backup time and further increased the benefits of data archiving.
 
Robert Renault, a software director at Indiana University, said that a virtual machine is contained in a file-a full archive can be made through a snapshot document. "For most of our VMS, silent files are stable enough to be copied as a disaster recovery backup. Obviously, database servers and other processes need to focus more on the creation of a disaster recovery backup.
 
"We run our weekly work on each VMware ESX Server and use the esXpress virtual backup device of PHD to create a disaster backup system for virtual machines," Renault said. We have created a duplicate in the local memory of the EXE server. We are currently developing the second stage: back up FTP and disaster recovery on another server (which will be selected by the Tivoli Storage Manager software and sent to the remote indianapois, about 50 miles from Bloomington.
 
Hybrid Solution
 
"In the last semester, a hybrid technology solution may be the best option," says Russell of Gartner. "select an image-level file backup system and create indexes for those files, in this way, the company can revise a single file, quickly adopt Snapshot technology, and use a traditional backup software and virtual proxy to index the content on the server. In this way, the complexity of management will not increase, nor will it add another abstract level to the traditional backup system, but the storage resource tools still do not reach the required level.