VMware jumps forward in backup
Backup is often complex and laborious work – one of the biggest pains in IT. It is not a glamorous activity because it does not deliver any improvement to businesses’ top lines and is, indeed, an expense that reduces the bottom line. Even when it does its job by averting disaster, it simply maintains the status quo. However, it is essential.
The basic management considerations for backup are the same in the physical and virtual worlds. Server virtualisation in itself does not complicate backup, but its sizeable benefit of hardware consolidation makes life harder for backup administrators. Alongside this, virtual server sprawl increases backup workload because it creates many more servers to administer. These two issues exist regardless of the virtualisation platform and, arguably, virtualisation has turned back the clock for backup. Vendors are still working to put this situation right with architectural changes to backup systems.
In 2007, VMware eased backup problems for its customers by launching its free VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) framework. However, VCB was not ideal, as it required customers to install more complicated backup systems for their virtual servers than for their physical servers.
This year VMware launched a successor to VCB called vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP). VADP is a major step forward, enthusiastically endorsed by third-party suppliers of backup software. It will be a significant competitive advantage for VMware and benefit the company’s customers, because it will greatly simplify backup of their virtual servers.
The basic management considerations for backup are the same in the physical and virtual worlds. Server virtualisation in itself does not complicate backup, but its sizeable benefit of hardware consolidation makes life harder for backup administrators. Alongside this, virtual server sprawl increases backup workload because it creates many more servers to administer. These two issues exist regardless of the virtualisation platform and, arguably, virtualisation has turned back the clock for backup. Vendors are still working to put this situation right with architectural changes to backup systems.
In 2007, VMware eased backup problems for its customers by launching its free VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB) framework. However, VCB was not ideal, as it required customers to install more complicated backup systems for their virtual servers than for their physical servers.
This year VMware launched a successor to VCB called vStorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP). VADP is a major step forward, enthusiastically endorsed by third-party suppliers of backup software. It will be a significant competitive advantage for VMware and benefit the company’s customers, because it will greatly simplify backup of their virtual servers.
Executive summary
Recommendations
Backup issues are common to both sides of the virtual looking glass
Automation is king
Policy-based is the best policy
Recovery is the better part of backup
Backup issues are unique to the virtual world
Where have all the cycles gone?
Sprawling servers gum up the works
Sleeping virtual servers slip the net
Defining backup service levels
Recovery time objective
Recovery point objective
Continuous data protection
Granularity
Some backups are worthless
Crash consistency
File consistency
Application consistency
De-duplication is just as useful in the virtual world
De-duplication and backup are tied at the hip
Target de-duplication requires no change for virtual servers
De-dupe at the source
Sticking with traditional backup architectures
Keeping the backup story simple
Placing an agent in every virtual server
Advantages
Disadvantages
Placing an agent in every host
Advantages
Disadvantages
Happy snapping in the SAN or NAS pool
Using the tools in disk arrays
Advantages
Disadvantages
VCB – VMware’s first helping hand
Offloading the hosts
How it works
Advantages
Disadvantages
VCB is updated transparently
Evolution and a new name
A slew of good things
What changed?
Living with a background load
Backup vendors back VADP quickly
Don’t confuse VADP with the VMware Data Recovery tool
Recommendations
Backup issues are common to both sides of the virtual looking glass
Automation is king
Policy-based is the best policy
Recovery is the better part of backup
Backup issues are unique to the virtual world
Where have all the cycles gone?
Sprawling servers gum up the works
Sleeping virtual servers slip the net
Defining backup service levels
Recovery time objective
Recovery point objective
Continuous data protection
Granularity
Some backups are worthless
Crash consistency
File consistency
Application consistency
De-duplication is just as useful in the virtual world
De-duplication and backup are tied at the hip
Target de-duplication requires no change for virtual servers
De-dupe at the source
Sticking with traditional backup architectures
Keeping the backup story simple
Placing an agent in every virtual server
Advantages
Disadvantages
Placing an agent in every host
Advantages
Disadvantages
Happy snapping in the SAN or NAS pool
Using the tools in disk arrays
Advantages
Disadvantages
VCB – VMware’s first helping hand
Offloading the hosts
How it works
Advantages
Disadvantages
VCB is updated transparently
Evolution and a new name
A slew of good things
What changed?
Living with a background load
Backup vendors back VADP quickly
Don’t confuse VADP with the VMware Data Recovery tool
