Backing up data using iSCSI
With data storage growth growing at >50% per annum the problem of backup and more significantly restore is increasingly becoming a cause of frustration for many IT departments. Business continuity and high availability are terms being used by many corporations to ensure maximum data availability and uptime.
Traditionally data backup has been performed by using a DAS tape device. The backup software on the server backs everything up locally to the backup device and tapes are rotated for data security. Centralised tape autoloaders and libraries have become increasingly popular with the advantage of reducing backup software costs. The problem today is the amount of data to be backed up within a given time frame exceeds that of the available tape device.
Many applications today can create point in time snapshots of information. Applications from Microsoft such as Exchange 2003 and SQL 2003 can create their own snapshot for backup. The problem is how do we backup these Snapshots? In the past an application server has had a backup agent installed locally on the server and a plugin agent. These agents cost a considerable amount of money and can cause problems if upgrading to a later software version or totally new backup software package. This causes application downtime!
Traditional server-attached storage is rapidly giving way to storage area networks (SANs). Businesses are adopting SANs to alleviate the data storage and delivery problems associated with ever-increasing data loads. SANs provide data availability, shareability, and manageability that is not possible with server-attached storage.
Businesses making the switch to SANs are finding that they have a tremendous opportunity to upgrade their backup operations. By attaching iSCSI tape drives and libraries directly to the SAN, a business can back up its network more quickly, eliminate network slowdowns during backups, make more efficient use of backup resources, and simplify backup and recovery administration.
Snapshot support
In order to facilitate the on-going problem of backing up large amounts of data automatic snapshot management allows the backing up of important data to be carried out offline whilst applications continue to run.
All our iSCSI solutions have the facility to perform automated Snapshots locally. This data can then be replicated to another iSCSI solution located offsite for DR purposes. Running Snapshot Manager for Windows enhances backup and restore in Windows 2003 environments running business-critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Business Solutions. Using the Snapshot functionality built-in to various Microsoft Applications automates snapshots to aid backup of critical information within an enterprise
The Snapshot Manager works with multiple backup software vendors software including Symantec, CommVault, CA, BakBone, EMC Legato etc. By taking advantage of Microsoft Windows 2003 / 2008 server software we utilise the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to create powerful/manageable snapshot schedules.
The Snapshot Manager for iSCSI works together with the Windows 2003 / 2008 Server, Exchange 2003 and SQL 2003 to help automate, simplify and improve backup-and-restore and data-protection procedures. With Snapshot Manager, instant, point-in-time copies can be automatically created and stored for the rapid and reliable backup and protection of data. Data is preserved on a disk in a usable format for rapid recovery.
iSCSI Solutions are industry compliant IP SAN solutions that encompass powerful functionality , high performance and reliabilty at no additional cost to the customer. Each iSCSI solution supports multi terabyte storage capacities, comes with fully redundant fault-tolerant hardware, 5x8 next business day support and includes full functionality and easy management of disk storage.
The disk on these application servers might be DAS or served up via an existing fibre channel network. A simple way to save money on application agents and plugins is to use an iSCSI Appliance to serve up a second Snapshot hard disk to the application server and back this up.
