1. VMware Backup Integrity Eric Siebert vExpert, Author, Blogger Blog: http://vsphere-land.comhttp://vsphere-land.com http://searchvmware.com Twitter: @ericsiebert

2. About the speaker  25 year IT industry veteran. vSphere Land blog: http://vmware-land.com/ Author of popular books vExpert nomination Contributor to industry publications

3. Agenda Why backup integrity is critical Traditional backup verification methods How virtualization makes verification easier Quiescing is critical to consistency VMware Tools is important

4. Why backup integrity is critical? Good Restore? APP Good backup  Good backups are important, good restores is more important  Backups worthless without proper restore capabilities  No errors reported doesn’t imply recoverability  Test and verify backups are working and recoverable Restore Backup

5. The challenge of verifying backups Good backup Non-production environment APP  Reporting a successful backup is not a complete verification  File, application, database and server restores needed  Proper verification can be time-consuming  Restoring files is easy, applications or whole VM is complicated Need to ensure that VM backups are usable APP APP

6. Traditional backup verification methods Same OS Same Drivers Same App Non-production environment Ensuring recoverability with legacy tools unfeasible Restore Backup  Verification can’t impact production VMs  Requires un-used hardware to test restore  Bare-metal restores for verification is impractical  Difficult with many server models and generations

7. Data Restore Levels 3 Different levels to backup and restore Application item level File level Image level Restore Backup SQL record

8. How virtualization makes verification easier  VMs easily restored to host and powered on  Network isolation prevents impacting production systems  Multiple VMs restored to tests applications  No extra hardware required Restore Backup The process is easier with virtualization

9. Consistency is the key to good backups Restore Backup  OS, applications and data need to be in proper state  Critical for transactional applications: AD, SQL and Exchange  Server must be prepared before snapshot  Pending transactions must completed  Missing data can cause corruption Transaction-based applications

10. Quiescing is critical to consistency  Not all applications support quiescing  Quiescing pauses VM while outstanding operations complete  Once quiesce is complete, VM snapshot can be taken Windows uses VSS Linux uses VMare Tools

11. Backup states A VM can be in several states when snapshot is taken  Equivalent to hard power off  OS is quiesced  OS and applications are quiesced, best state File system consistent

12. VMware Tools  Contains drivers and applications that help optimize the guest OS to run on a VMware host Guest daemon Toolbox/tray VMmemtcl VMxnet VMsync Host/guest communication Configure VMware Tool settings Memory balloon driver VMware network drivers Sync driver for freezing and thawing VMware Tools

13. VMware Tools Backup Server starts backup job Backup Server contacts VMware Tools to quiesce VM Backup Server contacts VMware Tools to quiesce VM Microsoft VSS quiesce’s VM Backup Server creates VM Snapshot Using API Backup Server creates VM Snapshot Using API Backup Server begins image- Level backup Backup Server begins image- Level backup Backup Server deletes VM snapshot when finished 123456  VMware Tools interacts with VSS  VMware Tools may not immediately support newest OSes  Backups can provide OS agents to quiesce VMs  In Linux VMs, the VMsync driver can provide VSS-like features

14. What we covered: Verify recoverability of backups to avoid any surprises Regular verification of recoverability is required Leverage virtualization for verification Automation is essential Verifying recoverability is critical

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