Protecting a Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines

Transcription

1 Protecting a Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines With Acronis Backup 12 This use case describes how to back up an entire hybrid cloud IT environment, including Microsoft Azure VMs, using Acronis Backup 12 June 2016

2 Introduction Microsoft Azure Infrastructure-as-a- Service (IaaS) is rapidly becoming the norm in dynamic IT environments for several reasons. First, it does not require physical hardware, storage, or a network, which reduces costs. Second, it drastically reduces the complexity of rollouts. According to an IDC study 1, 79 percent of companies use or implement a cloud environment. If an organization has an IT environment consisting of a cloud environment, virtual machines (VMs), and physical servers, we call this a hybrid cloud environment. In any environment, your data needs protection from loss and disasters whether you have a cloud, physical, virtual, or hybrid IT environment. However, because of the differences in infrastructure, operations, and management between these environments, each requires a different technology and approach when protecting data. In a hybrid cloud environment in particular, organizations face many challenges when protecting data because most of the products on the market are not complete, easy to use, or affordable. Some vendors offer a one-size-fits-all traditional platform, which provides a smart backup server, cell, or core that performs and manages unified data protection for the entire environment. Unfortunately, these traditional platforms do not typically support IaaS cloud. Other vendors offer separate products for backup and recovery; that is, their customers purchase a backup tool for each of their different data types, operating system platforms, and applications. Finally, and most importantly, Acronis offers a single data protection solution, which provides unified control, management, and reporting across an entire environment regardless of the size of the organization, the number of data types, and the number and types of operating system platforms and applications. This document describes the challenges that organizations face when protecting data in a hybrid cloud IT environment and presents a use case to demonstrate how Acronis Backup protects all data. This use case is appropriate reading for CIOs, CTOs, and IT directors/managers in medium-sized organizations and enterprises, and IT administrators in smaller environments. 1 IDC CloudView 2016 Survey, January

3 The Company s Production IT Workloads The company has one primary data center that is located on the same premises as the rest of the company s operations. The data center hosts on-premise production servers, storage, and a network infrastructure. Desktops, laptops, and mobile devices are connected via a wired and wireless infrastructure. A number of workloads are provisioned in Microsoft Azure. The Production Servers The company has a hybrid cloud IT environment a mixture of physical servers, Microsoft Hyper-V VMs, and Azure VMs that run different workloads and provide services to all departments. There is a SQL Server, Focus-SQL, which runs the main SQL database for one of the company s business applications. We will look into details of this server, its backup, and recovery throughout the course of this document. There are ten physical servers running two primary Microsoft Active Directory (AD) domain controllers (DCs), production ERP software, and legacy applications. IT is in the final stages of virtualizing the physical servers. A few physical servers will remain because some of the vendors cannot virtualize their applications. The majority of on-premise workloads are on virtual machines running Microsoft Hyper-V. There are five Hyper-V hosts running 33 virtual machines. Hyper-V has 16TB SAN storage for centralized production, which houses most of the VMs. Logically, Hyper-V is split into two segments production and R&D/QA. The virtual environment runs the majority of applications Microsoft Exchange, a few Microsoft SQL servers, custom applications developed by R&D, and a CRM system powered by an Oracle database server running on a Windows host. The Focus-SQL server is a standard, physical 2U entry-level data center server. It has two CPUs; 8GB RAM, four SAS GB drives, and is organized into a RAID-6 array with an onboard controller and two 1Gbit Ethernet controllers. 3

4 The single 300GB RAID volume on Focus-SQL has three partitions: -- A 100MB hidden partition created by the Windows Server 2012 installation -- A 120GB primary boot system partition (C drive) with 45GB occupied by the operating system and the Microsoft SQL Server application -- A 180GB primary partition (D drive) with 75GB occupied by the SQL database and logs The network on the Focus-SQL server is standard static IP address, DNS name, membership in AD. The Production Network The company has a 1Gbit, flat structure network, running on mid-level network switches. The throughput is acceptable. Logically, the data center network has three major subnets: A physical segment housing physical servers, the ERP system, and primary DCs A production virtual segment defined and managed by Hyper-V A R&D/QA virtual segment also handled by Hyper-V An Azure Virtual Network (VNet), which is connected to an on-premise network via a site-to-site VPN connection Production and Backup Storage As described above, on-premise production storage is a centralized 16TB SAN used by Hyper-V. The on-premise backups are stored to three separate NAS devices: NAS-1 is for the backup of physical servers. It is connected to the same network switch with most of the other physical servers. The Focus-SQL server backs up to NAS-1 and uses 8TB of storage space. Both the server and the NAS link to the same network switch through a 1GBit connection. NAS-2 is connected through a dedicated, small network switch to the same ESXi host. IT has installed Acronis Backup Virtual Appliance on this host, which provides LAN-free backup of the production VMs. NAS-3 (R&D/QA) is connected to one of the ESXi hosts of R&D/QA and Acronis Backup Virtual Appliance is installed here for the same reason. IT has separated the network-attached storage devices so they can more easily manage backups in different network zones and concentrate backup data flow within specific subnets. The Azure Virtual Machine s disks are located on a combination of Azure P10 and P20 Premium Disks for high performance. The Azure VM backups are stored to the Azure File Storage and replicated to the Acronis Cloud. 4

5 The Company s Backup Policy The company s backup policy is a subset of the overall disaster recovery (DR) plan. It describes the required IT equipment and a business continuity strategy that addresses all company operations communications, business and banking, financial, audit and compliance, logistics, human resources, and so on. Business Continuity Objectives A planning committee developed the backup and DR policy, which was approved by the executive management team. The first objective of the plan describes the company s Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs). When deciding RTO and RPO, you must consider your available budget. Shorter RTOs and RPOs are more expensive and require more resources. For example, a zero RPO and RTO requires you to implement long-distance fault tolerance systems. An RPO and RTO of seconds requires a long-distance, highavailability solution. This company cannot afford fault tolerance systems or a highavailability solution. To determine the RTO or the maximum amount of time the company can operate without critical systems, the committee members analyzed the business processes, operations, downtime costs, and available budget. They then mapped this time back and determined that the company s RTO for complete recovery and return to normal business operations is 96 hours. Based on this, the RTO for the production workloads is 72 hours. The RTO for any single server is 24 hours. With RTO, the subcomponents of the DR plan are always shorter than the company s RTO. Next, the DR plan describes the company s RPO. The RPO is the maximum, tolerable period of time that assets can be lost. While all organizations want to preserve 100 percent of their assets, it is not economically feasible to do so. Instead, the company must decide how many assets it can afford to lose to determine the RPO; the length of time before the DR event up to the moment an event occurs, specified * in seconds, minutes, hours, or days. The committee members determined that the organization s RPO is 24 hours. That means that the company is willing to lose products, assets, and data generated within the last 24 hours prior to a disaster. An RPO of 24 hours for the company s data means that IT can run data backups on a daily basis. 5

6 The RPO of the subcomponents of an overall DR plan can be the same as or shorter than the company s overall RPO. Some organizations tier the production workloads and set different RPOs based on the value of generated data. The Company s Backup Solution The company uses Acronis Backup to protect the Microsoft Azure VMs and the production data center. Acronis Backup is a unified data protection solution for all onpremise workloads, remote systems, user endpoints, mobile devices, private clouds, and public clouds. The company chose Acronis Backup because the solution provides: Data protection for the company s hybrid IT infrastructure (e.g., physical servers, VMs, and the cloud infrastructure) A unified web console to configure, install, and maintain data protection Trusted disk-imaging technology so IT can capture a complete image of a disk or volume on a physical, virtual, or cloud machine Single-pass backup for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint and Active Directory, which lets IT capture both application and operating system data at one time Support for multiple hypervisors, including Microsoft Hyper-V Seamless cross-platform migration to support the recovery of physical, virtual or cloud servers to any physical, virtual, or cloud hardware Agentless backup for virtual machines Finally, yet importantly, the company chose Acronis because it eliminates single point of failure. This is because each workload performs all critical capabilities, including the initiation of backups and facilitation of data streams. The web console is used only for the management and reporting of tasks. Backup Source Systems The company uses Acronis Backup to protect all production workloads the production and R&D/QA physical servers, VMs, Focus- SQL server, and all workloads in Microsoft Azure. Full backups capture approximately 2TB of uncompressed data. Differential and incremental backups generate significantly less data because only the difference is stored. The company s average daily data change is about 1.5 percent; daily incremental backups capture 30GB of data while weekly differentials capture 150GB of data. 6

7 With Acronis Backup, the company does not need to use synthetic or consolidation backups because single-pass recovery automatically reconstructs the data from the backup points. The Backup Storage Policy On premises, the company initially backs up all of their systems to NAS devices and then replicates the backup copies to the Acronis Cloud. In Microsoft Azure, the company backs up all of their systems to the Azure File Storage, and then replicates them to the Acronis Cloud. On any platform, Acronis Backup can include both backup and replication in the same plan. With a local backup copy, IT can quickly recover individual workloads or data without retrieving backup copies from other locations. The backup copies stored in the Acronis Cloud are used in the event of major events or disasters. This approach mirrors Acronis recommended backup strategy: maintain all data in three locations (production systems, backup on NAS/Azure Storage, and backup in Acronis Cloud), on two types of media (disk and cloud), and one copy of backup data stored offsite (in another cloud environment). The Backup Schedule With the RPO, RTO, backup source systems, and backup storage policy defined, it is easy for IT to define the backup schedule. Acronis Backup has a GFS (Grandfather-Father- Son) feature that fits the company s needs. Using this feature, the company decides to run monthly full backups of all data, weekly differential backups, and daily incremental backups to minimize storage requirements and reduce backup times. All daily backups start at 10:00 PM or later, after company business hours. Weekly and monthly backups run every Friday at 10:00 PM. IT does not have to define the blackout period for the backup window. Acronis uses snapshot technologies on virtual, physical, and cloud systems so operations are not affected. Acronis disk-imaging technology also backs up all the data consistently even if the files are open. 7

8 The Disaster Recovery Plan Natural disasters are common in certain geographies. For example, the U.S. reports more than 1,200 tornadoes every year. Earthquakes and tsunamis, floods, forest fires, hurricanes, mudslides, and avalanches can destroy a data center, sometimes without warning. Many natural disasters can affect an entire area, which is why you must store one backup copy a reasonable distance away from the original location. Being prepared is the key to ensuring that your organization s operations continue. War, terrorism, and sabotage are all manmade disasters. In many cases, man-made disasters are not intentional. Regardless, a fire caused by negligence or human error can destroy an entire data center. While some man-made disasters can be prevented, no organization is 100 percent protected. The DR plan must cover any incident that causes company operations to cease or data to be lost. The company creates a high-level DR plan, and the IT team develops a plan for the data center. The IT team plans, documents, and tests every step of the DR process. The IT team exercises their DR plan on a regular basis so that every engineer understands their objectives and tasks. All engineers are required to attend Acronis training courses to receive Acronis Certified Engineer certifications. 8

9 Dissimilar Hardware Recovery Acronis Backup includes trusted Acronis Universal Restore, which lets IT recover systems to the same or dissimilar hardware. The migration of a workload using the Acronis Universal Restore is a three-stage process: Stage 1: The Acronis AnyData Engine Detaches the Server Workload from the Original Platform The dissimilar hardware recovery process starts with Acronis Backup creating a disk image; that is, a full copy of everything that is on the disks and partitions of a particular physical, virtual, or cloud machine. To preserve the consistency of data, Acronis Backup takes a snapshot of the disk before creating the copy using Microsoft VSS, Linux LVM, or Acronis own drive-snapshot technology, SnapAPI. The resulting disk image contains everything on the disk at the precise moment that the snapshot is taken. This creates a crash-consistent image. The database saves all the transactions to the disk and freezes all activities. The snapshot is taken and the resulting disk image is application-consistent. During the copy process, the data is abstracted a process of removing platform specifics from the data elements in order to reduce it to a set of essential characteristics and put it into a general, unified format. Acronis Backup also creates the copy at the sector level so the opening and locking of files by the operating system does not affect the process. The disk image now contains everything required to recover a workload. Stage 2: Acronis Backup Applies the Server Workload to the New Hardware The next step is to apply the disks and partitions content to the target physical server or virtual machine. When recovering to a physical server, you do not need to install an operating system on the new physical machine but simply load the image for bare-metal recovery. Furthermore, the disk configuration of the target machine does not need to match the original machine because Acronis Backup can resize the disks and partitions. The disks only have to be large enough to hold all the data. To recover to the virtual machines, Acronis Backup can connect directly to the managing hypervisor and create a full virtual machine, including the CPU, RAM, and disk configuration. Stage 3: Acronis Universal Restore Tunes the Workload to Match the New Hardware Acronis Universal Restore analyzes the new hardware platform or hypervisor and tunes the operating system settings to match the new requirements. 9

10 CPU: The Acronis AnyData Engine analyzes the change in CPU type (Intel or AMD), the number of CPUs (single-cpu or SMP), and then changes the settings of the operating system. HAL (Hardware Abstract Layer): The Acronis AnyData Engine analyzes each machine type, the motherboard and chipsets, hypervisor configuration, and changes the HAL setting of the operating system. Boot-Critical Hardware Drivers: Acronis Universal Restore technology analyzes the target hardware and injects all the drivers that are required to boot the operating system. These include SATA, SAS, SCSI, and RAID drivers, as well as SAN HBA adapters. Acronis Universal Restore disables all critical hardware drivers that are not present on the new machine in order to eliminate compatibility issues. You can load standard Microsoft Windows drivers (INF/SYS files) from any CD or network location. For Linux, Universal Restore leverages the driver modules built into the kernel, even if they are not active. Network Drivers: Acronis Universal Restore injects and activates any required network drivers. On Windows systems, Acronis Universal Restore disables and removes the configuration of the old network adapters so you do not need to delete hidden or missing devices when configuring the network. UEFI-BIOS Conversion: Many modern servers use the UEFI method of booting the operating system, while virtual servers and older machines predominantly use BIOS. Acronis Universal Restore technology changes the partition layout, boot loader settings, and boot configuration, so you can restore the image of the original BIOS machine to the UEFI platform or vice versa. The conversion works for most operating systems, in any direction. 10

11 Recovering the Focus-SQL Server Let s look deeper into the scenario about how an IT engineer recovers the Focus-SQL server directly to the Hyper-V VM. The steps are as follows: The engineer opens the Acronis Backup 12 web console and locates the Focus- SQL server in the list of systems. The engineer selects Focus-SQL and the latest backup time and clicks the Recover button to recover the entire machine. The engineer selects the Recover To: New Virtual Machine option. The engineer selects Hyper-V as the target and configures the VM: -- The engineer leaves the CPU and RAM configuration as it was on the original machine (two CPUs and 8GB RAM). -- In the Recovery Options, the engineer selects to have the VM automatically start after recovery. Recovery begins. When finished, the VM automatically starts. The engineer connects to the VM using the Hyper-V management console to ensure it boots properly. Acronis Universal Restore injects network drivers into the VM. The engineer reboots the VM, logs on, and sets the IP configuration. The engineer installs the Hyper-V integration tools in order to get the best performance. The engineer ensures the SQL server operates properly and that it can communicate with the DNS and AD DCs. Recovery of the Focus-SQL server is complete. Optionally, the engineer can upload the new Focus-SQL Hyper-V VM to Microsoft Azure and complete the cloud migration. Recovery is quick because the engineer does not need to: Provision the operating system (OS) because the OS is already in the diskimage backup Recover the system state, which is not needed when recovering disk-image backups Install backup agents because everything is done agentless with Hyper-V Run a separate data restore because with single-pass backup and recovery, that is not required Restore incremental backups because the recovery is single-pass and incremental backups are automatically recovered Roll forward SQL/Exchange logs because the incremental disk-image backup includes the complete system and the latest status of data, not just transaction logs 11

12 Summary The company is prepared for any recovery scenario. The IT team developed a disaster recovery plan that included the Recovery Point Objectives, Recovery Time Objectives, backup source systems, backup storage policy, backup schedule, and backup duration. The management team approved the disaster recovery plan. IT exercises the plan on a regular basis using different scenarios. The IT team uses Acronis Backup to support the backup and recovery of their entire IT infrastructure: Physical Windows Servers: Image- or file-based backups of entire Windows machines running a Windows Server Operating System Microsoft Azure: Backup of Azure VMs and other IaaS cloud workloads, including application support for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint and Active Directory Microsoft Hyper-V: Agentless backup for Hyper-V and other virtual machines including application support for Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and Active Directory Microsoft Exchange: Single-pass backup of Microsoft Exchange Server and granular recovery of mailboxes, folders, and s Microsoft SQL Server: Single-pass backup of Microsoft SQL Server with application-aware restore from a single database to the entire server Microsoft SharePoint: Single-pass backup of any server role in a SharePoint farm with application-aware restore from a single document to the entire server Microsoft Active Directory: Consistent single-pass backup and recovery of domain controllers, Active Directory databases, system volumes (SYSVOLS), and logs Acronis Cloud: Flexible subscriptions that are available for scalable, offsite storage in secure data centers; initial seeding and large-scale recovery programs are also available Acronis Backup is powered by the Acronis AnyData Engine, which combines backup, bare-metal restore, and system recovery to protect data whether it resides on premises, in the cloud, or in remote offices. With Acronis Backup, the company simplifies backup and disaster recovery, significantly reducing the IT time and effort to recover their data. 12

13 Top 3 Reasons to Choose Acronis Backup Protect All Your Data On-premises Remote Private cloud Public cloud Mobile World s Fastest Backup 3 clicks to install 15 platforms, 1 solution 4 encryption standards 2X faster than the closest competitor Trusted by 500,000 businesses 6 Unique Differentiators Use one console to back up and manage all your data Achieve fast RTOs/RPOs with Acronis Instant Restore Back up to and from Azure and Amazon Protect all endpoints Protect ESXi and Hyper-V hosts and VMs Control where your data is stored Useful Links Acronis Website Acronis Backup 13

14 ABOUT ACRONIS Acronis sets the standard for hybrid cloud data protection through its backup, disaster recovery, and secure file sync and share solutions. Powered by the AnyData Engine and set apart by its image technology, Acronis delivers easy, complete and affordable data protection of all files, applications and operating systems across any environment virtual, physical, cloud, and mobile. Founded in 2003, Acronis protects the data of over 5 million consumers and 500,000 businesses in over 145 countries. With more than 100 patents, Acronis products have been named best product of the year and cover a range of features, including migration, cloning, and replication. Today, Acronis solutions are available worldwide through a global network of service providers, distributors, and cloud resellers. For additional information, please visit For additional information, please visit Copyright Acronis International GmbH. All rights reserved. Acronis and the Acronis logo are trademarks of Acronis International GmbH in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Technical changes and differences from the illustrations are reserved; errors are excepted