Branch Office Data Consolidation

Transcription

1 Branch Office Data Consolidation A New Paradigm in Data Protection Published: February 2004 Abstract Many companies today face the growing challenge of protecting rapidly proliferating data dispersed throughout multiple remote locations. This expansion that resulted from years of decentralization has dramatically increased IT spending. According to recent analyst research, system and storage consolidation offers one of the best opportunities to bring these resources under control and reduce IT budgets. The bottom line branch office consolidation can eliminate many of the hidden management and administration costs of delivering IT services to distributed users. In this paper we build upon the concept of consolidation focusing on data consolidation from the branch office to a central location and highlight business benefits that can be achieved. More importantly, we take a look at a new consolidation strategy that combines data replication software and Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 based NAS devices a solution offered by LEGATO Software, Microsoft and EMC. This strategy is a new paradigm for branch office data protection, offering improvements in how vital data is protected in remote locations while significantly reducing the cost to protect and manage those information assets.

2 Content Introduction...1 Why Consolidation...2 Data Consolidation a new branch office data protection strategy...3 Optimal Data Protection for Remote Offices...6 Microsoft Windows Storage Server EMC NetWin LEGATO RepliStor...8 LEGATO NetWorker...11 Conclusion...14 For More Information...15 Branch Office Data Consolidation 1

3 Introduction The introduction of networking dramatically changed the way in which business is performed throughout the world communication and how businesses work with customers and suppliers will forever be improved as a result of these technologies. That same networking technology, which is now being applied to storage, is also revolutionizing the way in which we share and manage data. The data sharing that network attached storage (NAS) brings to the table is a key business advantage and delivers big benefits in the form of server and storage consolidation as well as collaboration where many people can share a single piece of information. This drive to consolidate and the important benefits which are derived from this networked storage infrastructure is the focus of our discussion. Keep in mind that consolidation can come in many forms. In some cases it is about taking multiple information resources and combining them in order to more efficiently manage those resources. If we consolidate the function performed by multiple servers into a single system, or replace multiple small storage systems with a single larger array, then we should achieve an improved total cost of ownership (TCO). The lower TCO is a result of reduced acquisition, management, and operational costs. Essentially, such consolidation allows IT to do more with less and save money. In this paper we will build upon this concept and focus more specifically on consolidating data from the branch office to a central location and highlight some of the benefits that businesses can achieve as a result of implementing such consolidation technologies. More importantly, we will take a look at a new consolidation strategy that combines data replication software and Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 based NAS devices a solution offered by LEGATO Software, Microsoft and EMC. This strategy is a new paradigm for branch office data protection, offering improvements in how vital data is protected in remote locations while significantly reducing the cost to protect and manage those information assets. Branch Office Data Consolidation 1

4 Why Consolidation Consolidation should be near the top of many an IT manager s list of concerns, because the expansion that resulted from years of decentralization has dramatically increased IT spending. According to recent research from Gartner Group and META Group, system and storage consolidation offers the potential to bring resources under control and reduce IT budgets. Simply put, installing and maintaining multiple servers, storage devices and applications in many different locations is expensive. This is especially true for enterprises that need to be close to customers through remote locations or branch offices. By minimizing the number of servers and storage arrays and housing them in a few key geographical locations, one can dramatically reduce the amount spent on hardware, software, support and administration. Moreover, this strategy eliminates much of the inefficiency associated with managing distributed systems. IT will need fewer people to manage this streamlined infrastructure and will have more people available to focus on strategic initiatives. The bottom line is that branch office consolidation can eliminate many of the hidden management and administration costs of delivering IT services to distributed users and help IT do more with less. Branch Office Data Consolidation 2

5 Data Consolidation a new branch office data protection strategy Let s take consolidation a step further and introduce a strategy that builds upon a general consolidation plan enabling IT to greatly improve data protection in the branch office while reducing or eliminating many of those hidden costs. The traditional approach to protecting data in remote locations is to deploy backup software and tape hardware in each of the remote locations. Either the necessary technical staff is hired or untrained employees are given the task of the daily administration of tape backup and restore operations. All daily backup and recovery operations are decentralized, with little or no assistance from the trained technical administrators in the regional data center. This approach to data protection is both risky and costly. The business needs to invest in tape hardware, backup software and support expenses for each and every remote office. Additional IT staff may be required to help support or perform those daily backup and recovery operations. The optional and less costly approach is to rely upon untrained staff in these remote locations to perform daily backup administration activities increasing the risk of data loss. Backups can fail and go unnoticed, backup policies may not be followed correctly and poor tape handling (rotation, tracking and storage on and off site) may lead to significant data issues. And the data issues typically become known at the worst possible time during a recovery. And although this approach may avoid the need for networking connectivity between the branch office and the regional data center, there are significant equipment and personnel costs as well as critical information at risk. A more reliable approach to protecting data in remote locations is to administer the backups centrally from a regional data center. This means that there is a network connection between the remote and central location. One might consider implementing remote backups from the branch office to the regional data center with backup software such as LEGATO NetWorker. Note that there are some significant penalties introduced with the backup of remote locations. In this approach additional network connectivity may be required to transfer the data to meet a reasonable backup window. Because backup and recovery data must move over the network, the process will take longer than a local backup. To meet a typical backup schedule including weekly full backups, one can expect to consume significant wide area network (WAN) bandwidth with long backup windows for that branch office data. And any failure such as the network or tape drive would require that the entire backup be restarted from the beginning transferring all the data once again over the WAN. Branch Office Data Consolidation 3

6 An optimal approach to centralized backup of remote branch office data is to deploy data replication software such as LEGATO RepliStor, replicating data from remote sites to the regional data center using Microsoft Windows Storage Server based devices such as the EMC NetWin 200 at one or both locations. Because it is an Intel-based server with the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Operating System combined with the EMC CLARiiON networked storage system, it delivers scalability and flexibility for both storage and the deployment of production business applications. The second step in the centralized backup process is the regular backup of branch office data at the data center from a Windows Storage Server device to tape devices using LEGATO NetWorker backup software. Replicating data from the remote office to the regional data center for centralized backup has some significant advantages. This approach eliminates the need to deploy tape hardware and backup software in remote locations, greatly reducing the costs associated with implementing a remote backup solution. Because the backup to tape is now performed only in the data center we better utilize the tape hardware and can consolidate that investment in the data center. Since tape backups are now performed off a replicated copy in the region data center the backup window is much larger, more flexible and those backups can be part of the data center schedule. This approach eliminates the need for trained backup administrators at or supporting each remote office and keeps branch office personnel focused on the business at hand. Because backups are conducted by trained administrators at the data center with correct data protection and tape handling methods following set IT policies, we have significantly reduced the risk of data loss. And since copies of the branch office data are now stored off-site at the data center, this data is now protected from disasters such as fire, flood or theft that may take place in the remote location. Branch Office Data Consolidation 4

7 Legato RepliStor replicates data on the EMC NetWin 200 running Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 from the Branch office to the Data Center to centralize backup operations with LEGATO NetWorker. Using LEGATO RepliStor for data replication has some additional benefits. Since it only transfers the file operations for changes made to specific files, it minimizes network traffic. The data transfers can easily and automatically be restarted in case of a network failure and are restarted from the point of the failure rather starting from the beginning of a data set a logical starting point for backup software. In contrast to remote data backup with snapshot technologies which must be scheduled at regular intervals, RepliStor can automatically and continuously replicate data as it is created, sending that data from the remote location to one or more secondary systems, local or remote. A second copy of production data created at a remote location is always up-to-the-moment in the regional data center, so the backup window for the remote location is totally eliminated. RepliStor is more than data replication RepliStor is constantly monitoring the Windows file and print services so that in the event of failure, RepliStor automatically recovers those services on a second device, enabling business users to continue working, while administrators find and fix the problem RepliStor does this by sending an immediate alert so that administrators know about the failure as soon as it happens. Since RepliStor has automated recovery, the on-call administrator does not have to immediately drop everything to fix the problem, but can continue with his or her current task; and when there is time to work on the problem, can take the time required to find and fix the problem and test that it is working properly all while business continues. Branch Office Data Consolidation 5

8 Optimal Data Protection for Remote Offices We have introduced an new approach to data protection all while leveraging a consolidation strategy implemented in remote branch offices using LEGATO RepliStor data replication software, Windows Storage Server 2003, EMC NetWin 200 and LEGATO NetWorker. Let s take a closer look at the components of the solution so we have a better understanding of how each one contributes to this optimal approach to branch office data protection. Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 is a network attached storage (NAS) operating system, built on the framework of Windows Server 2003, and is provided as an integrated hardware & software solution by Microsoft OEM partners worldwide. This is an ideal platform optimized for file serving, as the operating system does not activate applications unnecessary for file serving and storage tasks. Windows Storage Server 2003 NAS devices are headless (without monitor, keyboard or mouse); administrators manage them through a Web-based user interface or Terminal Server session. They are easy to install and manage, and offer many features that simplify data storage, file serving and backup of mission-critical data. By design, the ease of deployment and seamless integration into existing networks enables expanded storage capacity to users on the network in just minutes. The Windows Storage Server 2003 devices are especially appropriate for organizations that do not wish to put extensive IT resources into setting up multiple file servers and managing them. They are designed to provide the storage administrator with the ability to keep information available to those who need it when they need it. The system is also designed to protect data from security risks, system failure, or data loss resulting from catastrophic events and is rapidly recoverable should the need arise. Windows Storage Server 2003 enables organizations of all sizes to store and protect valuable data, from file servers in branch offices to fully integrated datacenters. The Windows Storage Server offers a highly scalable solution ranging from 160 gigabytes to multiple terabytes. The product incorporates advanced features from Windows Server 2003, such as the ability to create an intelligent infrastructure for "shadow" copies (or copies of data from a specific point in time) of a single volume or multiple volumes using Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS), which provides a high-fidelity backup and recovery solution by restoring deleted or corrupted data within minutes. Other key availability features include Distributed File System (Dfs), server clustering and support for Multipath Input/Output (I/O) technology, which must be deployed by the hardware manufacturer. Windows Storage Server 2003 also supports Branch Office Data Consolidation 6

9 the Windows Internet Small Computer System Interface (iscsi) initiator, which provides an easy way to manage and incorporate a NAS device into an IPbased Storage Area Network (SAN). Windows Storage Server 2003 is optimal for server consolidation, backup, restore, replication and integration with Storage Area Networks. One can consolidate multiple file servers to reduce costs and improve availability. A Windows Storage Server-based NAS environment is a proven solution for server consolidation, with customers benefiting from reliability, manageability, and lower total cost of ownership. Windows Storage Server 2003 delivers rapid restoration of stored data a significant improvement over traditional recovery from tape. It can also be used for backup of multiple production servers without taking them offline. Combined with LEGATO RepliStor, it ensures high data availability through replication across multiple sites. Windows Storage Server 2003 is also optimal for integration with Storage Area Network (SAN) deployments providing a highly scalable file serving environment while making full use of existing storage area network investments. EMC NetWin 200 EMC s NetWin 200 is an entry-level NAS solution that unites an Intel-based server, the strengths of the Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 Operating System with the power, scalability, and reliability of EMC's industry-leading CLARiiON networked storage system. The result is a feature-rich network attached storage solution with up to 28TB of capacity all in a compact, rackmountable package. NetWin 200 leverages advanced features of EMC CLARiiON storage to provide higher data integrity and availability and increased storage functionality for small-scale server and storage consolidation efforts. With advanced data storage management functionality, NetWin 200 is ideally suited for server and storage consolidation in growing companies. As an integral part of EMC's solution portfolio, NetWin 200 is a cost-effective network attached storage solution for enterprise branch offices and departments. The result is industry-leading data integrity to protect your business data. Using NetWin with RepliStor, customers can consolidate data to a reliable, robust storage platform and Branch Office Data Consolidation 7

10 replicate remote office data to a central or primary location where it can be managed by a backup and recovery professional using standard processes. With NetWin 200 administrators can manage both server and storage resources from a single console using the familiar Windows interface. They will reduce time and resources by significantly simplifying monitoring, provisioning, and other storage management activities. NetWin 200 provides native Windows Storage Server 2003 management for the CLARiiON array or can be managed through EMC ControlCenter. Protecting information on multiple server-attached storage systems can often be risky and unreliable resulting in inconsistent backups or failure to back up at all. By centralizing data on NetWin 200, regular backups become simple. For enterprise infrastructures, the LEGATO RepliStor replication solution can automate data movement across IP networks from remote NetWin 200 systems to the data center for secure, reliable backups. RepliStor simplifies automated file replication and data distribution between NetWin 200 and other windows-based systems for increased availability, reduced administration and operational costs. With direct attached storage, upgrades can be risky propositions. Businesses may end up paying for storage they do not need or finding that storage is inefficiently allocated among servers NetWin 200 eliminates these issues. enabling administrators to easily add incremental storage to increase the capacity, protecting and leveraging the investment. As the entry point to the industry s broadest family of NAS offerings, NetWin 200 provides a simple, cost-effective growth path to more capacity, increased performance, and higher service levels. From NetWin 200 to the NS700 Series and the Celerra Clustered Network Server (CNS), EMC delivers best-in-class solutions to meet the industry's widest range of NAS requirements. LEGATO RepliStor LEGATO RepliStor provides real-time data replication, increasing the availability and reliability of Windows servers and Windows-based NAS without the use of proprietary or specialized hardware. LEGATO RepliStor ensures that data stored on a NAS device or Windows server is constantly available through power outages, fires, and other types of failures and disasters. RepliStor provides one-to-one, one-to-many and many to-one bidirectional replication of data from one NAS device or server to another, over any distance. When one server or NAS device becomes unavailable, RepliStor automatically switches file system services to the second NAS, preserving the end-users ability to access and use the data. Although optimized for Windows Storage Server 2003, LEGATO RepliStor can be deployed in mixed environments replicating data among Windows Storage Server 2003 devices Branch Office Data Consolidation 8

11 and server systems running Windows 2000 and Windows Server This replication can be implemented over both local and wide area network connections, and offers both remote installation and administration. RepliStor also operates across Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 domains; facilitating the administration across domains from any RepliStor client in the network. And because Windows Storage Server 2003 is based on Windows Server 2003, the enhancements LEGATO has made to RepliStor enable this solution to also take advantage of the advanced features of Windows Storage Server At its core LEGATO RepliStor is a replication solution which copies files, directories, volumes, shares, and registry keys from a source system, where data needs to be protected, to a target system or systems, where the data is then replicated. After the initial synchronization of the data, RepliStor mirrors only the file operations for changes made to specific files, minimizing network traffic. It then replays those files' operations on the target system, ensuring both systems are in sync. Compression technology plays an important role in the efficiency of the replication as well. Since data updates can be continuously and automatically replicated as a background process between source and target systems, one always maintains multiple on-line copies of data without additional administration. And RepliStor deployment and administration is easy with a powerful graphical user interface that simplifies set-up and implementation. The ability to replicate data from geographically distributed sites to a centralized server over LAN or WAN makes RepliStor the optimal solution for performing centralized backup operations. Branch offices and remote locations can use RepliStor s asynchronous replication to send their data to the data center where backup operations can take place as needed. This can significantly reduce IT requirements at remote locations, while leveraging administration and hardware in the data center. Advanced features of granular, rules-based replication such as filtering and scheduling allow complete flexibility in the selection of what information gets replicated and when the process takes place. Replication can be set to run Branch Office Data Consolidation 9

12 automatically or replication and synchronization can be scheduled to take place at a particular time or day. Administrators can also dedicate a network interface card to RepliStor traffic, making it easy to isolate replication from the rest of the network helping to better manage replication impact on network bandwidth. In the event of system failure or even if IT just needs to perform maintenance on a system, clients can be redirected to a current copy of data located on another system. That second copy of data on disk is also critical to a much more rapid recovery than restoring data from tape. RepliStor can also be configured for failover a source system moves network information to the target if the source system fails. This preserves the network connections from the RepliStor client to the RepliStor server as well as the data in the event of source system failures. Failover can take place over a LAN or a WAN without impact to application performance. Recovery from failover can take seconds, virtually eliminating downtime. The support for local or wide area networks allows RepliStor to protect more than just data; it can protect an entire site. Because data updates can continuously be forwarded to user-specified target systems, in the event of data loss or hardware failure at the source location, an up-to-date copy of every specified file is always available on the network. RepliStor is the ideal solution to distribute or consolidate information between branch offices and the corporate data center. Reliability and ease of use, combined with the fact that RepliStor can replicate to non-identical systems, makes it the solution of choice for remote replication and data protection for the branch environment. By implementing RepliStor, IT can run tape back at anytime without impacting performance of production applications. With an up-to-date copy of data on target systems, backups can be run from the target at any time without effecting users on source production systems. RepliStor also offers a pauseupdate feature. This feature allows the source systems to capture and forward updates to the target and log them to the RepliStor Data Directory instead of applying them on target systems. The purpose of this feature is to prevent RepliStor from accessing the files on the target system while the tape backup is running and without impacting the replication process. Once the tape backup is complete the pause update feature is disabled and all logged updates in the RepliStor Data Directory will be applied to appropriate files on target systems, ensuring the source and target are synchronized. LEGATO RepliStor is optimal for centralized backup operations. Branch and remote offices can replicate their data to a central location, such as a data center, for backup, simplifying and consolidating backup operations. This can significantly reduce or in most cases eliminate IT requirements at remote locations, while leveraging administration and hardware resources found in the data center. Branch Office Data Consolidation 10

13 LEGATO NetWorker LEGATO NetWorker protects critical business data simplifying, centralizing, and automating backup and recovery operations across UNIX, Windows, Linux, OpenVMS and NetWare platforms. Built upon an open, highly scalable architecture, NetWorker enables organizations to standardize on one application to provide complete, fast and reliable data protection in the largest data centers and the smallest branch offices, resulting in lower downtime costs, less management overhead, and greater ROI of storage resources. LEGATO NetWorker delivers the data protection capabilities and management consistency needed most by heterogeneous enterprises in DAS (direct attached storage), NAS, and SAN environments. Advanced indexing, high speed parallelism, automated media management, LAN-free and serverless backup, cluster awareness, and dynamic tape drive sharing are among valuable components that enable administrators to fully protect storage assets and minimize downtime. A NetWorker data protection solution can also include Application Modules which deliver online hot backup and granular recovery for Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, IBM Informix, Sybase, Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Notes/Domino, and SAP. Utilizing image and instant snapshot backups, SnapImage and PowerSnap modules further free applications from the impact of data protection operations and accelerate restores. These modules are fully integrated with vendor APIs to achieve round-the-clock service levels and ensure complete, reliable protection. AutoChanger and Silo Modules enable hands-free data protection for a wide variety of tape and robotic devices. NetWorker s DiskBackup Option allows data to be backed up to disk, staged on disk and automatically moved to tape, or cloned from disk to tape/disk - all with single-step recovery. NetWorker includes features that take advantage of Windows Server 2003 to provide backup and recovery scenarios that are robust, scalable, and flexible. Coupled with centralized management, structured metadata, and Open Tape Format, NetWorker specifically addresses and facilitates fast data backup and recovery. NetWorker supports the Microsoft Removable Storage feature of Windows Server No additional Microsoft or LEGATO software is required. The Microsoft Removable Storage service acts as an agent to the NetWorker server or storage node software to perform the actual mounting, labeling, and tracking of media. Removable Storage controls the data storage hardware s doors, drives, and robotics, and performs uniform drive cleaning operations. NetWorker performs volume and file management, which is not provided by the Removable Storage service. The use of removable storage is optional with Branch Office Data Consolidation 11

14 NetWorker allowing multiple data management applications to share access to the same storage hardware. NetWorker uses the Windows Server 2003 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to provide backup functionality for active applications and services. In this process, all applications and services that are running during the backup operation are frozen for a brief time to provide a point-in-time snapshot or shadow copy of a data volume. NetWorker backs up the files on the shadow volume, and then alerts VSS that the snapshot can be released. Branch Office Data Consolidation 12

15 LEGATO NetWorker provides a powerful and flexible information protection solution for the data center. NetWorker centralizes backup operations to protect both data on NAS devices replicated from other locations and data stored on other local clients Branch Office Data Consolidation 13

16 Conclusion The combination of Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003, EMC NetWin 200 with LEGATO RepliStor and LEGATO NetWorker provide customers with an optimal consolidation and branch office data protection strategy with improved business efficiencies and lower total cost of ownership for both the branch office and data center. When remote office data is consolidated on NetWin 200 and replicated to a central location, it can be backed up with trained personnel while leveraging equipment and software already established and proven in the data center. The approach reduces risk because the entire process is managed by trained data center administrators. Data protection is improved in the branch office because information is replicated as it is created. A second copy is always available in the data center for disaster recovery. The data center can deliver rapid business resumption if a remote location goes down data is immediately available. And the approach is one that can greatly reduce the costs of hardware, software, support and administration for all remote locations. Over the long run, this data protection strategy ensures reliable branch office backups, quick recovery of data and business continuity when needed while increasing branch office and data center productivity, all with lower TCO. Branch Office Data Consolidation 14

17 For More Information For more information on EMC NetWin, Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 and Legato Replistor please see: Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 homepage: Microsoft Storage Solutions - Business Continuity: default.mspx EMC homepage: Legato/EMC/Microsoft Business Continuity Solution home page: Branch Office Data Consolidation 15

18 Windows Server System is the comprehensive, integrated server software that simplifies the development, deployment, and operation of agile business solutions. The information contained in this document represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication. This white paper is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS DOCUMENT. Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced, stored in, or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), or for any purpose, without the express written permission of Microsoft Corporation. Microsoft may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject matter in this document. Except as expressly provided in any written license agreement from Microsoft, the furnishing of this document does not give you any license to these patents, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Microsoft Windows Server, and Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2003 are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Branch Office Data Consolidation 16