Help with Backup Design
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I would keep the file server as a windows file server on a VM. I personally don't like a NAS being a file server. They are great backup devices but will bog down with many con-current connections.
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@NetworkNerd said:
I should also add that RTO is 1-2 hours at the main site, probably closer to 8-24 hrs at the remote site.
RTO of 1-2 hours is fairly short. You might need to invest a lot more. Unitrends would help you a lot with this using Windows Instant recovery (which runs on the unitrends appliance itself a copy of the windows machine) or using vmware instant recovery.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
@ajstringham said:
Also, you talk about backing up the remote site offsite. How much data we talking here? Syncing the Drobo, or files in general, to the main site over a 10Mb pipe is gonna take forever. What data is there at the remote site that isn't at the main site?
Not if He syncs them first then just does incremental.
That's why I asked how much data he has. Still, a 10Mb pipe is pretty small. Even running it unthrottled off-hours won't yield much in the way of transfer.
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@NetworkNerd said:
The servers that are physical are running Server 2003, so it is time for them to go. But, one of them (main file server) I cannot just P2V or rebuild easily.
You can't P2V only because you don't have the needed storage on the ESXi hosts.
Do you have an ESXi Essentials package? In otherwords, do you have the ESXi host license? If so, you could (over a long weekend) image the file server to a cheap NAS or other available storage, then rebuild that server as a ESXi host, and restore the image. This gets you into using Veeam to backup that server.
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@ajstringham said:
For the 2003 file server, I'd say replace it with a NAS and incorporate its roles into existing servers, or spin up a new VM if you need to. How much storage we talking here?
It's about 700 GB worth of files on that server.
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@Dashrender said:
@NetworkNerd said:
The servers that are physical are running Server 2003, so it is time for them to go. But, one of them (main file server) I cannot just P2V or rebuild easily.
You can't P2V only because you don't have the needed storage on the ESXi hosts.
Do you have an ESXi Essentials package? In otherwords, do you have the ESXi host license? If so, you could (over a long weekend) image the file server to a cheap NAS or other available storage, then rebuild that server as a ESXi host, and restore the image. This gets you into using Veeam to backup that server.
Yes, we have the Essentials Kit license, but technically we are using all 3 licenses for the 3 hosts I mention here. We'd have to get another Essentials Kit license (cheaper than Essentials Plus). Actually if I am running the storage part from a NAS, I could use RAM and processor from one of my existing hosts.
Keep in mind this is a DC as well. Aren't there bad things that frequently happen to people who P2V DCs?
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@ajstringham said:
@thecreativeone91 said:
@ajstringham said:
Also, you talk about backing up the remote site offsite. How much data we talking here? Syncing the Drobo, or files in general, to the main site over a 10Mb pipe is gonna take forever. What data is there at the remote site that isn't at the main site?
Not if He syncs them first then just does incremental.
That's why I asked how much data he has. Still, a 10Mb pipe is pretty small. Even running it unthrottled off-hours won't yield much in the way of transfer.
I think the WAN Acceleration piece from Veeam will help in this endeavor but am not sure how much.
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@ajstringham said:
Also, you talk about backing up the remote site offsite. How much data we talking here? Syncing the Drobo, or files in general, to the main site over a 10Mb pipe is gonna take forever. What data is there at the remote site that isn't at the main site?
There are at least 4 VMs at the remote site that are not at the main site (file server, DC, Spiceworks server / Veeam Proxy, Engineering software workstation). It's probably 500 GB of data but much less when we talk about the size of the backups themselves.
When you say sync, keep in mind I cannot sync the Drobos as I do not have the right models for that.
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@thecreativeone91 said:
I would keep the file server as a windows file server on a VM. I personally don't like a NAS being a file server. They are great backup devices but will bog down with many con-current connections.
That would be my preference as well.
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Maybe I could use the HP DL 385 G5 I have with the MSA 70 and run something like FreeNAS on it for another datastore option?
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@NetworkNerd said:
Maybe I could use the HP DL 385 G5 I have with the MSA 70 and run something like FreeNAS on it for another datastore option?
That's one option. Something that would be good for, to be honest, would be your StorageCraft server, if you go with that.
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@NetworkNerd said:
Keep in mind this is a DC as well. Aren't there bad things that frequently happen to people who P2V DCs?
Not that I'm aware of. The problem with DCs as VM's is using the snapshot and rolling back. Don't do it unless you're running Server 2012 or newer.
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@ajstringham said:
@NetworkNerd said:
Maybe I could use the HP DL 385 G5 I have with the MSA 70 and run something like FreeNAS on it for another datastore option?
That's one option. Something that would be good for, to be honest, would be your StorageCraft server, if you go with that.
I was thinking use it as a NFS datastore and a place to store the VM files for my current physical machines like was mentioned above. That saves money on a secondary backup solution.
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@NetworkNerd said:
@ajstringham said:
@NetworkNerd said:
Maybe I could use the HP DL 385 G5 I have with the MSA 70 and run something like FreeNAS on it for another datastore option?
That's one option. Something that would be good for, to be honest, would be your StorageCraft server, if you go with that.
I was thinking use it as a NFS datastore and a place to store the VM files for my current physical machines like was mentioned above. That saves money on a secondary backup solution.
Actually, that would be a tertiary backup solution, as you have Veeam and BE already. The original decision seemed to be "buy hardware or buy another backup solution". It seems that utilizing current hardware like that could avoid both?
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@art_of_shred said:
@NetworkNerd said:
@ajstringham said:
@NetworkNerd said:
Maybe I could use the HP DL 385 G5 I have with the MSA 70 and run something like FreeNAS on it for another datastore option?
That's one option. Something that would be good for, to be honest, would be your StorageCraft server, if you go with that.
I was thinking use it as a NFS datastore and a place to store the VM files for my current physical machines like was mentioned above. That saves money on a secondary backup solution.
Actually, that would be a tertiary backup solution, as you have Veeam and BE already. The original decision seemed to be "buy hardware or buy another backup solution". It seems that utilizing current hardware like that could avoid both?
I'd get rid of BackupExec with the P2V of the physical boxes and be able to use Veeam. That eliminates cost of software. But, I cannot avoid some investment in increasing backup storage. So this does not completely eliminate a need for more hardware but does decrease the cost of the hardware needed by a large factor.
