BackUp device for local or colo storage
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@scottalanmiller earlier was mentioning differentials vs incrementals.
I wonder if the terms still apply, or if the industry at large has dropped the two terms and simply moved to the use of incrementals.
Most systems that I've seen, Unitrends, Veeam, AppAssure allow for the use of continuous incrementals. You take a snapshot at some point as a full backup, then create incremental backups on the desired schedule. The system is then able to create a synthetic full backup from the last full and various incrementals along the way.
In the old days you'd have to do a full restore from the full backup, then apply the most recent differential, or all of the incrementals since the last full. The new way makes it all a single step.Furthermore, some system can take a backup and export to storage somewhere as a VHD ready to be mounted as a VM where ever you need it.
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With StorageCraft - does anyone know what the dedup levels are? Does it even support it? Will it dedup across all backups, or only within a single server's worth of backups?
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller earlier was mentioning differentials vs incrementals.
I wonder if the terms still apply, or if the industry at large has dropped the two terms and simply moved to the use of incrementals.
No, in no way whatsoever has this happened nor could it.
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@Dashrender said:
In the old days you'd have to do a full restore from the full backup, then apply the most recent differential, or all of the incrementals since the last full. The new way makes it all a single step.
Still do. You are comparing different things and mixing them together.
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@Dashrender said:
Most systems that I've seen, Unitrends, Veeam, AppAssure allow for the use of continuous incrementals. You take a snapshot at some point as a full backup, then create incremental backups on the desired schedule. The system is then able to create a synthetic full backup from the last full and various incrementals along the way.
Incremental Forever, as you are picturing, is incrementals, not differentials for obvious reasons. The terms are still used very precisely as they have always been used. Differential Forever would be a disaster.
Incremental Forever is only possible on systems were there is a single storage media for everything - fulls and all incrementals in one place. When you get to large, enterprise backups no one talks about Incremental Forever because you can't consider that with tape or with offline, archival storage. Think about how disastrous Incremental Forever would be when you go to offline storage.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Most systems that I've seen, Unitrends, Veeam, AppAssure allow for the use of continuous incrementals. You take a snapshot at some point as a full backup, then create incremental backups on the desired schedule. The system is then able to create a synthetic full backup from the last full and various incrementals along the way.
Incremental Forever, as you are picturing, is incrementals, not differentials for obvious reasons. The terms are still used very precisely as they have always been used. Differential Forever would be a disaster.
Incremental Forever is only possible on systems were there is a single storage media for everything - fulls and all incrementals in one place. When you get to large, enterprise backups no one talks about Incremental Forever because you can't consider that with tape or with offline, archival storage. Think about how disastrous Incremental Forever would be when you go to offline storage.
lol - why does it need to be. You pick a point in time, spin off a full backup from that time to the archive/tape/whatever and you're done.
This is where synthetic fulls come into play. Unless I just don't understand the actual use.
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@Dashrender said:
This is where synthetic fulls come into play. Unless I just don't understand the actual use.
Synthetic Fulls are still fulls, but riskier as they can clone corruption. If you do a synthetic full with tape, you still have a full, just one that isn't as reliable.
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OK so @scottalanmiller was able to explain StorageCraft backup and restore to me in much more clear terms.
Create a new VM, boot from SC ISO media, and import the files.
That's simple.
Why didn't anyone explain that to me in such simple terms before?!
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@DustinB3403 said:
OK so @scottalanmiller was able to explain StorageCraft backup and restore to me in much more clear terms.
Create a new VM, boot from SC ISO media, and import the files.
That's simple.
Why didn't anyone explain that to me in such simple terms before?!
I suppose my explanation was more verbose than that. But the ideas are identical.
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sorry @Dashrender it just wasn't making sense earlier today.
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@Dashrender said:
@DustinB3403 said:
OK so @scottalanmiller was able to explain StorageCraft backup and restore to me in much more clear terms.
Create a new VM, boot from SC ISO media, and import the files.
That's simple.
Why didn't anyone explain that to me in such simple terms before?!
I suppose my explanation was more verbose than that. But the ideas are identical.
I was more verbose. It was just offline.
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@DustinB3403 said:
sorry @Dashrender it just wasn't making sense earlier today.
it's all good - I completely understand needing something explained 2-infinity different ways before you understand something.
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@Steven with me being unfamiliar with the specifics of what SC version we have I have a few questions. (sorry, just not something I've dug into at work)
Is there any documentation that I can review regarding SC and XS working together?
Does every version of SC, support VM backup and restore?
Are there data limits to SC?
Is there anyway to see a demo on StorageCraft restoring a XenServer VM? -
@DustinB3403 said:
Is there any documentation that I can review regarding SC and XS working together?
Conceptually this doesn't make sense. SC does not talk to XS. There is no "working together." SC is virtualization agnostic. It is agent based from inside the OS.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Does every version of SC, support VM backup and restore?
No version does, it does not talk to VMs or deal with them in any way. This is traditional backup from inside of the OS.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Is there anyway to see a demo on StorageCraft restoring a XenServer VM?
There is nothing to see. All restores are identical as they happen above the platform. This would be similar to "seeing a VM running on XS." It looks just like any other OS, there is nothing to see.
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OK to clarify...
Is there a demo that I can watch, of a VM being restored with SC ISO and the import of the SC backup files.
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For example, you could boot a bare metal server off the cd and pull the restore to that server, the same as pulling it to a VM.
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@DustinB3403 said:
OK to clarify...
Is there a demo that I can watch, of a VM being restored with SC ISO and the import of the SC backup files.
Why a VM? VM or physical, the OS is the same.
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@DustinB3403 said:
OK to clarify...
Is there a demo that I can watch, of a VM being restored with SC ISO and the import of the SC backup files.
If you have any spare room on your VM host now, and a server that you're backing up with SC, you could test this inside your own environment now.
