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liviu.tutuianu
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Disaster Recovery question

Post by liviu.tutuianu »

Dear All,

Let me describe a little bit the backup and DR concept that we use in some of our countries.

In each branch, we have 2 ESX hosts. On one of the ESX hosts, we have a VBR installed and configured. There, we have some replication jobs that replicate VMs from ESX 1 to ESX 2 and vice versa. On the branch VBR, we have a dedicated partition on which we save the critical data from each store and that is backed-up to HO weekly over the WAN. In this way, we get also an offsite copy of the critical data from each store.

Regarding the Disaster Recovery requirements, the data that is saved to HO from each store is also replicated in Germany over the WAN, on a dedicated storage.

And here comes the question: Let's say that in the future we will loose all the data from 3 branches, but also from HO of that country. The only copy that we will have would be the data saved in Germany.

How could we restore the required data? The data replicated from each HO to Germany will be still valid? I think we should save from each HO also the VBR db and replicate it in Germany, so, in case of needed, we should load that db on a VBR from Germany an restore the files, right? But, in practice, is it that simple?

This was our only method by which we could get a backup onsite, a backup offsite and also a DR resolution. How would / did you proceed in your scenarious?

Thanks,
Liviu
veremin
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Re: Disaster Recovery question

Post by veremin »

I think we should save from each HO also the VBR db and replicate it in Germany, so, in case of needed, we should load that db on a VBR from Germany an restore the files, right?
Actually, you can utilize configuration backup feature which was introduced in 6.5 version and which is responsible for retrieving configuration data from the VB&R SQL database.

There is no need to save VB&R database as whole- in case of disaster, you can just re-install VB&R from the scratch and then import necessary configuration.
But, in practice, is it that simple?
Yes, configuration backup, as well, as restore process should work without any issues. More information regarding it can be found in the corresponding User Guide (p.297).
The data replicated from each HO to Germany will be still valid?
Yes, it will.
How could we restore the required data?
You just can re-install VB&R from the scratch in the given location, import necessary VB&R configuration, import required backup files to VB&R console and then restore them.
This was our only method by which we could get a backup onsite, a backup offsite and also a DR resolution.
As to your plan, it sounds like a solid one – having 3 copies of backup data should guarantee safety in overwhelming majority of unplanned disaster events.

Hope this helps.
Thanks.
liviu.tutuianu
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Re: Disaster Recovery question

Post by liviu.tutuianu »

Dear Eremin,


Thank you very much for your reply.

All the best,
foggy
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Re: Disaster Recovery question

Post by foggy »

Actually, you do not even need a db to restore. You can just install a fresh copy of Veeam B&R, import the backups, and go restore from them. Alternatively, there is a standalone utility (extract.exe) coming with every Veeam B&R installation and allowing to restore VMs from any VBK file created by Veeam B&R, even without the product installed.
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