Backup strategy - 3rd store

[TVB]

Hi

We have a VMware cluster in our main server room. In our DR room we have a single standalone vSphere host, on which a Windows virtual server runs Veeam B&R.

We replicate our most critical VMs onto the DR server and are hosting our file backups on the B&R VM. So, our main cluster and its VMs should be covered. However, if the DR server or B&R VM fails, we would also like to be able to recover it. On top, we just happen to need some additional, cheap space to store our data archives.

A NAS came to mind, but we've seen topics here that discourage such investment for backup purposes. For buying yet another server with disks though, budget is tight. And we don't want to use tapes... What would be the recommended way to ensure we can recover our DR server with minimal costs?

Cheers

[foggy]

It depends on what kind of disaster you're willing to protect it from. If it's just a host/VM failure, then you want to avoid complete loss of all your backups, right? In that case I'd suggest to change the setup a bit and first have local backups at the main location and then have them sync'ed to the DR room with the help of backup copy jobs. Provided you also have Veeam B&R configuration backups configured and replicated back to the main location, you will be protected against losing that server. To be more safe and compliant with our reference architecture and be able to recover in case of entire building loss, you might want to involve some third (offsite) location for your backups or cloud.

If you're just looking for just another cheap yet fast storage, then please review this thread.

[veremin]

Additionally, if you start to copy backup data to DR site, then, you can put into use "replica from backup" functionality, so that, production VMs are touched just once. Thanks.