DR Backup Scenarios

[wocomike]

Hi All,

We're currently backing up our VMware environment via Veeam, to a local SAN. After the backups are done, we're using a third party product to copy them to a file store at our DR Site.

Long story short, our cost for disk space at the DR site is going up, so we're moving an old SAN of our own to the DR Site. Problem is, it only has 3.5TB of usable storage, and I'm currently using 6TB.

This has me re-thinking my whole backup/DR strategy. Would there be any problem with backing up directly to the SAN at the DR Site, in addition to backing up locally? Should I just make sure that the two backup jobs don't coincide? What about Transforms? Those usually take a long time, but it's a disk specific thing, so if two transforms are running on two different storage sets at the same time, it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Also, space-wise, I'm planning on using Windows 2012 as the OS at the DR site to serve up file shares, so that I can use deduplication. I'm thinking a combination of this, plus a lower retention period (I'm currently keeping between 14 and 28 days) of 14 days for all VM's, should get my space down around 2-3TB.

Does anyone see any problems with this method?

Thanks,

-Mike

[dellock6]

Hi,
I think you should first take a look at the new features of the upcoming v7, and this thread http://forums.veeam.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17153 in this forums; there are many new considerations to be done to optimize the backup storage with the v7.

Luca.

[wocomike]

I was also thinking about the backup copy feature in v7. It sounds like it might work very well in this situation... However, I'm not sure about the v7 release date.

Also, am I right in thinking that I wouldn't need a longer retention period at a DR site? Since it's just for DR purposes??? I'm looking for any holes in my theories

[yizhar]

Hi.

What is the "old san" ?
how old is it?

You may consider a different approach for DR hardware - a self contained server with SATA/NL drives, and a fast controller with BBWC.
Such configuration can provide good capacity and performance with a low cost (per purchase and also 1U form factor can be cheaper for hosting facility.

The old SAN can be better used for onsite backup rather then DR site - main reason because it is old.

[foggy]

I was also thinking about the backup copy feature in v7. It sounds like it might work very well in this situation... However, I'm not sure about the v7 release date.

Here are some thoughts regarding v7 release date, FYI.

Also, am I right in thinking that I wouldn't need a longer retention period at a DR site? Since it's just for DR purposes??? I'm looking for any holes in my theories

It's definitely up to your required RPO. Basically, you just need a place to store the required number of restore points, this could be either production site or DR site. The ideal setup from our perspective is discussed in the topic Luca has refferred above, however it's up to you to alter it according to your needs.