Using Backup Exec System Recovery's Offsite Copy for disaster recovery

Using Backup Exec System Recovery's Offsite Copy for disaster recovery

The software described in this book is furnished under a license agreement and may be used only in accordance with the terms of the agreement. Document version 1.0 Legal Notice Copyright 2008 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Federal acquisitions: Commercial Software - Government Users Subject to Standard License Terms and Conditions. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, LiveUpdate, and Symantec Backup Exec are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. Microsoft, Windows, Windows NT, Windows Vista, MS-DOS,.NET, and the Windows logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and other countries. The product described in this document is distributed under licenses restricting its use, copying, distribution, and decompilation/reverse engineering. No part of this document may be reproduced in any form by any means without prior written authorization of Symantec Corporation and its licensors, if any. THE DOCUMENTATION IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED CONDITIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR NON-INFRINGEMENT, ARE DISCLAIMED, EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT THAT SUCH DISCLAIMERS ARE HELD TO BE LEGALLY INVALID. SYMANTEC CORPORATION SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES IN CONNECTION WITH THE FURNISHING PERFORMANCE, OR USE OF THIS DOCUMENTATION. THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS DOCUMENTATION IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. The Licensed Software and Documentation are deemed to be "commercial computer software" and "commercial computer software documentation" as defined in FAR Sections 12.212 and DFARS Section 227.7202. Symantec Corporation 20330 Stevens Creek Blvd. Cupertino, CA 95014 USA http://www.symantec.com

Contents Chapter 1 Executive summary... 5 Introduction... 5 Chapter 2 First things first: Understanding recovery points... 7 About recovery points... 7 Recovery point basics... 8 Chapter 3 Keep it simple with Offsite Copy... 11 A quick comparison of tape and disk backup strategies... 11 Offsite Copy: A simple and inexpensive offsite rotation method... 12 Before you begin... 14 Configuring Offsite Copy... 14

4 Contents

Chapter 1 Executive summary This chapter includes the following topics: Introduction Introduction Symantec Backup Exec System Recovery's Offsite Copy feature lets businesses store recovery points (backup data) away from the office. If a business location becomes inaccessible, Offsite Copy assures that redundant copies of recovery points are available at up to two remote locations. This document is written for IT professionals who are familiar with tape backup methodologies, but are new to disk-based backup methods. You'll learn about disk-based recovery points and how to set up and use two external hard disk drives as part of a simple offsite rotation methodology. Understanding a few key concepts can help you to take full advantage of Backup Exec System Recovery's Offsite Copy feature.

6 Executive summary Introduction

Chapter 2 First things first: Understanding recovery points This chapter includes the following topics: About recovery points Recovery point basics About recovery points Backup Exec System Recovery is a disk-based backup technology. Rather than capturing data to tape, Backup Exec System Recovery creates digital snapshots of the entire contents of one or more drives. For example, when you back up your system drive, which is the drive where your operating system is installed (typically C), all files, folders, personal data and desktop settings, programs, and the operating system are captured into arecovery point. You use recovery points to restore a hard drive back to the point in time when the recovery point was created. Recovery points are created whenever you run a backup job. They are stored on a separate hard disk drive called the backup destination. The backup destination might be an internal or external drive that is attached to a desktop or server computer.

8 First things first: Understanding recovery points Recovery point basics Figure 2-1 A desktop computer or server with an external hard disk drive attached and used as the backup destination. Recovery point basics There are two types of recovery points: base and incremental. A base recovery point includes every bit and byte of data found on a hard disk drive at the time that the recovery point was created. Note: By default, recovery points undergo standard compression to limit their size. Depending on the amount of data being captured and the size of the backup destination, hundreds of recovery points can be stored using a single backup destination. Although recovery points are compressed to minimize storage requirements, the amount of data being backed up affects the size requirements of the backup destination drive.

First things first: Understanding recovery points Recovery point basics 9 Figure 2-2 In this example, a backup job is configured to capture data on both a C and D drive into a new base recovery point at the start of each week. If the computer should fail on a Wednesday, data added to the drive since the backup job ran on the previous Monday could be lost. An incremental recovery point includes only changes that have been made on a hard disk drive since the last base or incremental recovery point was created. However, incremental recovery points only exist within a recovery point set. Recovery point sets consist of one base recovery point and one or more incremental recovery points. Note: When a backup job, such as one defined using the Run Once feature, creates a base recovery point, then that recovery point is called an independent recovery point. Independent recovery points do not have any incremental recovery points associated with them. But similar to a base recovery point, they are a complete snapshot of the entire contents of all drives included in the backup job. You can configure a backup job to automatically begin a new recovery point set weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. You can also configure a backup job to run multiple times each day, giving you more recovery options for data that changes throughout a work day.

10 First things first: Understanding recovery points Recovery point basics Figure 2-3 In this example, a backup job is configured to run multiple times each day as a means of capturing ongoing changes. A new recovery point set is created at the start of each week. (Typically, recovery point sets are configured to span a much longer period of time.) Although you can configure Backup Exec System Recovery to create an independent (base) recovery point each time a backup job runs, incremental recovery points are more efficient. Typically, incremental recovery points require much less disk space because they capture only the changes that have been made since the last recovery point was created. However, even an incremental recovery point can be very large. For example, if a large amount of data was written to a drive since the last backup job was run, the size of the incremental recovery point would reflect the size of the newly added data.

Chapter 3 Keep it simple with Offsite Copy This chapter includes the following topics: A quick comparison of tape and disk backup strategies Offsite Copy: A simple and inexpensive offsite rotation method Before you begin Configuring Offsite Copy A quick comparison of tape and disk backup strategies A typical Grandfather, Father, Son (GFS) tape rotation method requires the use and rotation of 20 tapes. That is, 20 recovery points are created and stored with a single recovery point on each of the 20 tapes. Typically, ten of the tapes are stored locally and the remaining ten are stored offsite. This is at an average cost of $2500 (assuming the average price tag of $1500 for the tape drive, $200 for a controller, and $800 for 20 tapes at $40 each). But with disk-based backups, a single 500 GB external hard disk drive can hold as many as 300 recovery points. By using three external hard disk drives and rotating two of them on a daily basis, to and from the office, you can implement a very simple and highly reliable offsite backup strategy at an average cost of $510 (assuming the average price tag of $170 for each of the three 500 GB external hard disk drives). And the complexity of rotating two external drives is simple.

12 Keep it simple with Offsite Copy Offsite Copy: A simple and inexpensive offsite rotation method Figure 3-1 In this example, 60 tapes are used over a three month period following the GFS rotation method. Contrast the cost and complexity of multiple tapes to the relatively simple strategy of three external hard disk drives: one serves as the backup destination, and the other two are carried in and out of the office on a daily rotation basis, resulting in 300 recovery points and three copies of each recovery point. Tape backup results in sixty recovery points of one copy of each recovery point. Offsite Copy: A simple and inexpensive offsite rotation method You can quickly implement a simple offsite backup rotation method with the use of three external hard disk drives. The first drive (which, alternatively, could be an internal 500 GB hard disk drive) serves as the primary backup destination. This drive should remain connected to your computer at all times so that it is available whenever you have configured a backup job to run.

Keep it simple with Offsite Copy Offsite Copy: A simple and inexpensive offsite rotation method 13 Use two additional drives which we'll refer to as drive A and drive B in the following way: Note: Refer to Figure 3-7 as you review the following procedure. Rotating two Offsite Copy external drives 1 Plug in drive A to copy the latest recovery points. 2 Take drive A home with you at the end of your work day. 3 Store drives A and B in a safe place over night. 4 On the following morning, take drive B with you to the office. 5 At the office, plug in drive B to copy the latest recovery points. 6 Repeat steps 1 through 5 so that you always have your original recovery points at the office and copies of your recovery points stored offsite. Figure 3-2 Offsite Copy rotation method using two external hard disk drives. Using two external USB hard disk drives, Backup Exec System Recovery's Offsite Copy feature means that you can store hundreds of recovery points locally (at the office) and remotely (in a safe place away from the office). Rotating two external drives and storing them offsite gives you three copies of each recovery point with at least one copy stored away from the office.

14 Keep it simple with Offsite Copy Before you begin Before you begin Before configuring external drives as Offsite Copy destinations, consider the following key points: Configuring Offsite Copy Calculate the total size of your recovery points. Consider the number of recovery point sets you want copied to your Offsite Copy destination. Then choose a drive that can accommodate that amount of data. If a backup destination becomes full, Offsite Copy identifies the oldest recovery point set and deletes it to make room for the new set. If deleting the oldest set does not free up enough disk space to accommodate the new set, Offsite Copy then deletes the next oldest set. When there is sufficient disk space, Offsite Copy proceeds to copy the latest recovery points to the destination. Before configuring Offsite Copy to use your external drives, plug them in to your computer. To help you identify which external drives you are using, Backup Exec System Recovery lets you assign aliases to each drive. You can then give each drive a name and then apply a matching physical label to each drive. Always keep one drive offsite. Bringing both drives to the office means that your Offsite Copy data and your original recovery points could all be lost. Setting up and configuring Offsite Copy requires only a few steps: First, enable Offsite Copy. You do this by editing an existing backup job, or by creating a new job. Choose a primary Offsite Copy destination (external drive, file server, or FTP server). Add a second Offsite Copy destination (Optional) Edit an existing backup job to enable Offsite Copy 1 On the Home or Tasks pages, click Run or Manage Backups. 2 Select a backup job to edit. 3 Click Edit Offsite.

Keep it simple with Offsite Copy Configuring Offsite Copy 15 Define a new backup job and enable Offsite Copy 1 On the Home page, click Run or Manage Backups. 2 In the Run or Manage Backups window, click Define New to start the Define Backup Wizard. 3 Follow the on-screen prompts until you get to the Backup Destinations page of the wizard, and then click Add. To add external drives as Offsite Copy destinations 1 Plug in two external drives. If you only have one available USB or Firewire port, add one of the drives as your first Offsite Copy destination. Then repeat the procedure to add the second drive as an additional Offsite Copy destination. 2 In the Offsite Copy Settings dialog box, check Enable Offsite Copy, and then check the Prompt me to start a copy when I attach an external Offsite Copy destination drive option. 3 Click Browse to locate and add the first external drive. 4 Click Add an additional Offsite Copy destination if you want to add a second destination, and then specify the path (a local folder, network path, or FTP address) to that destination. 5 Click OK.

16 Keep it simple with Offsite Copy Configuring Offsite Copy