Virtualization Redemption?
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There is one option not mentioned here that I don't think is a good fit here but has to be mentioned because from a technical perspective I am pretty sure is the best option, but of the OP is not an expert on this probably is not something that he wants to learn on the customer's dime: DRBD Proxy.
DRBD is what makes XenServer able to do HA for free. DRBD Proxy is an add on for the storage layer that allows DRBD to natively handle the asynchronous replication to the DR site using nothing but the existing tools and technologies. No need for backup products or third party products at all. Everything can be handled by the Xen / Linux / DRBD stack for both the local as well as the remote site!
Still want backups, of course, but you can use any backup technology or product for that and do not need to worry about the replication piece. It would be an integrated cluster between the two sites.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller Would StorageCraft in this case basically just sync his VM's from one client to another at a given point in time? I think that is real goal here. If the main site dies, Hub wants to connect to the VM host in the remote DC and just turn on the VMs there so they company is back on line.
Yes, it would be an incremental backup from one site to the other. As well as taking normal "on site" backups. It's a full backup utility.
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Dash, you are 1000000% correct.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller Would StorageCraft in this case basically just sync his VM's from one client to another at a given point in time? I think that is real goal here. If the main site dies, Hub wants to connect to the VM host in the remote DC and just turn on the VMs there so they company is back on line.
Yup, that would be the assumed design. If it is all on a VPN, for example, this gets really easy to do logistically.
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Network is a VPLS between sites so yeah, networking side isn't tough. technically it's all "LAN" to the hosts.
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@hubtechagain said:
Network is a VPLS between sites so yeah, networking side isn't tough. technically it's all "LAN" to the hosts.
That will work too. So that part is easy, just have to get the VMs over to the other site. Pretty much any backup tool will do it. Just need one that is automated and will do incrementals.
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so my question is this. wont Xen do this for free? if i'm going to the "trouble" of switching hypervisors, why not go with one that includes the tools i need and client will be happy to not have to pay for licensing. now i dont know xen, but it can't be all that terrible to tinker with.
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Veeam Backup Essentials Standard is $899 per 2 sockets. Sold in 2 socket packs. I have never seen it sold in any other fashion.
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@JaredBusch said:
Veeam Backup Essentials Standard is $899 per 2 sockets. Sold in 2 socket packs. I have never seen it sold in any other fashion.
So basically $2700 in this scenario. That adds up quickly.
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Paging @Steven
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@scottalanmiller said:
So basically $2700 in this scenario. That adds up quickly.
When I first talked to a Veeam rep a year ago about a similar scenario I was told I would not need a license for the 3rd host assuming it was only a DR site being replicated to and not from. So $1800, and that is a one time cost with Veeam unless you choose to continue maintenance for updates and upgrades.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller said:
So basically $2700 in this scenario. That adds up quickly.
When I first talked to a Veeam rep a year ago about a similar scenario I was told I would not need a license for the 3rd host assuming it was only a DR site being replicated to and not from. So $1800, and that is a one time cost with Veeam unless you choose to continue maintenance for updates and upgrades.
Oh okay, that's 33% less then. Still not small, but not nearly so bad.
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If I knew a way to do incremental offsite on Xen, that would be a good solution just like Hyper-V.
Only system I have experience with incremental is Hyper-V + Veeam, so that is all I can recommend.
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@hubtechagain said:
Just to Re-Cap here is our ultimate goal with this client.
Currently we are running and will continue to run server 2008 R2. So Hyper-V would be 08r2 which i've heard nobody really likes.
Currently have 3 hosts, each exactly the same 64GB of ram and 2.2TB raid 10.
Going to re-purpose one host to become a DR server colocated in a datacenter about 600 miles away(not an important detail but whatever).
We want the VMs running on the two "main site" servers to be replicated to the DR server nightly. I dont want to have to log in and start a backup job every night.... I will need the backup to be able to do incrementals because The 3 VMs that i'm talking about moving totaled together for more than the capacity of 1 server, so i'm going to get two more 600gb drives and switch to raid6 on our DR server. So nightly backups of 2+ TB ain't gonna happen, hense incremental after the initial snapshot. I'm now looking for the most reasonable way to accomplish this.So, do i stick with ESX and get essentials for 666 bucks, and if so what backup do i use?
Do i switch do xen for the cost of me doing the work? if so what backup solution do i use?
Do i switch to Hyper-V 08r2? what backup solution do i use?Thanks for everything guys!
Jump Ship with ESXi, the client will be paying way to much for what they need today vs what they'll want tomorrow.
The tools to do what you need just aren't available without a higher tier ESXiConvert to XenServer download NAUBackup, and schedule the jobs with Crontab.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Convert to XenServer download NAUBackup, and schedule the jobs with Crontab.
That would be a big cost savings. But how do we make the jump from getting a local image file from the NAUBackup and then get that to incrementally / delta sync up to the DR site? That's the challenge in that scenario.
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Dustin, is NAUbackup incremental?
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You can run NAUBackup as often as the client can deal with the server going down.
I can run it on my VM's 8 times a day, and no one would notice.
The entire process takes a matter of seconds per VM.
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@hubtechagain said:
Dustin, is NAUbackup incremental?
Not on its own. There is probably a way to do an incremental transfer, but I've not thought of a good way to do it yet. It's the start of a decent solution but is missing a big piece.
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@DustinB3403 said:
You can run NAUBackup as often as the client can deal with the server going down.
I can run it on my VM's 8 times a day, and no one would notice.
The entire process takes a matter of seconds per VM.
None of that is incremental.
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And to be clear, with NAUBackup, you're building Full restores, not Incrementals.
If you need a file level incrementals what OS is the client using on the VM? Can you use a local client like Storagecraft?
