bercas38's Blog

Oct 28, 2011 8:30 AM
One of the benefits of running a virtual machine (VM) environment on a Storage Area Network (SAN) is the convenience and speed of backing up hundreds or thousands of VMs. A single click or scheduled job instantaneously backs up each VM in a datastore with a crash-consistent snapshot. In most situations this kind of snapshot may be utilised to restore a VM to a operating state, however it will not protect open files or databases well.

The difference between crash-consistent and application-consistent backups is stark. In brief, a crash-consistent backup makes a snapshot that, when restored, creates a virtual machine that appears like one that has got the power abruptly turned off. The snapshot will get back the virtual machine's operating system to its pre-crash condition, but do little to keep the steadiness of open files or transactional databases that reside on it. Additionally, an application-consistent backup will make sure that all database transactions are committed and all disk transactions are completed prior to a snapshot. Data reliability of open files and databases on every single backup is ensured. Consequently of this, recovery from a failure will happen without having information loss, and can proceed immediately, as a information consistency check isn't needed.

Why would not it be the norm even if, given the benefits that the application-consistent backup's provide.It isn't challenging and totally free of cost to make a crash-consistent snapshot; each SAN vendor have this function in their hardware. Getting application-consistent snapshots requires extra software, and storage vendors charge a premium for this leading-edge resolution. Rendering of this type of solution can be complicated, depending on the SAN vendor. Many IT departments not have the capabilities to put into practice this kind of answer.

Lack of understanding is an additional answer. Possibly by a cloud services company or IT personnel. It's vital that the differences amongst these two backup services be well understood by whoever is sustaining virtual machines for the enterprise, along with the question of no matter whether application-consistent backups are being provided really should be asked up front, rather than soon after the fact. A cloud services company ought to be aware of, and offer to supply application-consistent backups whenever they are required.

If 1 virtual machine is running services like Active Directory, Exchange, Oracle, SQL, or SharePoint, it really is required that an application-consistent backup be performed. This may make sure that a total recovery with out data loss will always be possible, and that it's going to take much less time. The potential positive aspects arising from a quickly response to a failure scenario, coupled using the security of understanding that the data is intact, ought to make an application-consistent backup normal process in any organization.

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Posted by bercas38 | Oct 28, 2011 8:30 AM | Add a comment
It’s time to ditch the text file.
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