esXpress Advanced Replication (EAR)
by 
jayb
We’ve been looking at different backup solutions for our vmware farm. We want something simple, VCB seems too cumbersome right now.
Ron McKelvey (or ronzo) over at PHD Technologies disclosed a new feature of the esXpress backup software. So far the name is EAR (esXpress Advanced Replication). If you have a better suggestion for naming conventions, they’re all EARs
Right now esXpress has Simple Replication which can be defined as automatically restoring backups. The more you backup a VM, the more it can be auto restored. Consider Host A, it backs up to your FTP, all VMs once a day, and some VMs more often. Host B can check that FTP for new backups, then restore them. This is currently a DELTA restore, which means if the VMDK is 40 GB, then a new 40 GB VMDK will be created and the backup restored. Simple Replication is basically just a Mass Restore that runs automatically. They’re now getting ready to release the EAR in Beta format. Right now backups are in a Full/Delta methology. As time goes on, the Delta backups get bigger, because they are based on the Full. An EAR backup is just the incremental block level changes done from the last backup. Whether you are making a FULL or a DELTA, an EAR archive is also extracted with just the incremental changes from the last backup. This EAR archive can be send to another NET target (NET only for now).
In the above example, In the above example, I setup Host B to do EAR restores this time. It will search the FTP, find the backup and restore it. If the VMDK does not exist already on the host, then the DELTA backup will be restored, thus creating the VMDK. Then each replicated restore after that will just need to take the EAR file and drop it on top of the replicated VMDK. Host B has been setup to do EAR restores this time. It will search the FTP, find the backup and restore it. If the VMDK does not exist already on the host, then the DELTA backup will be restored, thus creating the VMDK. Then each replicated restore after that will just need to take the EAR file and drop it on top of the replicated VMDK. If your Host B is across a WAN, this works even better, as only the incremental changes need to ever be sent. You can seed Host B by bring the Delta/Full backups physically over and restoring them. Then when you enable the EAR restores, the .ear archives will be applied one by one, bring it up to date (or not as you configure it).
This means that if you backup VMs more often you can replicate them more often. Because this is basically built into the backup engine, it is just another process, much like FLBs. Every time you backup a VM with Delta or a Full, it will also make an EAR file. If the replication gets badly out of syncs, just the previous Delta need be restored, then the EAR files will flow again. And since the replication is based on Delta and EAR files, it is easy to restore a copy of any VMDK from any point in time. This is just the start, the plan will get more complex. Imagine, Doing monthly Full’s, Weekly Delta, and Daily Incremental’s, if you so choose.
esXpress Advanced Replication (EAR)
esloof@ntpro.nl (Eric Sloof)
Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:24:08 GMT
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February 14, 2008 1 Comment
StorageMojo » HDS Goes For 25X Backup Data Compression - Almost
by jayb
We have been reviewing new backup solutions for our data center. We’ve been looking at Avamar, data domain, and Exagrid. Here is a really good post about the differnet kinds of deduplication.
StorageMojo » HDS Goes For 25X Backup Data Compression - Almost
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November 7, 2007 No Comments
Now its working
by jayb
I use w.bloggar to post 99% of the time. w.bloggar only lets you ping one site when you post so I chose to use ping-o-matic. But somewhere along that line, technorati was not getting pinged. So it never indexed my site with the tag links. Now that I changed it so w.bloggar pings technorati. My tags show up!!! Sweet.
Looking around Technorati I found this post about exporting your del.icio.us bookmarks. I’ll have to give these ideas a try.
later,jb
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June 12, 2005 No Comments
New SBS documents from MS
by jayb
Looks like some new versions of some SBS docs that you should get your hands on and update your SBS reference binders. You do have one right?http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=013027ac-8544-461b-a176-9eff46d49aa4
This document describes the key features and capabilities of Microsoft® Windows® Small Business Server 2003 and discusses how they benefit small business customers, value added resellers, service partners, IT professionals, system builders, independent software vendors (ISVs), and (OEMs).
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=487736f8-f6f5-436d-a82d-0c8d66e2a634
Windows Small Business Server 2003 provides a reliable way to perform regular server backups for small companies. After a system failure or other disaster, you can restore your server from your latest backup. You can also restore individual files and e-mail messages.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=fa187d1e-8218-4501-9729-222bd8ebb64c
This document describes the process for migrating from Small Business Server 2000 or Windows 2000 Server to Windows Small Business Server 2003. If you are migrating from Small Business Server 4.5 or from Windows NT Server 4.0, see the Microsoft Web site.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=a1d0af69-1287-4225-bd8b-59c89f44984b
This document provides step-by-step instructions for moving each of the data folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003.
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September 24, 2004 No Comments
Day 1 - EMC tech conf
by jayb
The first session was a hands-on of the web interface V 5.2 for the NAS. It looks quite different an the version we are running on our NS600, but it doesn’t add much functionality. Just moved around the commands and added some wizards.
The second session was for document mangement. Something I think we can use at work. Between our office documents and CAD files, I know we are looking at differnet solutions. Documentum gave a good presentation, but they don’t work with progress databases.
After lunch I set though a legato prestation about disk 2 disk 2 tape backups. We use Veritas right now for our backups. I don’t see us moving to legato, but it gave me lots of good information. We can get a tray of ATA drives for the NS600 and backup all the servers to them and then we can backup from the ATA drives to tape. We are already going over our backup window some days. Plus I want to look at something like Double-take from NSI. It will be byte level replication. So we can replicate our remote locations back to GH to the ATA drives and them backup from the ATA drives. Then I can pull all the remote tape devices out of the remote locations.
The last session of the day was about ISCI. Very interesting. I don’t think we’d use it right off the bat, but I want to make sure any fiber switch we put in can be used as a gateway between a fiber and ISCI network.
more to come……
jb
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April 26, 2004 No Comments
