Backing up Enterprise Applications: Transaction Consistency is Key

Elias Khnaserwww.eliaskhnaser.comTwitter: @ekhnaser

About Elias Khnaser

Agenda

What Is Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)?Why VSS?VSS ComponentsNative Operating System VSS BackupVMware vSphere 4.x BackupsAgent Assisted VSS Aware BackupsHow Volume Shadow Copies Are CreatedAgent Assisted VSS Aware Restore

What is Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)? VSS is Windows framework for application backups VSS is a built-in Windows service that facilitates and coordinates

the creation of consistent copies of Transaction-based application data

2 methods for creating Shadow Copies:● Clone (Full Clone/Split Mirror)● Copy-on-Write (Difference File)

Exchange SQL Active Directory More

Transaction-based applications

Why VSS?

Avoid crash-consistent backups Crash-consistent is a nice way of saying hard stop Application awareness Avoidance of manual post restore tasks

Application consistency is critical

VMWindows

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Restore

Backup

VSS Components Volume Shadow Copy Service is a service that coordinates

the function of all components to create the shadow copy Requestors initiate Shadow Copy Creation Writers prevent data inconsistency Providers create the Shadow Copy

● System Provider● Hardware Providers● Software Providers

Source Volume is the volume that contains the data to be shadowed

Storage Volume is the volume that holds the shadow copy

A number of providers available

Native Operating System VSS Backup

Volume Shadow Copy ServiceWriters Requestor

ProviderSQL, Exchange,Active Directory,

Oracle, SharePointBackupsoftware

Operatingsystem, storage array or system

provider

Disk Volume

VMware vSphere 4.x Backups VMware Tools doesn’t quiesce applications May impact recovery

Volume Shadow Copy ServiceWriters Requestor

ProviderSQL, Exchange,Active Directory,

Oracle, SharePointVMware Tools

Operatingsystem, storage array or system

providerDisk

Volume

ESXi Host

VMware Tools is for quiescing filesystem with VSS

Image level backup that is crash consistent

Disk Volume

Agent Assisted VSS Aware Backup

Application jungle requires comprehensive solution

VMWindows

VMWindows

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Restore

BackupVMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

VMWindows

Backup File system consistent

Applicationconsistent

Volume Shadow Copy ServiceWriters Requestor

ProviderSQL, Exchange,Active Directory,

Oracle, SharePointVMware Tools

Operatingsystem, storage array or system

providerDisk

Volume

ESXi HostOn-Demand

Assistive Agent

3rd PartyBackup Host

Disk Volume

Application consistent recovery made easy with VSS agent

Not a traditional agent that needs updating and management

How Volume Shadow Copies Are CreatedSuccessful VSS process

VSS Initiate commit phase

VSS Query writersWriters Prepare data

VSS Check for successfulwriters

Writers Quiesce dataVSS Enumerate VSS writersSQL, Exchange, AD, Oracle, SharePoint, etc.

Backup

Create shadow copyXML descriptionBackup

File system thawPossible retry

Agent Assisted VSS Aware RestoreVSS aware restore is critical

Properly initialize VM on startup

Restore

Backup

VMWindows Domain controller example

VMWindows Exchange example

What We Covered

What Is Volume Shadow Copy Services (VSS)?Why VSS?VSS ComponentsNative Operating System VSS BackupVMware vSphere 4.x BackupsAgent Assisted VSS Aware BackupsHow Volume Shadow Copies Are CreatedAgent Assisted VSS Aware Restore

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