DataCenterManagem

ent

openBench Labs

PERFORMANCE

Analysis:Optimal Virtual & Physical BackupAppAssure v4.7

Backup and Replication Softwarevs.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

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Author: Jack Fegreus, Ph.D.Managing DirectoropenBench Labs

http://www.openBench.comOctober 12, 2011

PERFORMANCE

Analysis:

Jack Fegreus is Managing Director of openBench Labs and consults throughRidgetop Research. He also contributes to InfoStor, Virtual Strategy Magazine,and Open Magazine, and serves as CTO of Strategic Communications.Previously he was Editor in Chief of Open Magazine, Data Storage, BackOfficeCTO, Client/Server Today, and Digital Review. Jack also served as a consultantto Demax Software and was IT Director at Riley Stoker Corp. Jack holds a Ph.D.in Mathematics and worked on the application of computers to symbolic logic.

Optimal Virtual & Physical BackupAppAssure v4.7

Backup and Replication Softwarevs.

Acronis Backup & Recovery 11

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Table of Contents

Executive Brief 04Building Data Protection on Virtual Blocks 04

Test 1: Universal Backup Execution 08Tracking Disk Blocks 08Keeping Things Simple 09Real Synthetic Differences 10

Test 2: Granular Application Recovery 12The Road to Application-Centric SLAs 12Finding Files 12Automated Application Verification 13

Test 3: Standby VMs and Near-Zero DR 15DR: The New Backup and Restore 15Instant Volume Recovery 17

Test Summary 18Rewriting the Rules of Business Continuity 18

BUILDING DATA PROTECTION ON VIRTUAL BLOCKS

In this study of data protection for environments with virtual and physical serversrunning Windows, openBench Labs tested AppAssure Backup and Replication softwarev 4.7 and Acronis Backup & Recovery 11. Both solutions utilize block-based technologyto unify data protection operations; however, the way each product implements asolution creates significant differences in performance and functionality.

We designed ourtests to stress ITmanagementsimplification andoperating expense(OPEX) reduction viauniform access to alldata protection options.We ran all tests within

the context of a disk-to-disk (D2D) backup strategy using continuous incremental backupsof virtual and physical servers, data deduplication, and full vaerification of each backup.

OpenBench Labs conducted all tests using five physical systems, which included twoWindows servers, two ESXi 5 servers, and a Windows workstation. All of these systemsutilized a Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) for storage resources. Within thisenvironment, openBench Labs set up three different IT scenarios to host and evaluateour data protection tests.

A D2D strategy provides IT with a number of operating efficiencies, to beeconomically viable versus a disk-to-tape (D2T) strategy; however, the storage utilizationratio between actual production data and a backup of that data must be on the order of25 to 1. In addition to providing an excellent basis for storage space savings, the timeneeded to complete an incremental backup makes it possible to repeat backupsfrequently and thereby minimize the time differential between recovery points.

Given the growth of application-specific SLAs for business continuity, recoverytesting included an functional assesment of support for deep validation of applicationrecoverability, operating tests concentrated on two scenarios for data-item level recovery:recovery of individual SQL Server databases and recovery of Exchange mailboxes and

Executive BriefO

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Executive Brief

“For Windows-centric sites, AppAssure Backup and Replicationprovides a powerful, cost-effective, unified, backup and DisasterRecovery solution that implements a changed-block methodology forboth physical and virtual systems with unmatched RTO and RPO levels.”

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In our tests, AppAssure ran 5X faster than Acronison full and incremental backups with data deduplication andverification. Also, we found that Acronis backup files weretypically 100X larger before data deduplication and Acronisagents imposed 4X more overhead on CPU during backups.

messages. In addition we examined both products for specialized recovery features thatsupport immediate recovery for a perceived near-zero recovery time.

In our third test suite, weexamined the ability ofAppAssure and AcronisBackup & Recovery 11 toextend data protection todisaster recoveryfunctionality. Beyondgeneration of a bare metalinstallation CD, which leavesIT with several hours of workto configure a new system, weexamined the ability toleverage a warm standby VM.

By aggressively exploitingits changed block trackingmechanism across all dataprotection operations,AppAssure was able to forge ameasurable advantage in allthree of our test suites. Moreimportantly, AppAssureleveraged block-basedtracking in the introductionof three key technologies:Live Recovery™ to meet near-zero RTO and five-minuteRPO; Assured Recovery™ toautomatically verify that botha backup is recoverable and

that application data within the backup is recoverable; and Universal Recovery™ tosupport granular recovery of files and application items, as well as bare metal recoverythat can be physical-to-physical (P2P), virtual-to-virtual (V2V), physical-to-virtual(P2V), or virtual-to-physical (V2P).

In our tests, AppAssure’s changed block tracking proved to be the key distinguishingtechnology when comparing data protection performance and functionality with AcronisBackup & Recovery 11. Since Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 transfers entire files duringfull, differential and incremental backups, it creates much larger backup files than thoseof AppAssure, which makes data deduplication a top priority.

While deduplication time differentials between Acronis and AppAssure were mostdramatic on initial full backups, the time needed for incremental backups has the most

Executive BriefO

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Under TesT: WindoWs server daTa-ProTecTion

AppAssure Value Proposition1) Live Recovery™ with Near-Zero Data Recovery Time: AppAssure intelligently

reorders blocks during volume recovery to permit immediate access to criticalapplication data during the recovery of a full volume

2) Assured Recovery™ for Automatic Application Validation: Extend backupvalidation processes by automatically discovering key applications, including SQLServer and Exchange, on clients and then testing application recoverability ineach backup

3) Cross-platform Universal Recovery™ to any VM or physical server: Anybackup can be restored to a hot-metal backup CD for any hardware or used tobuild a VM on any Virtual Infrastructure host

4) Universal Recovery™ for Disaster Recovery (DR): Automatically updatesystem and data files on a warm standby VM and user data on a hot standbyphysical server after every backup

5) Granular Universal Recovery™ of Files and Application Items: Retrieve filesor individual data objects, such as an email messages and database objects bymounting and sharing any backup as a virtual disk

6) Changed Block Tracking on All Backups: AppAssure Backup and Replicationclient installs a filter driver that tracks all data changes by disk blocks on virtualand physical systems running Windows

7) Minimal Data Loss with Near-Continuous Recovery Points: AppAssureleverages block-level data change tracking to provide fast, small footprint,incremental backups with automatic roll up to synthetic full backups, which canbe scheduled in five minute intervals

8) Off-site DR via WAN and LAN Backup Replication: Automatically replicatebackup archives for enhanced off-site availability of warm, standby, virtualservers and hot, standby, physical servers

impact on the ability of IT to meet stringent Restore Point Objectives (RPOs). Bymaintaining minimal time intervals between incremental backups, IT can use nearcontinuous incremental backups to minimize potential data loss. Nonetheless, to enablefrequent incremental backups, CPU overhead must also be kept to a minimum.

With AppAssure, CPU usage by the client service peaked at 8% in an initial backupthat lasted 24 minutes. On the same server, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 peaked at58% CPU utilization and averaged over 30% for 80 minutes. What’s more, thisoverhead was measured with data deduplication run on the backup server. Acronis offersthe option to run data deduplication on the client system to lower network overhead;however, with gigabit networking, openBench Labs did not invoke that option given the

Executive Brief

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oPENBENCh LABS DATA PRoTECTIoN TESTING SUMMARy

Data ProtectionTest Suite

Key Test Metrics Analysis AppAssure v4.7Acronis

Backup & Recovery 11

UniversalBackup

Execution

•Unified execution of

all commands

•Backup time

•Client CPU overhead

•Backup file size

•Execution of all options

from a single GUI lowers

operation complexity

•Backup time governs RPO

•Service overhead restricts

backup window options

•Backup size directly

affects resource costs

•All options run from asingle management GUI

•Fastest backup times

•Minimal CPU overhead

•Smallest incrementalbackup files

•Data item backuprequires additionalmodules and agents

•Data deduplicationsignificantly extendedbackup time

•Moderate CPU overhead

•Data deduplication neededfor small backup files

GranularApplicationRecovery

•Extended validation

of data objects

•Restoration of item-

level data from any

backup

•Application validation

essential for SLA support

ot both RTO and RPO

•Tested the ability to

restore objects from a SQL

Server database and email

messages from an

Exchange 2010 mailbox

•Protected applicationsautomatically discoveredand validation testsadded•Status of databases andmailboxes shown in GUIand any backup can beused to recover dataobjects

•Separate applicationmodules and clients thatcreate application-specificbackups •SQL Server 2008 R2databases could bebacked up and restore, butnot Exchange 2010mailboxes

Standby VMsand Near-zero

DisasterRecovery

•Utilize VM clones of

physical and virtual

systems for DR

•Restore applications

and data with no

perceived delay

•Update standby VMs—OS

and data—with production

server disk snapshots

from backups

•Restore applications and

data with no perceived

delay

•Standby VMs configuredidentically to productionservers

•Supported an Exchangemailbox restore whilepassing a Jetstressbenchmark

•Minimally configuredstandby VMs

•Active

added processing overhead and inherent insecurity of leaving single instance data on theclient.

Equally importantfor today’s CIO is theability to support anapplication-specificSLA for businesscontinuity. Thismeans IT operationsmanagers must knowthat applicationswithin a backup willbe recovered inworking order whena backup is restored.To meet thatrequirement,AppAssure providesAssured Recovery to

automatically test that applications can be recovered as part of the normal restoreprocess.

In contrast to the automation of AppAssure, Acronis requires IT administrators tomanually install optional modules for SQL Server and Exchange, which create separateclient services to handle their respective applications. These modules also require IT tocreate separate application-specific backups. With Acronis Backup & Recovery 11, an ITadministrator cannot simply recover a database from a standard backup of a systemcontaining SQL Server.

As a result, AppAssure uniquely empowers a CIO to confidently agree to and deliveron very aggressive RTO and RPO propositions. What’s more, AppAssure dramaticallyreduces both the capital and operating costs associated with data protection and DRwhile simultaneously addressing the issues of fine-grained data item recovery, systemreplication, and bare-metal system restoration.

Executive Brief

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oPENBENCh LABS DATA PRoTECTIoN TEST SCENARIoS

1) Corporate Email Scenario: •one virtual server running Windows Server 2008 R2 as a Domain Controller•one virtual server running Exchange Server 2010•one physical workstation running Windows 7 and outlook 2007

2) Database-driven Business Process Scenario:•one physical server running Windows Server 2003 R2 as a Domain Controller•one virtual server running Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2•one physical server running Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2

3) End-User Desktop Workstation Scenario:•one physical workstation running Windows 7•one virtual workstation running Windows 7

TRACKING DISK BLOCKS

To protect data, traditional backup solutions transfer server files to an alternatestorage medium. Unfortunately, file-level backups do not extend easily to other dataobjects. When IT needs to recover data items contained in files or virtual systemshosting files, traditional backup packages often require optional modules, which increasecapital and operating costs by introducing new logical processing models.

In sharp contrast, AppAssure introduces a deceptively simple mechanism to track andflag data changes to disk blocks rather than files. By using changes to disk blocks insteadof files, AppAssure supports a unified, disk-imaging approach for all data protection andDR functionality.

To establish ageneralized disk-blocktracking mechanism onWindows-basedsystems, an ITadministrator installs anAppAssure service agenton every client system tocollect, package, andsend block data to acentral AppAssure Coreserver. The AppAssureagent installs a filterdriver between theWindows file systemand the Windowskernel, to capture block-level changes on theunderlying logical diskvolume associated withdata changes in filesmade by applications.Using the filter driver,AppAssure serviceagents on client systemslog meta data about

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“AppAssure is able to meet a 5-minute RPO byaggressively leveraging its disk block

tracking scheme to only processes data blocksaltered when changes are made to a file: There are

no unchanged segments of data that need to be deduplicated. ”

Test Suite1: Universal Backup Execution

Universal Backup Execution

APPASSURE I/O REDIRECTION

On a workstation, we observed AppAssure client service activity, while generateing a high level ofI/O writes. As the benchmark changed file data, AppAssure’s client service logged meta data aboutthe block changes to an AppAssure (AA) log file in the disk’s System Volume Information directory. Atthe same time, the client service was also updating the AppAssure service on the Core server.

disk-block changes in the System Volume directory for each logical disk. During abackup, the agent utilizes meta-data logs to send just the block-level data changes thatoccurred since the last time an AppAssure Core server requested a backup data transfer.

More importantly, since AppAssure data protection is based on using disk images, ITadministrators are able to immediately mount and share any AppAssure backup as avirtual volume. In this and other recovery processes, AppAssure automatically rolls up asynthetic backup for the selected recovery point. In addition, administrators are able toset up replication between two AppAssure Core servers across a LAN or WAN toimprove data availability and DR performance with respect to RTO.

KEEPING THINGS SIMPLE

Of particular concern for openBench Labs is the ability of software packages tosimplify IT operations. For data protection software, a critical factor is the ability tominimize operating complexity by allowing IT administrators to implement all backupand recovery options using a minimal set of GUI commands.

A central issue in comparing the ease of use and performance of AppAssure with thatof Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 is the intended scope of the two products. AppAssureis designed explicitly for use in an environment that enables implementation of its block-level tracking. Acronis Backup & Replication 11, on the other hand, is designed tosupport the largest possible range of servers in the largest possible number ofenvironments. To meet this goal, Acronis supports two paradigms: individual serverswith self-managed backup and centrally managed backup for all servers.

With ourcross-platformmix of physicaland virtualservers, weattempted torestrict ourevaluation to theAcroniscentralizedmanagementscheme, whichpropagatesmanagementoperations toclients. On ourmanagementserver, wecreatedcentralizedbackup plans for

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Universal Backup Execution

ACRONIS DATA DEDUPLICATION

We set up a special storage vault for backup files that were created using a backup plan invoking datadeduplication. This vault worked with both full and incremental backups. After running a small number ofbackups, the overall data reduction rate reached 20 to 1, a level considered critical for D2D backup to be costcompetitive with tape.

all clients and two centralized archive storage vaults for use with plans that either did ordid not apply data deduplication. We stored all backups with data deduplication on ourcentrally managed archive to restrict data deduplication processing to our central serverand avoid adding excessive CPU overhead to production systems.

The need for a separate storage vault for data deduplication points to an importantarchitectural difference between AppAssure and Acronis. To maintain compatibility withthe broadest number of client systems, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 performs anumber of advanced features, including data deduplication, in the same way thattraditional file-oriented data protection packages do. This means that Acronis Backup &Recovery 11 transfers entire files during full, differential and incremental backups, whichcreates much larger backup files than those of AppAssure. Before applying datadeduplication, a typical Acronis incremental backup file averaged 5GB, while anAppAssure incremental backup file averaged 5MB.

The larger backup files created by Acronis are of no consequence for a D2T backupplan; however, a cost-effective D2D backup strategy will require data deduplication. Todeduplicate data, Acronis Backup & Recovery 11, breaks a stream of backup data intosegments and attempts to match each segment with a hash-coded fingerprint thatidentifies a previously stored copy of the segment. If a match does occur, Acronis simplyreplaces the known segment in the backup file with a copy of the fingerprint pointer tothe stored segment. If no match occurs, Acronis stores the segment as a new single-instance segment and creates an associated fingerprint.

REAL SYNTHETIC DIFFERENCES

As with AppAssure, wewere able to use the Acronisdata deduplication schemewith any backup, includingfull and incrementalbackups. What’s more, weencountered no problemsrolling up incrementalbackups with deduplicationinto synthetic backups.What we could not do withAcronis Backup & Recovery11 was intermix backupswith and without datadeduplication.

The size of full andincremental backup fileswere relatively close betweentwo data protectionpackages. As a result, an

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Universal Backup Execution

Storage Reduction: Full Backup & VerificationData Deduplication and Compression

Target (Backup Type)Backup

SoftwareBackup

FileBackupWindow

Physical Server (Initial Full)Windows 2008 Server R2,

SQL Server 2008 R2, 49.1GB active data

AppAssure 23.1GB 38 minutes

Acronis 19.5GB 166 minutes

Physical Server (Incremental)Windows 2003 Server,

Domain Controller, 21.8GB active data

AppAssure 32MB 2 minutes

Acronis 95MB 13 minutes

Virtual Server (Initial Full)Windows 2008 Server R2,

SQL Server 2008 R2, 29.5GB active data

AppAssure 10.3GB 27 minutes

Acronis 8.8GB 73 minutes

Virtual Server (Incremental)Windows 2008 Server R2,

SQL Server 2008 R2, 29.5GB active data

AppAssure 3MB 1 minute

Acronis 18.6MB 7 minutes

AppAssure archive and an Acronis archive for a continuous incremental backup strategyshould exhibit similar capacity utilization patterns over time.

In contrast to storage capacity requirements, Acronis typically took 4 to 5 timeslonger than AppAssure when running either an initial full backup or an incrementalbackup using data deduplication.While deduplication time differentials betweenAcronis and AppAssure were most dramatic on initial full backups, the time needed forincremental backups has the most impact on the ability of IT to meet stringent RestorePoint Objectives (RPOs). By maintaining minimal time intervals between incrementalbackups, IT can use near continuous incremental backups to minimize potential data loss.

AppAssure is able to meet a 5-minute RPO by aggressively leveraging its disk blocktracking scheme to only processes data blocks altered when changes are made to a file:There are no unchanged segments of data that need to be deduplicated. The onlypotential source of duplicate data is the changed block backup data itself: There may bemultiple instances of a change within a document or multiple documents with the samechange. To deal with data duplication within changed blocks, AppAssure restrictsdeduplication to just the current backup and avoids the level of extended wall clock timeand CPU processing overhead that characterizes Acronis’ global deduplication scheme.

Universal Backup Execution

DATA DEDUPLICATION DOWNSIDE

We tracked CPU usage by the AppAssure and Acronis services during initial and incremental backups. Even with data deduplicationprocessing running exclusively on the central backup server, overhead on the production server being backed up was significantlyhigher. With AppAssure, CPU usage by the client service peaked at 8% in an initial backup that lasted 24 minutes. On the same server,Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 peaked at 58% CPU utilization and averaged over 30% for 80 minutes.

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THE ROAD TO APPLICATION-CENTRIC SLAS

For IT, backup has long been a necessary daily activity centered on backing up data,applications, and OS files in a minimal amount of time. From the perspective of a Line ofBusiness (LoB) executive, however, the value of any data-protection operation rests solelyin recovery processes. That’s why Service Level Agreements (SLAs) for data protectionfocus on applications and target an RPO and RTO: Backup is simply a means to providea recovery point.

With the growth of application-specific SLAs for business continuity, we focusedrecovery testing suite on an assesment of each package’s ability to go beyond verificationof backup recoverability and validate the recoverability of applications within a backup.We followed this assessment with operating tests centered on two business scenarios.Specifically, we attempted to restore individual SQL Server databases and messages in anExchange mailbox.

The lion’s share of restore operations for IT, however, remain dominated by the simpleretrieval of individual files inadvertently lost or corrupted in daily use by end users. Forthis reason, we began our testing with the issue of recovering a single file for use on ourphysical domain controller running Windows Server 2003 R2.

FINDING FILES

With AppAssure’s aggressive leveraging of disk blocks and imaging technology, an ITadministrator can instantly mount any backup file as a logical volume on an AppAssureCore server. Then using standard Windows file sharing, the AppAssure Core server candistribute the mounted volume over a LAN. With the capability to mount and share anybackup file—incremental backups are automatically rolled up—as a logical disk volume,IT can easily turn the task of file-and item-level data recovery into a simple, self-serve,end-user process. More importantly, the ability to mount and share a backup file alsoopens the door to providing end users with the ability to use existing application tools tomanipulate any application-level data items.

File restoration with Acronis Backup & Recovery 11, however, was burdened bymultiple incompatible features and functions. Like AppAssure, Acronis allows a backupfile to be mounted on a client system. Nonetheless, this process can not be run from acentrally managed backup vault. To mount a backup as a disk on a client system, thebackup file needed to be stored in a local unmanaged vault on the remote client. Thecritical issue in this scenario is the need to keep a separate backup on the client system.

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“For an SMB site with overly stretched ITresources, the value of AppAssure’sAssured Recovery for automatic discovery ofcritical applications and automatic configuration

of data validation tests for the restoration of data items cannot be over estimated.”

Test Suite 2: Granular Application Recovery

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Granular Application Recovery

The alternative to the scenario of mounting a backup file as a volume requires ITadministrators to follow a classic file-oriented recovery process. An IT administrator drillsdown on a managed archive and searches for files rather than volumes. When theappropriate file is discovered, the administrator will have a choice of backup restore pointsbased on backup dates. Nonetheless, this process can be deceptive: Any backup datecorresponding to an incremental backup will not be automatically rolled up and can resultin the restoration of a pointer rather than the desired file.

AUTOMATED APPLICATIONVERIFICATION

For IT, the ability to support an application-specific SLA for business continuitybegins with knowing that applications within a backup will be recovered in workingorder whenever the backup is restored. To meet that requirement, AppAssure hasintroduced Assured Recovery, which automatically validates the application as part of anormal backup process.

When a client system is added to an AppAssureCore server, the client is scanned to discover if anyprotected applications are installed. If AppAssurediscovers a protected application, such as Exchange,SQL Server, and Sharepoint, it will add application-specific validations for that client and schedule thosevalidation tests along with AppAssure’s standardbackup validation. The new validation tests includechecks for email database integrity and databaseattachability.

In contrast to the automation of AppAssure,Acronis requires IT administrators to manually installoptional modules for SQL Server and Exchange, whichcreate separate client services to handle their respectiveapplications. What’s more, these modules also requireIT to create an application-specific backup. ITadministrators cannot simply recover a database from abackup of a system containing SQL Server. UsingAcronis, we needed to generate a database-awarebackup of all database instances running on a server,

before we were able to restore any of those database instances on any server runningSQL Server.

Nonetheless, we were not able to create a special backup of an Exchange 2010 mailboxdatabase. While we were able to backup and restore systems running Exchange 2010, thespecial module to backup mailbox databases could not parse an Exchange 2010 mailbox.

On the other hand, we easily ran all restoration options for Exchange and SQL Serverfrom the main AppAssure GUI. The GUI presented the application’s validation state andall recoverable items, such as an SQL Server databases and Exchange mailboxes. For our

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Granular Application Recovery

APPASSURE APPLICATION VALIDATION

When a client system was added to an AppAssure Coreserver for backup, it was automatically scanned for thepresence of protected applications and application-specificvalidation tests were added to its properties.

Exchange 2010 server, we were able to drill down on an Exchange mailbox using anersatz Outlook GUI and select items for recovery directly from any backup.

To recover aSQL Server 2008R2 database withAppAssure, westarted with anexisting serverbackup thatincludedvalidateddatabaseinstances. Wethen mountedand shared thatbackup as a diskvolume from theAppAssure Coreserver. On anyserver runningSQL Server 2008R2, we were ableto mount thatvolume andattach any of thedatabasescontained in thebackup in orderto retrieve finegrain items suchas views andqueries usingstandard SQLServer tools.

The keyadded valuefrom AppAssure

were the tests that we would be able to attach all of the databases contained in the restorepoint. For an SMB site with overly stretched IT resources, the value of AppAssure’sAssured Recovery for automatic discovery of critical applications and automaticconfiguration of data validation tests for the restoration of data items cannot be overestimated.

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UNIVERSAL ITEM-LEVEL RECOVERY

We mounted and shared an AppAssure backup of a server running SQL Server 2008 R2 as a logical disk.Using the SQL Server Management Studio, we were able to import the volume and attach any databasecontained in the backup. Once backup was attached to our local database, we could browse and save dataitems, including tables and views.

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DR: THE NEW BACKUP AND RESTORE

AppAssure is able toautomatically turn any incrementalbackup into a bare-metal recoveryCD or update the user files on arunning standby physical server.Similar DR functionality can foundwithin Acronis Backup & Recovery11, however, AppAssure alsofeatures a far more powerful thirdoption derived throughAppAssure’s use of block-baseddisk imaging.

ESXi and ESX hosts can updateVMs that are not in a runningstate. That allows an AppAssureCore server to use incrementalbackups of any physical or virtualsystem to generate disk snapshotsfor a warm standby VM, which canbe a perfect copy of the originalsystem down to the state of the OS.While Acronis Backup & Recovery11 can create a warm backup VMof a physical server, that backup isnot provisioned with identicalresources, such as memory, and theupdate process requires thepresence of an Acronis applianceon the host server.

On the other hand, theAppAssure standby VM isconfigured to boot directly from astandard host datastore and willimmediately exhibit full I/Operformance. What’s more, the

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DR VM STANDBY & REPLICATION TOPOLOGY

For our Exchange 2010 server, we set up data protection to include a warm standbyVM. on an ESXi host. Following each incremental backup of the Exchange server,AppAssure sent an update snapshot for each of the standby VMs disk to the ESXihost. Next, we added replication of the backup files to a second AppAssure Coreserver and made that server the new source of disk snapshots for the VM.

“When a protected AppAssure clientcrashes, a warm standby VM server

can be booted in seconds, come online toprocess data in minutes, and satisfy the most

stringent business continuity SLA with respect to an aggressive RTO.”

Test Suite 3: Standby VMs and Near-zero DR

standby VM server will take the complete identity of the original system on the site’s LAN.As a result, when a protected AppAssure client crashes, a warm standby VM server can bebooted in seconds; come online to process data in minutes; and satisfy the most stringentbusiness continuity SLA with respect to an aggressive RTO.

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Standby VMs and Near-zero DR

LOW IMPACT APPASSURE BACKUP WITH HOT DR STANDBY

Using AppAssure with incremental updates in 10-minute intervals, we easily met aggressive RTO and RPO levels while placingminimal overhead on IT infrastructure. Every 10 minutes, we ran an incremental backup process, which included datacompression and deduplication. The backup took about 4 minutes to complete—3 minutes to back up and 1 minute to verify thedata. Backup files for this process were typically well under 50MB. What’s more, we were also able to automatically update awarm standby VM within that 10 minute window by applying snapshot updates. In about 7 minutes, we processed an incrementalbackup of our Exchange 2010 R2 server and updated a standby VM server for DR.

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An important key to AppAssure’s ability to keep a warm standby VM updated viadisk snapshots is the minimal overhead required by an AppAssure Core server toprocess incremental updates and transfer corresponding disk snapshots to a VM. Theentire process of capturing an incremental backup on the client, sending, processing, andsaving the update on the AppAssure Core server can be repeated over very shortintervals that are measured in minutes. As a result, the RPO for a business continuitySLA can be just as aggressive as the RTO.

What’s more, AppAssure backups are self contained, which allows backups on oneCore server to be replicated to another Core server for an HA scenario. Replicating thesmall, compressed and, deduplicated incremental backups puts minimal stress on a LANinfrastructure and is very well suited to WAN infrastructure as well. As a result, IT cangarner even greater efficiency by utilizing a WAN to keep an off-site secondaryAppAssure Core server updated. That server can then securely update a VI hostmaintaining a warm standby VM at the off-site location using disk snapshots createdfrom the incremental backups generated for a server at the home site.

INSTANT VOLUME RECOVERY

AppAssure Live Recovery is a unique volume restoration feature that leverages blockdata to provide end users with zero perceived restore time, which is manifested inimmediate access to any data on the volume as it is being restored. With Live Recovery,the restoration legerdemain for a logical volume starts with the transfer of the volume’sMaster File Table (MFT). With the MFT in place, users immediately see all of the filesthat were on the drive at the time of the restore point. As a result, end users have theimpression that the drive has been fully magically restored in seconds.

The AppAssure instant recovery scheme is not without very serious potential pitfalls.The most obvious question is: What happens when an end user clicks on a file that is notthere? Without a working solution to that problem, the consequences of such an actionfor a simple single-user application will probably be no more than a very annoyed enduser spending an extended period of time watching a rotating mouse icon. In a database-driven environment, however, there is the distinct risk of corrupting one or more criticalinternal tables or worse, causing considerable delays and problems for mission-critical,transaction-processing applications that are utilizing a database.

To avoid these issues, AppAssure’s Live Recovery relies on critical coordinationbetween the AppAssure client service and the and the AppAssure service on the CoreServer handling the Live Recovery process. When an application attempts to access anyfile or data item that is still queued on the AppAssure Core server, the requested datablock addresses are transferred to the Core server which reorders the block streamqueued for the client in order to put the requested addresses at the top of the queue.As a result, a large volume file server or Exchange mailbox database with hundreds ofgigabytes of data can be restored instantaneously from the perspective of end users.

Standby VMs and Near-zero DR

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REWRITING THE RULES OF BUSINESS CONTINUITY

Concerns expressed by Line of Business (LoB) executives over business continuity arein part driving the next wave of IT projects. In a competitive 24x7 economicenvironment, computer downtime represents more than lost revenue to sales andmarketing executives. These executives equate lengthy computer outages with potentiallosses in customer confidence and market share. As a result, senior LoB executivesexpect IT to meet an RTO that is measured in hours rather than days and an RPO that isclose to lossless.

With respect to meetingstringent RPO and RTO goals,AppAssure Backup andReplication software isdesigned to leverage changeddisk blocks in place of changedfiles on any Windows system—whether physical or virtual. Byinstalling a client service thatincludes a filter driver thatupdates logs in the systemvolume directory of each disk,AppAssure is able to leveragedisk image technology togenerate fast, low-impact,incremental backups. Theincremental backups aremaintained as restore points onan AppAssure Core server andautomatically rolled up to a fullsynthetic backup whenaccessed for a recovery process.

More importantly, theblock-based architecture of

AppAssure enables the universal application of all functions and features with all

Test SummaryO

PE

NB

ENCH LABS

Test Summary

“IT can leverage the incremental backup processing advantages ofAppAssure to run frequent incremental backups in order tominimally space recovery points for mission critical systems and thenuse standby VM servers to double down on an aggressive DR plan withan RTO measured in minutes.”

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APPASSURE FEATURE BENEFITS1) Agent-based Changed Block Tracking: IT administrators install agents onclient systems that utilize a filter driver to track block-level changes to greatlyreduce the processing of incremental backups

2) Compress and Deduplicate Data on any Backup Process: AppAssure canapply both compression and data deduplication to incremental backups

3) Universal Recovery to Any Hardware: Recover systems using a bare metalrecovery CD, a hot standby server or a warm standby VM

4) Universal Recovery at Any Granularity: Recover systems, disk volumes, files,or application-level data items, such as email messages and database tables

5) Automatically Test and Verify Backups for Application Recoverability:AppAssure discovers key applications, such as SQL Server and Exchange, onclients and applies special item-level verification tests for these applications

6) Live Recovery Restores Volumes and Key Application Files with ZeroPerceived Delay: Live Recovery immediately restores directory details andreorders the transfer of blocks based on user access of files during recovery

7) Automate Incremental Backups For Near-Lossless RPO: Incrementalbackups with both deduplication and compression can be automated to run inintervals as short as every 5 minutes for minimally spaced restore points

8) Restore or Repair Application Items: Mount and share backup files as virtualdisks from AppAssure Core servers lab to enable the recovery of application-related objects using existing application tools

backups. In contrast, Acronis Backup and Recovery 11 has a list of features and functionsthat are not compatible. For an SMB site, feature and function incompatibility canexcessively burden IT administrators with overly complex data protection procedures.

Far more important, however, is the minimal amount of computer processing neededto support and optimize incremental backups made using changed disk blocks. Inparticular, the minimum amount of overhead generated by AppAssure empowers IT toimplement a DR plan with aggressive RTO and RPO levels to support an SLA with Lineof Business executives. In particular, IT can leverage the incremental backup processingadvantages of AppAssure to run frequent incremental backups in order to minimallyspace recovery points for mission critical systems and then use a standby VM server todouble down on an aggressive DR plan with an RTO measured in minutes.

Test SummaryO

PE

NB

ENCH LABS

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