Before you take the dive

With some estimates predicting that as much as 60 per cent of companies’ data resides outside their corporate data centres, how can solution providers go about managing such an onslaught of information across distributed environments? Backup and storage management is an essential part of every data centre.

Part of putting together a solution lies in Windows Server 2008’s new data management features.

By probing under the surface, the CRN Test Center found some new and exciting features, techniques and tools to help solution providers build robust data management solutions.

We will take a look at how such a solution can be built in the areas of storage, backup, virtualisation, application management and overall data management.

Microsoft’s continuing support for the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) in Windows Server 2008 has not changed.

VSS and the command-line tools used in Windows Server 2003 are also available in Windows Server 2008.

The VSS architecture is still offering the same interfaces for software- and hardware-based providers.

Providers in Windows Server 2008 can perform full server backups of all volumes and system states at the block level, including restoring some data-driven applications such as SQL Server.

At the scripting repository in the TechNet site, Microsoft listed a script for creating shadow copies of volumes.

Keep in mind that Microsoft does not support any of the scripts in its library, so it’s up to solution providers to test them thoroughly.

Microsoft also makes more advanced scripts for managing end-user applications and protecting data in production SQL Server deployments and for controlling other OS services.

The sample VBScript files for managing storage provide granular automation but not enough for managing data sets in complex environments.

Here, the solution provider can offer expert help to develop large batch routines.

TechNet also has a Windows PowerShell script library, but it is a lot smaller than the VBScript library.

Once solution providers move beyond departmental-level backup and storage management scripts, they have to use schedulers and third-party tools.

However, the backup and storage space is still fractured, so managing various technologies to do the work across an organisation can spiral into chaos if the products are not integrated.

Windows Server 2008 extends the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) legacy into its role servers, so vendors and MSPs can take advantage of artifacts generated by the OS and build solutions that communicate effectively.

Centralising WMI information from disparate technologies is critical to managing distributed environments.

Microsoft is extending the technology into the virtualisation space as well.

One of the most exciting WMI classes in Server 2008 comes bundled into the Virtualisation WMI provider. Virtualisation WMI classes for storage controllers provide detailed information on media devices connected to virtual machines such as DVDs, floppies and, of course, virtual disk drives.

These classes also track events such as imaging when Hyper-V executes snapshots from its Image Management Service.

In addition to virtual disk information, the WMI classes manage logical media files and capture logical devices.

Other classes in the Virtualisation WMI provider capture system, video and networking information.

Documentation on this provider is not yet available on MSDN.

Depending on the backup and recovery objectives created at the departmental level, solution providers have to make sure that all of the jobs can be coordinated from centralised management tools.

In a data centre, managers need to have continuous use of data protection technologies, and scripting backup routines are limited.

Given the complexity of many Microsoft server products and third-party servers, the scripts only provide some granular management of OS services.

For more robust products, solution providers must rely on vendors like CA Inc. and FalconStor Software Inc. to manage large networks.

Getting a handle on storage

The last thing solution providers need to do is migrate production servers between Windows Server 2003 and Server 2008, so FalconStor offers a unique migrating solution that takes snapshots of servers in case restoring the original servers is required.

Solution providers would mount the existing disks on a separate server box to bring up a separate Windows Server 2003 instance, then upgrade the new box.

The test process does not interfere with the production server and reveals the the data rollback options administrators have available for later problems.

The upgrade, testing and validation environment is simpler
with FalconStor.

FalconStor offers its IPStor technology inside an appliance.

Solution providers can attach whatever storage they want to the appliance, whether it’s Hitachi, EMC or IBM storage arrays.

FalconStor can connect different brands of arrays together as well.

For instance, as part of a Windows Server 2008 rollout, solution providers have the option to upgrade to different disk models.

Solution providers can take their existing Windows Server 2003 and mirror it over to the new storage arrays, connect it to the new server and do the Windows Server 2008 upgrade there.

FalconStor has software agents that run on top of Windows Server 2008, but it doesn’t leverage features that are specific to the new server.

Nevertheless, FalconStor’s entire data protection suite has already gone through the Windows Server 2008 certification process.

FalconStor Message Recovery for Microsoft Exchange and its agents, including DynaPath and Disksafe, are certified as well.

For Exchange and SQL Server, FalconStor Recovery also can create snapshots across multiple LUNs.

Solution providers can follow the same steps used with server migration when migrating applications.

Enterprise backup solutions

CA’s new recovery management solution ties together ArcServe and XOsoft to offer an integrated set of backup and replication services, including failover/failback and disaster-recovery services.

The new products are offered in four new packages.

CA did away with thousands of SKUs in this release.

XOsoft and ArcServe are now Windows 2008 Server-certified products.

CA’s products are able to meet Microsoft’s requirements on how backup software must function with Windows Server 2008.

The new packages combine all the options by consolidating product functionality into four servers-file, e-mail, database and application.

Solution providers will find that the new CA products are easier to demo and sell for Windows Server 2008 environments, since all of the features and configuration options are bundled together.

In addition, the company increased its levels of support and has given greater support access to solution providers. Higher-level engineers are readily available in case first-level technicians cannot resolve issues.

Key to the success of ArcServe r12 in data centers that are running Windows Servers is its new centralised management module.

The new features deliver better operational efficiency by providing remote management of local and remote backup resources through a single console.

CA also centralised license management so that it is easier to meet license requirements in changing environments.

Essentially, all of the backup and replication jobs and devices can be managed from the centralised console.

Backup media such as tapes are easier to manage because they can be stored inside a data centre.

In addition, reporting and alerting is centralised, so administrators can see every event from the console.

The new reporting features provide actionable information to help administrators troubleshoot their environments from one location.

For instance, a drive throughput report can highlight slower drives, which could indicate that there might be hardware issues so maintenance needs to be performed, or it might indicate that not enough data is being sent to the drive and it’s starting and stopping too much.

Another useful report flags clients with most backup failed attempts. CA has also simplified the reports so that nontechnical users can read and identify problems.

The new reports can help reduce traveling for technicians, since information is now presented in easy-to-understand format.

Simpler reports mean that senior administrators can pass the work to junior IT technicians.
Even users in remote locations can use these reports to troubleshoot some backup jobs.

Recovery is also simplified because the catalog database maintained by ArcServe is centralised.

Administrators can quickly recover any job and know exactly where to restore data without having to send physical media to a location.

The new release uses SQL Server Express to maintain its database.

Solution providers can now develop custom reports and alerts.

Solution providers can use the SQL Server infrastructure to manage reliability and scalability of the solution.

Solution providers also can create new applications and services that tie into the ArcServe database.

With this release, CA enhanced its SharePoint integration.

The SharePoint integration simplifies administrators’ jobs as corporate data increasingly is finding its way into this collaboration platform.

More users are using the collaboration software as their main corporate desktop.

CA added an auto-discovery capability in SharePoint to identify file locations.

This is a key feature because in a large and complex SharePoint site, files can be stored in thousands of locations.

This feature guarantees that all SharePoint files are collected and backed up.

The products support both 32- and 64-bit versions of Windows Server 2008, including 32- and 64-bit clusters.

CA incorporated PowerShell in its XOSoft, so solution providers can extend the product with command-line scripts.

CA also ported the new Windows Server 2008 VSS writers.

ArcServe supports soft and hard links to files in Server 2008.

With soft links, databases can be changed to different locations without breaking the backup jobs.

ArcServe is able to back up and restore files using relative links.

In addition, ArcServe is able to restore system state in Windows Server 2008.

VMware has not been overlooked by CA, either. Backup jobs can easily overwhelm the I/O of physical servers where guest OSes are running.

In the past, production environments required careful measurement of incremental backups, so timing was critical between jobs.

Performing single backups of guest OSes as if they are physical servers gives administrators granular restoration capabilities, but the process is slow.

Moreover, this process can make the server I/O come to a crawl.

Another option is to back up the entire ESX server.

However, administrators don’t have the granular capability needed to capture and restore files at specific instances when backing up entire physical servers.

VMware’s Consolidated Backup (VCB) APIs help alleviate these problems.

This is VMWare’s preferred methodology for backing up its environments.

ArcServe supports VCB connections.

The VCB eliminates the performance impact on physical servers because the VMware server itself manages the I/O channel for transferring data between guest OSes and ArcServe. VCB also provides granular data restoration capabilities.

Right now, ArcServe supports Hyper-V’s single OS backup capabilities by placing ArcServe clients on guest OSes.

On a large-scale Windows Server 2008 deployment, however, single guest OS backup jobs with ArcServe clients can overwhelm the physical servers.

Just like VMWare’s servers, Microsoft needs to develop a method to channel data between Hyper-V and backup servers.

The new release of ARCServe is far more secured.

ArcServe now supports SIPS certified AES 256-bit encryption.

The higher encryption provides the highest-level security available for data transferring.

Encryption on the backup server is available and can also be managed on the LTO tape drives, options which reduce business risks.

Unique to ArcServe is its disaster-recovery testing, which can be of tremendous help to solution providers that offer these services.

XOsoft’s recovery software will run a test on the replica data with the application.

The software then uses its VSS snapshot and has ArcServe back it up.

At the end of the process, solution providers can get a backup copy that has been validated and that is recoverable against the application.

For Exchange, XOsoft can recover deleted individual e-mail messages from end users. Users have the option to recover their own data in case they delete it by mistake.

Putting a solution together

Windows Server 2008 comes with plenty of new features, but some are limited and inadequate in large and complex networks.

As companies roll out new 64-bit hardware into data centers, there are many products on the market that can extend the functionality in Server 2008.

With NUMA now being introduced in hardware storage devices, solution providers will have a plethora of products to offer to customers to speed up data access even further across networks.

The future looks bright for Windows Server 2008 but even brighter as solution providers gain the expertise needed to migrate data from applications and older server OSes.

Mario Morejon