Posted by Laura Shafer on Wed, Apr 28, 2010 @ 04:45 PM
StorageCraft Technology's ShadowProtect 4: A study in enterprise data protection
New server virtualization and quick server recovery features introduced
By Deni Connor
Principal analyst, Storage Strategies NOW
April 2010
Protecting your organization's most valuable assets - your data - should be a priority for any business. Whether those data assets are stored on physical or virtual servers or desktop PCs in your environment, it is important to be able to not only back this equipment up, but to recover it as well in the event of a disaster or server failure.
StorageCraft's introduction of new versions of its data protection software -- ShadowProtect Server4, ShadowProtect Small Business Server 4, ShadowProtect Desktop 4 and ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise 4-- this month is focused on rapid server recovery, server virtualization and an enhanced management interface - each an enhancement that will help an IT administrator to better manage and protect the physical and virtual machines in his environment.
Quick server recovery
ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise, available as an add-on to ShadowProtect Server and ShadowProtect Desktop, leads in the number of enhancements shipped. The software enables the consolidation of daily, weekly and monthly image backup files into a single image file to save on storage consumption and ease the management of the images maintained on the system. ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise consists of five critical capabilities: quick server recovery using HeadStart Restore (HSR) technology, image verification and re-verification, off-site replication, notification and consolidation.
Most important about the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise software is its quick recovery of file and application servers. With HeadStart Restore technology, IT administrators can create jobs that capture a virtual machine image complete with incremental up-to-the minute changes. When a server fails, the virtual machine file can be selectively updated, the server prepared with ShadowProtect's Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) technology and then rebooted to a VMware Disk Image (VMDK) or Microsoft Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) file. HeadStart Restore's ability to apply the latest changes to the virtual machine file is optional as the last incremental backup applied to the virtual machine may include the problem that caused the server to fail.
HeadStart Restore is particularly useful in its ability to provide nearly instantaneous disaster recovery for servers, especially those containing large, terabyte-sized amounts of data. In this situation, when an IT administrator wants to recover the server, he or she can simply choose and finalize the last incremental backup taken and recover the server and its data and thus, eliminate the time it would take to restore the entire multi-terabyte server.
Further, the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise software verifies and rechecks backup image chains to ensure that servers can be recovered into a known good state in the event of a disaster or failure. The software verifies the backup image by calculating an MD5 checksum and comparing it to the MD5 checksum generated when an image was created.
ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise also allows off-site asynchronous replication over IP, which lets administrators vault point-in-time backup images to another location for disaster recovery or archival purposes. And, the software includes a notification process that alerts the IT administrator of the status of backup jobs based on e-mail configurations. (A "standard" version of ShadowProtect ImageManager ships with ShadowProtect Server, Small Business Server and Desktop without any additional cost. But it doesn't include HSR or replication.)
Finally, ShadowProtectServer and Desktop now include the ability to restore server operating systems, data and applications to dissimilar hardware or virtual environments and to multiple targets via its Hardware Independent Restore (HIR) capability. Hardware Independent Restore can also be used to facilitate migrations to a new server or desktop or to consolidate servers and desktops to virtual environments.
Server virtualization
Other enhancements to StorageCraft's ShadowProtect products focus on server virtualization. ShadowProtect Server 4, ShadowProtect Small Business Server 4 and ShadowProtect Desktop 4 introduce several improvements to virtual server backup, including VirtualBoot and Virtual Converter capability.
VirtualBoot allows the booting of virtual servers from a point-in-time backup image using Oracle/Sun's open source VirtualBox virtualization technology (VirtualBox.org). This solution uses Virtualbox as a virtual machine environment for mounting the ShadowProtect image. VirtualBox links to the latest ShadowProtect point-in-time image and mounts "on-the-fly" to boot the physical machine as a virtual machine. When the virtual machine comes up, the backup job continues to run, creating a fast incremental image of the state of the machine.
The Virtual Converter tool lets an IT administrator convert ShadowProtect backup images to either VMware disk image (VMDK) files or to Microsoft Hyper-V Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files for storage, reboot and server recovery purposes.
Simplified management
Finally, ShadowProtect 4 has a new management interface that allows centralized backup administration. From the management console, IT administrators can simultaneously push installations of ShadowProtect Server, ShadowProtect Small Business Server or ShadowProtect Desktop to all Windows machines. A new agent discovery function can automatically discover agents or clients on the system that ShadowProtect can be pushed to.
The management console also lets administrators check the status of system backups and import or export server information. And a new grouping function allows administrators to create groups of physical or virtual machines for simplified management.
SSG-NOW Assessment
StorageCraft's data protection products rate at the top of the list for meeting the needs of small and mid-size businesses. The incorporation of rapid server recovery via the ShadowProtect ImageManager Enterprise functionality is particularly useful as it establishes an easy-to-implement way for SMBs to recover their Windows servers in the event of disaster or failure. StorageCraft has introduced a truly innovative feature in its product - its HeadStart Restore capability in ImageManager Enterprise starts restoring data as it backs up data, resulting in exceeding fast recovery. In addition, its implementation of server booting from the open source VirtualBox technology is truly an innovative approach to recovery and booting of virtual machines.
Note: The information and recommendations made by Storage Strategies NOW are based upon public information and sources and may also include personal opinions both of Storage Strategies NOW and others, all of which we believe to be accurate and reliable. As market conditions change however, and not within our control, the information and recommendations are made without warranty of any kind. All product names used and mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. Storage Strategies NOW, Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability for any damages whatsoever (including incidental, consequential or otherwise), caused by your use of, or reliance upon, the information and recommendations presented herein, nor for any inadvertent errors which may appear in this document.
Posted by Laura Shafer on Fri, Jan 29, 2010 @ 02:21 PM
If you're virtualizing your servers, systems and data, you may want to give some thought to how you plan to protect all that virtual information. Along with the lower cost and increased flexibility that virtualization brings, you will need to consider that your current backup system may not be capable of virtual backup and disaster recovery.
But the award-winning StorageCraft ShadowProtect line of disk-based backup and disaster recovery software can protect all of your virtual Windows systems. ShadowProtect Desktop, ShadowProtect Server, ShadowProtect Small Business Server and ShadowProtect IT Edition are very complementary with your virtual systems - such as VMware or Microsoft Virtual Server.
Whether you're backing up your systems on a regular schedule, converting to virtual systems or migrating to a new virtual server, ShadowProtect can help. It includes Hardware Independent Restore (H.I.R.) to allow you to convert physical machines to virtual machines (P2V), virtual to virtual (V2V) and virtual to physical.
There is a lot of information available to you if you're planning to use ShadowProtect with your virtual machines. Start at the StorageCraft Support Center, where you'll find a number of tools that will get you started protecting your virtual world. One example is a guide that will walk you step-by-step through a virtual machine restore. Plus, check out the ShadowProtect articles that show you how to conduct H.I.R. on your systems or the best ways to use VMware Converter or VMware Server to perform disaster recovery.
If you're looking for business continuity in a virtual world, just visit the support community and type the word "virtual" into the search box. You'll find a treasure trove of information there.