Data Protection for Virtual Data Centers

Jason Buffington

WILEY

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

Contents Introduction xix

Chapter l • What Kind of Protection Do You Need? l

In the Beginning, There Were Disk and Tape 1 Overview of Availability Mechanisms 2

Storage Availability 3 Asynchronous Replication 7 Clustering 9 Application Built-in Availability 10 Decision Question: How Asynchronous? 11

Overview of Protection Mechanisms 12 Let's Talk Tape 12 Disk vs. Tape 14 Microsoft Improvements for Windows Backups 15

Summary 16

Chapter 2 • Data Protection by the Numbers 19

The Technical Metrics: RPO and RTO 19 Recovery Point Objective 19 Recovery Time Objective 20 Putting RPO and RTO Together 21 Making RPO and RTO Real with SLAs 21

Business Metrics: RA and BIA 24 Risk Analysis (RA): The Science of Worrying 24 Business Impact Analysis (BIA): How Much Will It Cost? 26

Risk Mitigation: Fixing It in Advance 33 Protection or Productivity? 34 Availability 34 Protection 35

Total Cost of Ownership 36 Return on Investment 37

Calculating ROI 38 Which ROI Method Is Most Accurate? 39 The Credibility Challenge of ROI 39

Turning IT Needs into Corporate Initiatives 41 Summary 42

Chapter 3 • The Layers of Data Protection 43

What Data Looks Like from the Server's Perspective 43 Hardware-centric Protection 44

Storage Level 1: Protecting Against Spindle Failure 45

Storage Level 2: Protecting Against Array Failure 51 Storage Level 3: Protecting Against Storage Node Failure 52 Storage Level 4: Protecting Against SAN Fabric Failure 54 How Disk-Based Communication Works 55 Synchronous Replication in Storage 57

File-centric Protection 60 Application-Agnostic Replication 60 How Application-Agnostic Replication Works 60 Protection and Availability 63 When to Use Application-Agnostic Availability 65

Application-centric Protection 66 Where to Store Your Protected Data 67

Tape-Based Protection 67 Disk-Based Protection 67 Cloud-Based Protection 70 Use Each Media Type for What It Does Best 72

Summary 73

Chapter 4 • Better Backups 75

Solving the Problem from the Inside Out 75 Supportability and Reliability in Legacy Backup Solutions 76 How Microsoft Addressed the Issue 77

Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) 77 VSS Writer 78 VSS Requestor 78 VSS Provider 78 How VSS Backups Work 79

The Windows Server Backup Utility 82 Getting Started with WSB 83 Restoring with WSB 85

System Center Data Protection Manager 87 Why Did Microsoft Build a Backup Product? 87 How Does DPM Work? 90 Getting Started with DPM 2010 96 Configuring DPM 2010 Protection 102 Restoring Data with DPM 2010 116 Using DPM 2010 in Heterogeneous Environments 135 Disaster Recovery with DPM 2010 138

Summary 141

Chapter 5 • File Services 143

File System Availability and Protection in Windows Server 143 What Is the Distributed File System? 144

Distributed File System Namespace 144 Distributed File System Replication 145 DFS Terminology 146

CONTENTS j XIII

Enabling DFS on Your Windows File Servers 147 Infrastructure Prerequisites 147 Installing DFS on Windows Server 2003 and 2003 R2 147 Installing DFS on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 149

Getting Started with DFS-N 150 How a DFS Namespace Works 150 Configuring a DFS Namespace 153

Getting Started with DFS-R 160 Before DFS-R, There Was FRS 161 Key Concepts in DFS Replication 162 How DFS-R Works: Remote Differential Compression 162 How Initial Replication Works 164 Configuring DFS Replication 165 DFS Replication Options 171

Mixing DFS-R and DFS-N for Real-World Solutions 174 File Distribution 176 Branch Office Availability and Centralized Backup 177 Collaboration Between Branches 179 Migration and Growth 179

DFS Enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2 180 Summary 181

Chapter 6 • Windows Clustering 183

Overview of Clustering in Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 183 Scale Out with Network Load Balancing 183 Scale Up with Failover Clustering 185 Failover Clustering Terms and Concepts 185 The Anatomy of a Failover Cluster 186

Building Your First Cluster 187 Start with Shared Storage 187 Creating Your Virtual Hands-on Environment 191 Getting Started with MSCS in Windows Server 2008 193

How Failover Clustering Works 203 The Cluster Heartbeat 203 When Failover Occurs 203

Quorum Models 204 Witness Disk (Only) 205 Node and Disk Majority 205 Node and File Share Majority 206 Node Majority 206 What Changes with the Third Node and Beyond 208

Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering 210 What's New in Failover Clustering (Windows Server 2008 R2) 211 Building Your Second Cluster Using Windows Server 2008 R2 in Hyper-V 212 Migrating to Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clusters 213

Summary 219

XIV CONTENTS

Chapter 7 • Microsoft Exchange 221

Exchange within Microsoft Cluster Services 221 Single Copy Clusters 221 Getting Started with SCCs 222 Failover Behavior 223 Challenges with SCC 224

Exchange 2007 Continuous Replication 227 How Does Continuous Replication Work? 227 Seeding a Database 228 Local Continuous Replication (LCR) 228 Cluster Continuous Replication 232 Standby Continuous Replication 244

Exchange 2010 Database Availability 250 Database Availability Group 250 Getting Started with DAG 255 Data Protection Considerations with DAG 262

Summary 265

Chapter 8 • Microsoft SQL Server 267

SQL Server Built-in Resiliency 267 SQL Terminology 267 Clustering or Mirroring? 268

SQL Failover Clustering 269 Preparing to Cluster SQL Server 269 Task 1: Installing SQL Server onto the First Clustered Node 272 Task 2: Installing SQL Server onto the Second Clustered Node 276 What Happens When a Database Changes Nodes? 278 Should You Cluster SQL Server? 280

SQL Database Mirroring 281 Starting the Mirror Session 282 How Mirroring Works 283 Task 3: Preparing the Database Mirror 287 Task 4: Getting Started with Database Mirroring 291

SQL Database Failover 292 Can I Get a Witness? 293 Task 5: Adding a Witness to the Mirroring Configuration 294 SQL Quorum 295 Automatic Failover 297 Manual Failover 298 Other Recovery Methods 300 Forcing Service 300 Client Connectivity 301

SQL Log Shipping and Replication 302 Introducing SQL Log Shipping 303 Task 6: Getting Started with SQL Log Shipping 303 Introducing SQL Replication 307

CONTENTS I XV

Which SQL Server HA Solution Should You Choose? 307 Backing Up SQL Server 309

The Most Important Rule in Backing Up SQL Server 309 The Other Most Important Rule in SQL Server Backups 310 Restoring Databases with DPM 2010 311

Summary 315

Chapter 9 • Virtualization 317 Virtualization Changes Everything 317 Protecting Virtual Machines 317

Challenges in Virtual Machine Protection 318 VSS-Based Backups of Virtual Machines 319 Host-Based vs. Guest-Based Backups 323 Restoring Virtual Machines 326

Availability of Virtual Machines 327 How Live Migration Works 329 Defining Clustered Shared Volumes 330 Requirements for LM and CSV 332 Getting Started with CSV 333 Backing Up CSV Configurations 342

How Virtualization Makes Data Protection and Availability Better 343 Disaster Recovery Staging 344

Legacy Options for Physical ВС/DR sites 344 Using Virtualization for Physical Server Business Continuity 345 Using Virtualization for Virtual Server Business Continuity 349

Bare Metal Recovery 349 Server Rollback 350 Summary 352

Chapter 10 • Management and Deployment 353 Well-Managed Systems for Higher Uptime 353 Large Enterprise Deployment and Manageability 354

Introducing Microsoft Systems Management 354 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and R3 355 Configuration Manager Site System Roles 356 The Configuration Manager Console 358 Asset Identification and Agent Installation 359 Centralized Software Deployment 362 Securing Resources with Software Update Management 368 Identifying Desired State Compliance 373 Deploying Operating Systems 376 Preventing Unsecure System Access 382

Virtualization Management 383 Overview of VMM 2008 R2 384 Key Features of VMM 2008 R2 387 Intelligent Placement for VMs 388 Integration with Operations Manager 389

XVI CONTENTS

Midsized Management: Physical and Virtual 398 Introducing SCE 2010 399 Getting Started with SCE 2010 399

Summary 409

Chapter n • Monitoring Systems 411 The Need for Monitoring 411 Challenges in Monitoring 412 Enterprise End-to-End Monitoring 413

Introducing Operations Manager 2007 R2 415 Getting Started with Operations Manager 418

Monitoring the Health and Performance of Key Workloads 428 Monitoring Data Protection Manager 429 Monitoring Distributed File Services 429 Monitoring Windows Failover Clustering 430 Monitoring Exchange Replication 431 Monitoring SQL Mirroring 431 Monitoring Virtualization 432

Monitoring in Midsized Organizations Using System Center Essentials 434 Introducing SCE 2010 434 Discovering Midsized Resources 435 Monitoring Midsized Environments 436 Knowledge Applied to Midsized Scenarios 438 Virtualization Monitored in Midsized Datacenters 440

Summary 441

Chapter 12 • Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery 443 What Makes ВС and DR So Special? 443

Real Business Continuity Planning 443 Regulatory Compliance 446 The Real Reason to Do Disaster Recovery 462

Get Your Data Out of the Building 463 Don't Cry "I Wasn't Ready Yet" 464 Tactical DR vs. Strategic Disaster Preparedness 465

ВС = DR + НА 465 Multiple Datacenters 466 Branch Offices' BCDR 468 Branch Offices for DR 470 Hosted Providers 470 Service Providers 471

ВС/DR Solution Alternatives 472 Application- or Workload-Specific Features 472 Application-Agnostic Replication and Failover,, 473

Using Virtualization to Achieve Business Continuity 474 Challenges with Traditional Disaster Recovery Staging 474 Disaster Recovery Staging, Virtually 475

CONTENTS XVII

Restoring Your Infrastructure within Hyper-V 478 Additional Notes on Virtualized BC/DR Sites 481

Planning for BC/DR to Get Better Backups and Availability 482 Summary 483

Where BC/DR is today 483 Where BC/DR is heading 483

Appendix • Links and Resources 485 Microsoft Software 485 Topical Resources 485

Chapter 4: Data Protection Manager 486 Chapters 4, 5, and 6: Windows Server 486 Chapter 7: Exchange 487 Chapter 8: SQL Server 488 Chapter 9: Virtualization 488 Chapters 10 and 11: System Center 488 Chapter 12: ВС and DR 489

The Author 490

Index 491