7 Must-Know Disaster Recovery Strategies

Jamie Gruener Senior Analyst, Enterprise Infrastructure The Yankee Group

What You Will Learn In This Session . .

1. The Main Goal: Bullet-proofing Disaster Recovery Strategies 2. Remote Replication vs. Mirroring Strategies 3. Disaster Recovery and Virtualization: A New Angle 4. Integrating Mirroring and Replication into Disaster Recovery Strategies 5. Metro SANs: Options for Remote Mirroring And Replication 6. Your Network Options: Questions to Guide You

The Goal: Bullet-Proofing Disaster Recovery Strategies

Youve heard the statistics
~ $5 billion in computing infrastructure lost in 9-11 tragedy Close to 100 businesses declaring disasters in NYC

Youre here for a reason

9-11 was a call to action for all of us Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Strategies must be done this is only one leg of a multi-leg strategy

Youre entering a new era

It is now about Business Continuance and Risk Management

Defining Terms: Remote Mirroring and Data Replication Remote Mirroring generates a mirrored image of

Checklist

data on two or more disks Data Replication scans data periodically for changes and copies new data to the other disk or file system on another system Factors to consider
Value of data (and lost data) being backed up Costs for network bandwidth and software Your existing infrastructure Product features (OS, File System, Disk or Application)

Measuring Data Protection: Point-in-Time to Synchronous

Tip

More

There will be a need for multiple tools to protect data

Synchronous

Data Protection

Semi-Synchronous Lost Transactions Line of Tolerance

Asynchronous

Point In Time

Less

Network Bandwidth Consumed

More

Questions to Consider When Looking At Remote Mirroring and Replication

What are you protecting? (applications, transactions, files, disks) What level of protection do you need? (Well come back to this!) What are your network requirements? What is your expected budget for this project? Is the ROI greater than acquisition costs? What will best fit your larger business continuity strategy?

Best Practice

The Luxury Sedan: Disk-to-Disk Remote Copy

Key advantages
Operates at the disk level Can be (not always) less complex to set up and administer than host-based approaches Can offer the benefit of capturing all application changes. . .

Key Disadvantages: Costly

Lacks transaction knowledge or what the data represents Can be wasteful of network bandwidth if not properly set up

 Fundamentals

The Rising Alternative: Block-and-File Replication

Makes comparisons and only copies changes (at disk or file level)

Key Advantages
Can be less expensive Can be flexible to replicate all enterprise data regardless of disk system Copies only the most important files/data Many-to-one replication architectures available Limits amount of data transferred, reducing network load and cost

Key Disadvantages

Warning

Block and File Replication Details You need to Consider

File WAN Replication Block WAN Replication

Less expensive, host-based (or array-based) file and block replication Specific to storage vendor, OS or file system

Database Replication
Typically done by replicating or mirroring log files A number of variations:
Continuous Mirroring: updates DBMS as changes(adds, updates, deletes) occur Change Data Capture: captures DBMS changes and stores them until a predetermined replication time Full Copy Refresh: replicates entire DBMS copy to target systems (done to resynchronize DBMS after outage)

Trigger-based native DBMS is not usually appropriate for DR because of high system and

Snapshots: The Hotshots of Backup

Establishes a separate identifiable storage entity and run operations against it
Primary purpose: backup, testing, conversion and batch process

Is dependent on OS, host and array support Advantage: it takes up less network bandwidth than mirroring Disadvantage: resynchronization of data is an art
If you do not resynchronize, you must build snapshot mirror totally from scratch

New Kid on the Block: Virtualization and Disaster Recovery Virtualization software offers a new alternative
Data replication (over both IP and Fibre Channel) Snapshot High Availability Fail-over A cost-effective approach to disaster recovery

Key Challenges
Recreating the virtualization system can be difficult Specifying file level information for replication can be difficult Warning Still a relatively new technology, so test well Research virtualization players thoroughly
Ask hard questions about number of customers doing this

Prioritizing Data: Integrating Mirroring or Replication to Your Strategy

Tool

Hot Site Remote Disk Mirroring Data Replication Snapshot Campus Disk Mirroring

More

Importance Of Data

Electronic Vaulting
Tape Onsite Tape-Backup Offsite More Less Less

OK, Now What? Its The Network, Stupid

Long-distance Remote Mirroring/Replication requires significant network integration
Mission: Connecting two or more islands of storage Could be SANs, hot sites, remote disk or tape

Myriad of network transport choices boil down to two fundamentals (from the POP out)
Fibre IP

Where to Start: Evaluate Network Requirements

Ask storage vendors for requirements Map that to service provider bandwidth services

Specific Network Challenges for Remote Mirroring and Replication Enterprise network performance is many times
What tools do the remote mirroring/replication vendor provide for performance on a Metro SAN?
Network throttling adjusting data amounts sent over wire Compression compressing data to take up less network bandwidth Time-stamping marking data at time saved or accessed

Tip

slower than storage performance Things You Could Consider

Latency isnt your friend

Measurable time it takes for an I/O transaction to reach destination Distance is a factor especially when extending data native limit Storage traffic requires high bandwidth, low latency connections

Metro SAN Puzzle Pieces

Headquarters
Key Features

Remote Site

Primary Disk Storage

Remote Tape Library Remote Disk Storage

ATM, T3/E3, OC3+ or Fibre Optic (DWDM) Service Provider Connectivity Services Mirroring/Replication Software Edge of Network Equipment (Director, Router or DWDM)

Metro SAN Network Transport Options

Network Protocol
ESCON FICON

Key Features

Performance
Full performance (200-M bits/sec. unidirectional) Bi-directional channel protocol, runs over at 1.063 G bit/sec. Dedicated Fibre (depends on transport)

Length of Distance
8 km for full performance, 50% performance @ 20 km 100 km distance limitation

Dark Fibre iSCSI, iFCP, FCIP

10 km without long-wave transceivers

Still in proof-of-concept Depends on applications, stage, but promise of 1 TB service, connection points per hour over IP FCIP - primary for Metro SANs

DWDM - Gigabit (Optical) Ethernet

Requires high-speed IP network to connect

Depends on applications, service, connection points and

IP Network Options
Private Router Backbones
Leased, dedicated lines Optimized for performance (racing the sun)

xSP VPNs
Customer purchases edge routers and ISP provides shared backbone Leverages Multiprotocol Layer Switching (MPLS) for better Quality of Service

Internet . . .
Not a disaster recovery tactic I would trust

Checklist

Tips To Consider When Speaking With Your Service Provider Ask your xSP to provide you what their expertise
is in storage services
Consider how you could leverage your existing connectivity services to establish a cost-effective service contract for your backup services Ask for a latency/network performance SLA Your primary xSP should have partners to assist with storage services if they dont

Consider leveraging storage vendor relationships to find service providers that can do integration Do or have done a network analysis to determine requirements for your backup services

Metro SAN Challenges: Things You Need to Ask about IP

Latency and Bandwidth Security Complexity Quality of Service (QoS) Dropped Packets Manageability NOTE: IP storage switch vendors are trying to solve these things so gauge them based on this
Checklist

 Determine if outsourcing disaster recovery services for Data Mirroring and Replication services
Do I have the skills, personnel and infrastructure?

Does Outsourcing Make Sense?

Best Practice

Outsourcing provides a number of advantages

Enables enterprise to focus on core competence Speeds ITs ability to maintain and return to business operations Leverages expertise and more plentiful specialized resources Offers mirrored solutions for immediate recovery Provides problem resolution expertise that speeds delivery of services related to backup, security and performance monitoring

Ask for Help From a Professional . . .

This is a complex proposition Storage vendors will assist with best backup technologies Service Providers will offer options for services Integrators with storage and networking practices are best candidates for additional implementation
they are still rare in the world

 Come up with a ROI calculation for your data protection strategy Guidelines to remember
Calculated over three-year term The higher the ROI, the more favorable the project TCO vs. ROI ROI wins out

Evaluate ROI for Disaster Recovery

Best Practice

Key factors to be included in ROI analysis

Costs: downtime, personnel, assets Reliability: data replication, mirroring, backups System performance: how is systems and software utilized Calculate savings: improved performance, revenue, processes

Conclusions
Dont forget the fundamental goal: Disaster Recovery Consider your options for mirroring/replication and make a metric to measure them by
ROI analysis is one way of measuring options

Be cautious of new technologies

New IP storage networking technologies and software offer new options but you need to be savvy in deployment

Theres not one solution strategize on ways to prioritize your data protection

Questions?
Jamie Gruener
jgruener@yankeegroup.com