Tuesday, August 8, 2017

New NetWorker 9.2 - ransomware protection / de-duplication to S3 storage

Register to 30 min webcast that discuss NetWorker 9.2 new features in details.
Thursday, 28 September, 10:00 CET (Vienna, Prague, Berlin time).
Details / registration:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/30min-webcast-whats-new-networker-92-olkowski-daniel/?published=t


There has been released a new version of NetWorker 9.2 with plenty nice features.
You will find list all of them at the bottom.

Anyhow, at the beginning, let me dig into 2 most interesting aspects of the new NetWorker 9.2:

  • De-duplication to S3 storage
  • Ransomware/hacker protection
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Backup to S3 storage with source de-duplication
NetWorker can use S3 storage in the same way as Data Domain. So if we store backups on S3 storage we can enjoy:
  • De-duplication
  • Source de-duplication
    NetWorker sends to S3 storage only small, new data fragments that are not yet existing on S3 disk system
  • ClientDirect
    Each protected machine sends its data directly S3 storage
What is the value?
Why the backup to S3 media with source de-duplication is so important for us?
  1. Reducing cost of storage / network
    S3 storage is the cheapest medium.
    In addition, thanks to source de-duplication, we minimize network costs, backup media.
  2. Minimizing cost of cloud data backup
    If we do backup resources located in the cloud (Amazon / Azure / ...), then S3 storage is the cheapest medium available in the public cloud. With source de-duplication, we additionally highly reduce the cost of backup storage and the cost of the cloud network – 2 most important cost factors.
  3. Accelerating backups
    Storage S3 is cheap and secure. However, it is not the fastest medium. De-duplication on the source allows us to send / write to S3 storage very minimum amount of data. Thus, anyhow we achieve very good performance. Why? Because of source de-duplication, there is almost no data sent, no data writing so speed of the network / storage is not important. The performance is maybe not as huge as with Data Domain but better than using ordinary disk.
  4. Disaster Recovery for cloud data
    What if we need to protect data in the cloud locally, in our Data Center?
    NetWorker can do that easily and in very cheap way. We have several scenarios to choose from:
    • Backup our cloud data to our Data Center (S3 storage) with source de-duplication
    • Backup to S3 storage in the cloud and than replica to our Data Center (all the way de-duplicated data)
Briefly: NetWorker is the fastest and cheapest solution for cloud backups!

One of my friends backs up old, archive files directly to S3 storage using NetWorker. and having all the values:
  • ClientDirect
  • De-duplication on the source
  • Bypassing any other media: Data Domain, disks or tape
He finds this very cool thing because:
  • For archive data, he does not need huge backup / restore performance -> he does not need Data Domain
  • Backup is simple with a few clicks to make it
  • He has Disaster Recovery within the solution
  • The cheapest possible backup cost!

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Protection against ransomware / hacker
Having NetWorker / Data Domain, we are sure that even in the case of ransomware or hacker attacks, our backups are safe.
In NetWorker 9.2 – besides regular retention - we can also define blocking time for our backups. What does it mean blocking backups? For example, we can say to NetWorker:
Please keep my backups for 5 years, but for 14 days do not allow anyone to change/ delete    those particular backups.
In this case neither the virus nor the hacker nor us (administrators) can delete/change the backups within the defined 14 days.

This is standard NetWorker functionality available at no extra charge / license.
At the backup price we have an additional layer of protection against cyber-attacks.

This is also important from GDPR perspective.
One of the requirements is to provide security and data integrity.

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List of the most important features in new NetWorker 9.2:
  • Backup to S3 storage with source de-duplication
  • Protection against ransomware / hacker attack
  • VMware: Image level backup with SQL consistency
  • HyperV: Ability to dexclude particular disks in VMs from image level backup
  • Backup to Date Domian running on Amazon / Azure
  • SQL database backup
    • Simplified installation
    • Ability to disable databases from backup
  • Exchange / SharePoint
    • Recovery of single items
  • Support for SAP IQ
  • Support for SAP HANA on Power Linux
  • Recovery of Isilon snapshots between different physical Isilons

Register to 30 min webcast that discuss NetWorker 9.2 new features in details.
Thursday, 28 September, 10:00 CET (Vienna, Prague, Berlin time).
Details / registration:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/30min-webcast-whats-new-networker-92-olkowski-daniel/?published=t

Have fast and 100% successful recoveries!
BackupRecoveryGuy

Monday, July 31, 2017

NetWorker and VMware backup: Extremely fast, ransmoware protection

NetWorker & VMware
NetWorker is currently one of the fastest backup solution for VMware environments:
  • Backup 6000 Virtual Machines in the environment without any problem
  • 100 virtual machines backed up in parallel
  • Full backup of 500 virtual machines per hour in real environment (change ratio of 3% - 5%)

Film / presentation
Video describing NetWorker capabilities in VMware:
Full backup - is it important?
Why do I underline that every VMware backup using NetWorker is full backup?
Restore from full backup is the fastest possible. Just because we restore from single, full copy, we have several hours faster recovery.
And recovery, restore time - this is the most important parameter.

Start virtual machines without recovery? Faster with backup than production?
What if we need to restore the virtual machine immediately? For example:
  • Disaster Recovery in the remote center
  • Analysis of the situation from the historical moment
  • Tests / Development
  • ...
NetWorker / Data Domain offers immediate start of virtual machines just from the backup, without any data restoration.
And important: Virtual Mahines started from NetWorker/Data Domain have huge performance:
  • 1,000 IOPS (DD6300)
  • 10 000 IOPS for DD9800
It can be faster than real production!

Security
NetWorker / Data Domain offers protection against ransomware / hacker attacks. We are sure that neither ransmoware nor hacker (even if he has access to the top level admin passwords) will not delete the backups.
So even if ransomware has encrypted all the production data or hacker erased all the production data - we can always restore from NetWorker/Data Domain! Here data are secure!
Is it difficult to set it up? Just one click away. See slide 51 and further:
Availability
Imagine that the connection between VMware and backup medium has crashed. NetWorker, without interrupting the backup, directs the data transfer to another available connection to the medium. Backup is successful though the one of connection crashed.
The result: Our SLA is still 100%!

Distribution of traffic
NetWorker uses lightweight proxy to backup 25 VMware virtual machine in parallel.
We can implement for example 8 such machines and enjoy 100 parallel backups (10 times more than market average). NetWorker automatically distributes backups / restores between all 8 proxies.
Again: The failure of a single proxy does not affect the backup. We still have 100% SLA backup / restore.

Wizards
Every function is available with wizards (shown in the movie / presentation):
  • Running Virtual Machine directly from backup (1,000 IOps to 10,000 IOps)
  • Repairing (reverting) virtual machine (few minutes for 1TB VM)
  • Restoring virtual machine to new instance
  • Restoring single file
  • Restoring virtual machine without vCenter (Emergency Restore)

Simplicity
The whole VMware backup configuration is extremely simple - as any other backup in NetWorker.
Below screen shows how easy is to achieve in NetWorker the most advanced backup / Disaster Recovery strategy:
  • Backup to local medium (Data Domain) in a primary location (1 month retention)
  • Disaster Recovery: Replication to Data Domain at remote location (2 weeks retention)
  • Local tape out (5 years retention)
  • Remote tape out (10 years retention)
All in just few clicks. We can define:
  • When the replica / tape out should happen
  • Retention
  • Which virtual machines shall be backed up / have Disaster Recovery / taped out

How much does it cost?
NetWorker has a new way of licensing per processor. Details in the movie / presentation.

More
For more I invite you to the film:
Have a speed ​​and reliability not only in VMware backups!
BackupRecoveryGuy