Question : Problem: Back up and Disaster Recovery Best Practices in a Smaller Environment

Hi Everyone,
As we all know one of the most vital aspects  is managing disaster recovery. I would like to discuss practical and viable suggestions about disaster recovery in mid sized environments with about 60 users with 3 windows app servers. I just decided to put together an extremely practical scenario to come up with some practical answers. For this scenario third party backup solutions such as Acronis can be used.

1.Since currently data storage prices are dropping, typically how often is it necessary to automate full backups and incremental backups of the files and databases as well as the windows server configurations per week for an organization with the following setup? One recovery requirement is to go back to a working state where 3 hours before any kind of disaster. In other words 3 hours of work is the maximum, can be risked.  Granular recovery is also a requirement. SAN or NAS has large storage space to store the backup sets for longer periods (3-6 Months).

Data Storage information
------------------------
Exchange   2003 Information store- 46GB
MS SQL App and sharepoint databases  30 GB

Server1   -Exchange configuration for Image Backup drive C: 41GB out of 120GB (RAID1) & D: contains Databases with the above mention size in a RAID 5- 450GB Volume
Server 2 -SQL Configuration for Image Backup-C: has used 32GB out of 120GB and D: contains all databases with the above capacity in a RAID 5 -450GB Volume.

Server 3  - File Server with an internal tape drive attached to it has used 25gb out of the 120gb in the C: drive and drive d: contains many shared folders and file shares with  190GB is used out of  450GB.

2.Practically, what might be a general rotation period in weeks for the backup sets when backing up the server configuration (image) and the exchange databases? For example after 4 Weeks the oldest backups are removed, when new backup set begins.

3.Removable (Tape/Blue Ray/DVD) vs. Offsite+NAS/SAN backup-I believe its important to use both. For example
"Backing up private  data such as large CAD files, images etc or even the databases contains financial transactions to tape/blueray/DVD to be kept for years, in this case I thought off site storage is not viable due to large amounts of data being backed up every night as these needs to be kept by data owner/s? Please post some assisted answers to this if possible.

"I assume Backing up server configuration images and the Exchange databases to be backed to a NAS Storage or to a separate Volume on the SAN attached to the File server and  performing an off site backup every night from SAN/NAS (All Incremental backups sent to SAN/NAS volume on that day to be transmitted every night off site (Monday to Thursday) and full backups performed once or twice a week sent to the SAN/NAS to be later transmitted  in the night, to offsite location on the days the full backups are performed. Therefore there are two backups sets are kept for may be up to about 1-2 months (One on the SAN/NAS and One Offsite. Please post some assisted answers to this if possible

4.What will be the frequency to back up the windows desktop configurations of about 60 users? What are the managed options to backup the user data stored locally in the client PCs? I assume vista/XP VSS will be one option and keeping an image of all PCs after the initial OS and software configuration is another option rather than making continuous backups of the configurations on a weekly basis. Please post some assisted answers to this if possible

5.One most important thing that I would like to discuss is monitoring backups for the above setup. Roughly how often is it necessary to monitor the backup logs and reports? What are the best practices used when proactively monitoring to ensure stability in data backups? Please post some assisted suggestions and answers to this if possible.

6.I assume VM backups/snapshots are very similar to backing up server configuration images in physical server environments in fact VM backups are faster and storage efficient. I assume VM backups can be kept the same way as the physical config image backups are kept up to a certain period. Please post some assisted suggestions and answers to this if possible.

7.One last thing  is that many vendors out there are offering  SAN volume snapshotting features, I am not still clear about the actual benefits of these SAN volume backups during recovery, and generally how often is it necessary to perform this as incremental and full? I assume Volume snapshotting could be used as the last resort, during recovery.

I am basically looking for best practices in general. If unclear of any of the above questions and suggestions, please do get back to me. Thanks a lot.

Answer : Problem: Back up and Disaster Recovery Best Practices in a Smaller Environment

Hi There,

1. Yes you can connect the the Remote SAN direct via it's IP and an iSCSI Initiator. 
2. I'm sure there is teh capability to schedule the replication, but the products/configurations I have deployed have never called for it so I cannot confidently comment. 
3. The SAN Replication is Byte Level Replication and only replicates ammendments. The original replication can be done locally (i.e. Incremental). 

Recovering from the Local SAN is much faster than recovering from Tape. In the event of Local SAN Failure and server, i.e. a flood/fire, and only a broadband connection to your remote site, Tape Restoration is better than the remote SAN.

The advantage to the remote SAN is the ability to redirect users/data to the remote SAN for immediate, but lower performance data access.

I would suggest a dedicated line for data transfer so that the off site data is as close to live as possible.

-BBRazz