Virtual machines are convenient and useful, but they require backing up just as any physical machine would require. A VM backup is more complicated than the physical machine backup because of the virtual nature of the data. Working on the recovery system requires the use of special features and techniques designed for the virtual environment of the information. Wasting Time and Resources If you backup and restore VMs like physical machines there is a waste of time and resources that are better used elsewhere. Virtualization in the data center is notably different. Once virtualization is implemented it requires a totally different procedure and methodology to fully leverage the strengths and unique architecture. Instead of spending the time wasted on the methods that are most appropriate with physical servers, other features can make the process save space and time. Virtualization The virtualization architecture offers many advantages when it comes to server backup and recovery operations. Traditional techniques used to backup physical servers are not very efficient. By leveraging virtualization features to stream line the backup and recovery process it also becomes more efficient. The methodology used for backing up VMs should be very different than the ones used to backup physical machines. For example, physical servers are backup via an agent. This agent is installed in the guest operating system of the host. The backup server connects to the agent for the purpose of copying data from it. This method still works on VMs but with the added drawback that ignoring the virtualization layer results in a waste of precious host resources. Backups at the virtualization layer are the most efficient but require a backup application that was designed and optimized for virtualization. Other Considerations Size your backup server properly so that bottlenecks are not created in any of your resource areas. There must be enough CPU and memory so that it can stay on top of the data in order to have maximum throughput and the shortest backup window. Having too many resources is better than having fewer when you size the backup server hardware. If the backup server is a VM, it is easier to fine tune the hardware resources to find the sweet spot. Changes can easily be made to the virtual hardware until the best configuration is achieved with respect to achieving the optimal throughput without added resources that may be unnecessary. Learn more about AppAssure backup and replication software: http://www.appassure.com/ Download a free trial software.
Related Articles -
Windows Server Backup, Windows Server 2003 backup, SQL Server backup, Backup and Replication, backup server, VMware backup, Hyper-V backup, SharePoint Backup,
|