EVA, Galaxy, Server-less Backup Question

[Derek_31]

I'm looking at purchasing EVA 3000s or 5000s, using boot from SAN for my 2003 servers, and using Galaxy for serverless backups.

I will have a dedicated backup server on which I want to mount the hardware snapshots from the EVA and then do a block back of the snapshot with Galaxy 5.0 (which can do file restores from block backups).

My question is: How hard is it to script the EVA and Galaxy to automate the hardware snapshot process, mount the LUN on the backup server, and then have Galaxy back it up?

How does Galaxy (or any backup software) associate the LUN snapshot with the proper host if they are all being presented on to the backup server?

I presume a little scripting can get all of this working? I'm trying to get out of buying the expensive Media Agents for Galaxy for each server and speedup the backups by using hardware snapshots mounted to the backup server.

I'm also going to be clustering SQL 2003, and does that add any aditional complications to the backup process?

All of this will be implemented after the next release of secure path that will support STORport and thus allow a cluster disk and boot from SAN OS disk to share the same HBAs.

[Uwe Zessin · Accepted solution]

Derek,
scripting the snapshot process is pretty easy. There is a utility called Storage System Scripting Utility (SSSU) that is delivered for each operating system that is supported by the EVA. Initiating the snapshot itself is pretty easy:
ADD SNAPSHOT data01_backup VDISK="\Virtual Disks\data01\ACTIVE" ALLOCATION_POLICY=DEMAND

Of course, you now need to present the virtual disk to the backup server and mount it there.

The license for Business Copy EVA (BC-EVA) includes the EVA's snapshot license and the 'business copy' framework that runs on the Storage Management Appliance (SMA). It is the former Enterprise Volume Manager (EVM) that was an extra-cost option - you still need to order the media kit, though.

The BC framework allows you to automate the necessary steps of initiating the quietpoint, do the snapshot and mount the snapshot LUN on the backup server. It can even do an automated undo.

Here is the URL to BC-EVA:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/storage/software/bizcopyeva/index.html

I would guess that Galaxy has provisions for running pre- and post-exec jobs. Within such a job you should be able to start the snapshot/BC job or tear it down after the backup has run. For clusters, obviously you need to known on which node to start the job that quiesces the database.

[Derek_31]

Thanks. Since the snapshot will be mounted to a backup server, how does that affect the backup software associating that local snapshot with another computer on the network?

Or do I just setup one local job on the backup server for each snapshot I want to backup and then keep track of what snapshot was for what server?

If I'm using boot from SAN, would that mean I don't need any agents for other servers if I'm doing 100% hardware snapshot backups on a backup server?

But how do I manage Exchange 2003 and SQL 2000 data backups with hardware snapshots and backup servers? I would think I need a backup agent to do a restore since you restore to the real server and not a backup.

[Uwe Zessin]

Derek,
unfortunately I am not familiar with Galaxy and a colleague of me is mostly doing the 'backup stuff'. I hope somebody else can tune in and answer any questions I had to leave off.

It is my understanding that you indeed do 'local backups' of the snapshot data on your backup server so you need some way to note which job belongs to which server.

Don't forget that you still need the ability to tell your databases to enter a quietpoint before you can initiate the snapshot and after that continue from quietpoint.

For a restore of a complete disk you can present the virtual disk of the affected server to the backup server and have him directly copy from tape to that server's disk - that offloads some traffic from the LAN. For a direct single file restore I agree with you that you need an agent on the server in question. Else, you might restore to a disk of the backup server first, and then move over the LAN - I am afraid you have decide for yourself if that makes sense.

Oh, while we are at this: just remember that if you backup from a snapshot you cannot update the 'archive bit' of the parent disk, so incremental/ differential backups cannot be run that way.

[Derek_31]

Very good point about doing diff/inc backups. I had not thought of that. I sent off an e-mail to my Galaxy rep and I'll see what he says. Thanks!