Backup feature

[Petdex]

Hello Experts, 

Peter here. 

Need some information.

We want to replace our servers and SAN and to consolidate our backup solution, therefore we're looking into hyperconverged solutions. We are considering  Simplivity I'd like to have feedback from the experts on Backup feature of simplivity and some comparision with the other hyperconverged products available today. 

[Chasek · Accepted solution]

Hi Peter,

I would not be able to speak on the other Hyperconverged products on the market, however, I would be glad to cover SimpliVity.

Policy-Based Backups: To schedule backup operations, you create a backup policy and then add one or more rules to the policy. A policy must have at least one rule to create backups. A backup policy rule includes:
• Backup schedule
• Destination cluster for the backups
• Maximum number of backups to retain
• Selection of application consistent or not (using the standard or VSS method)
You can transmit backups to local and remote clusters for enhanced virtual machine data security. Scheduled backups are assigned a name based on the timestamp when the backup started.

Manual Backus: Manual backups default to a state of never expires to preserve the backups until you manually delete
them. They are not deleted automatically

Application-Consistent Backups: An application-consistent backup is a backup of application data that allows the application to achieve a quiescent and consistent state. This type of backup captures the contents of the memory and any pending writes that occurred during the backup process. For example, to ensure that the backup includes all the
data at a specific point in time, the backup allows the pending I/O operations to finish before committing them to the database. These types of backups work well for database applications because they do not require extra work to restore files (such as journaling forward to ensure you have all the data).

We also have a number of restore options available. You can restore an entire Virtual Machine or you can perform a file level restore.

Virtual Machine Restore: If you have a backup that you need to restore, you can restore it locally and overwrite the existing VM, restore in parallel using a new name, or restore remotely. The only thing to bear in mind is that a remote restore may take some time if the data is not already present, as this data will need to be sent to the destination cluster.

File Level Restore: To restore individual files, you will search for the backup that you would want to restore the files from, and choose to Restore Files. From there, you will be able to browse the partitions that were backed up and select the file(s) that you would like to restore. There is a limit of 32 GB for File Level Restore. Once you select the file(s) that you would like to restore, an ISO will be mounted to the VM and you would simply copy the file(s) to where you need them. 

Regards,

Chase

[Petdex]

Thank you for you comments

[cheesi]

Hello Chase,

is the 32GB single file of restore a HPE Simplivity limitation.

will this increase in the next Versions?

"File Level Restore: To restore individual files, you will search for the backup that you would want to restore the files from, and choose to Restore Files. From there, you will be able to browse the partitions that were backed up and select the file(s) that you would like to restore. There is a limit of 32 GB for File Level Restore. Once you select the file(s) that you would like to restore, an ISO will be mounted to the VM and you would simply copy the file(s) to where you need them. "

Thank you
Alexander

[TomiKarlsson]

Hi. Just to remember, currently File Level restore only for Windows VM´s. Linux VM´s the "old" way of mounting *.vmdk to a "helper" VM and restore files from there.

Hope we get File Level restore to Linux VM´s too.

[cheesi]

Hello Guys,

i want to bring up those two question again. 

1. Is the 32GB single file of restore a HPE Simplivity limitation?

2. Will this increase in the next Versions?

Can somebody answer this questions

Thanks you very much

[gustenar]

@cheesi 

Yes, this limitation still exists and haven't heard of this changing.