RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
I agree SRM would be the best choice but not always the only choice. There are some products from Vizioncore like ESX ranger, and having spare hardware if possible to copy the VMDK's to the other site on a routine basis. Z Edward E. Ziots Network Engineer Lifespan Organization MCSE,MCSA,MCP,Security+,Network+,CCA Phone: 401-639-3505 -Original Message- From: Benjamin Zachary - Lists [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 1:45 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations If I had a single site I would be looking to 'save' the SAN because I can always put boxes on the end with VI3 and mount the images. Again DRBD would work with a bunch of cheap hardware and no cost if you don't have a san already. At the end of the day your sole need is to get your vmdk's onto available media. In your scenario how do you think you would best complete that? suspend the vm's and copy out to remote disks (NAS/USB etc) , use one of your built in options, or run some other app that backs up. Heck, even vmware convertor could fill the spot here and with the paid version you can schedule it. From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:06 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I do have HA, DRS, V Motion and VCB so I'm aware of and use all these. My thoughts are how best to protect/reproduce an environment if our single site has a disaster. SRM came out today, I think, but as mentioned in OP, I don't have the budget for a co-lo at this time. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Shook, NO budget for a co-lo at the time, no budget for a SRM. The best you are going to get is snaps, and Vmotion at the main site. If you replicated the storage backend offsite. Then attach another ESX host to that replicated storage and get it up and going. Plus for the networks and stuff to be the same you are probably going to need some dark fibre and stuff between the sites. I am going to be looking out to the big vendors about DR solutions in the virtual world at Tech Ed so if I get any good nuggets, I will let you know. Z Edward E. Ziots Network Engineer Lifespan Organization MCSE,MCSA,MCP,Security+,Network+,CCA Phone: 401-639-3505 -Original Message- From: Martin Blackstone [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, May 16, 2008 8:08 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations Me want this. http://www.netapp.com/us/products/management-software/snapmanager-virtua l.html From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 5:06 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I do have HA, DRS, V Motion and VCB so I'm aware of and use all these. My thoughts are how best to protect/reproduce an environment if our single site has a disaster. SRM came out today, I think, but as mentioned in OP, I don't have the budget for a co-lo at this time. Andy Shook Decision Support LLC Direct:704.844.1848 Fax:704.847.4875 www.decisionsupport.com http://www.decisionsupport.com/ This message with attachments (message) may be privileged, confidential or proprietary, and if you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, do not use or share it, and delete it. Unless specifically indicated, this message is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any product or service. Subject to applicable law, Decision Support LLC may monitor, review and retain e-communications (EC) traveling through its networks/systems. The laws of the country of each sender/recipient may impact the handling of EC, and EC may be archived, supervised and produced in countries other than the country in which you are located. This message cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. From: Mike Semon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations You did not say if you purchased HA and DRS. If you have a VMware cluster of 2-3 hosts this will provide you with a level Of high availability and fault tolerance. If one host dies they are restarted on another host or if one node becomes overloaded It will move to another host. I would 86 using VM Server as backup. You can used either ESX Ranger or VCB. With VCB you Can incorporate in existing backup solution. You just have to setup Backup proxy. You did not say what type of shared storage You are using. If using Fibre Channel SAN backup proxy must be physical and have HBA. With iSCSI you can use VM as backup Proxy. Site Recovery Manager should be available soon which will allow fail over to DR site. Mike From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
I figured it be you, Strader or ME2 with the quick turn around. Shook From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:53 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Well, you like it quick, don't ya? Christopher J. Bosak Vector Company c. 847.603.4673 [EMAIL PROTECTED] You need to install an RTFM Interface, due to an LBNC issue. - B.O.F.H. (Merged 2 into 1) - Me From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 14:00 hrs To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I figured it be you, Strader or ME2 with the quick turn around. Shook _ From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:53 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Hell every time I make a comment it offends someone so I've stopped with the wise cracks, with the exception for TVK that is. From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I figured it be you, Strader or ME2 with the quick turn around. Shook From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:53 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Really getting tired of your whining, dude. Get over all that and move on... Don't worry, I still think you're swell. Shook From: Tom Strader [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:56 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations Hell every time I make a comment it offends someone so I've stopped with the wise cracks, with the exception for TVK that is. From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I figured it be you, Strader or ME2 with the quick turn around. Shook From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:53 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Go home, crack open some Jack Daniels and make it go away. From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:52 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations Enough with the OT humor alreadyand no I don't :-) Anyone have any ideas? Shook From: Christopher J. Bosak [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 3:28 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations Well, you like it quick, don't ya? Christopher J. Bosak Vector Company c. 847.603.4673 [EMAIL PROTECTED] You need to install an RTFM Interface, due to an LBNC issue. - B.O.F.H. (Merged 2 into 1) - Me From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 14:00 hrs To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I figured it be you, Strader or ME2 with the quick turn around. Shook From: Tim Vander Kooi [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 2:53 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations budget = manhood From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
Why don't you just mount SMB on your ESX box, and then have the backup copy to a server that has vmware server running. In 2.53 you have to convert it, and in 3.0 *I* think you need to convert it or run Workstation 6.0. This would require a shutdown of the vm's to get a clean copy or esx ranger could do this for you with the log replay and such. Server 2.0 (in beta2 right now) should be esx3 compatible. What are you looking to protect against? have you looked at drbd/heartbeat+ ? this would give you local SAN failover at 0 cost (hardware of course) but wouldn't protect if your esx went offline. Personally if I had a SAN and was protecting against local hardware failure, I would load ESX up on another server and configure it then shut it down. As long as you don't use it this should be well within licensing limits and if I had to run 2 boxes (even though Im not licensed) in a DR scenario I probably would. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
You did not say if you purchased HA and DRS. If you have a VMware cluster of 2-3 hosts this will provide you with a level Of high availability and fault tolerance. If one host dies they are restarted on another host or if one node becomes overloaded It will move to another host. I would 86 using VM Server as backup. You can used either ESX Ranger or VCB. With VCB you Can incorporate in existing backup solution. You just have to setup Backup proxy. You did not say what type of shared storage You are using. If using Fibre Channel SAN backup proxy must be physical and have HBA. With iSCSI you can use VM as backup Proxy. Site Recovery Manager should be available soon which will allow fail over to DR site. Mike _ From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
I do have HA, DRS, V Motion and VCB so I'm aware of and use all these. My thoughts are how best to protect/reproduce an environment if our single site has a disaster. SRM came out today, I think, but as mentioned in OP, I don't have the budget for a co-lo at this time. Andy Shook Decision Support LLC Direct:704.844.1848 Fax:704.847.4875 www.decisionsupport.com http://www.decisionsupport.com/ This message with attachments (message) may be privileged, confidential or proprietary, and if you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, do not use or share it, and delete it. Unless specifically indicated, this message is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any product or service. Subject to applicable law, Decision Support LLC may monitor, review and retain e-communications (EC) traveling through its networks/systems. The laws of the country of each sender/recipient may impact the handling of EC, and EC may be archived, supervised and produced in countries other than the country in which you are located. This message cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. From: Mike Semon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations You did not say if you purchased HA and DRS. If you have a VMware cluster of 2-3 hosts this will provide you with a level Of high availability and fault tolerance. If one host dies they are restarted on another host or if one node becomes overloaded It will move to another host. I would 86 using VM Server as backup. You can used either ESX Ranger or VCB. With VCB you Can incorporate in existing backup solution. You just have to setup Backup proxy. You did not say what type of shared storage You are using. If using Fibre Channel SAN backup proxy must be physical and have HBA. With iSCSI you can use VM as backup Proxy. Site Recovery Manager should be available soon which will allow fail over to DR site. Mike From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~image001.jpg
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
You could use offsite storage and do backup and restore. Still going to need hardware, power, rackspace, etc., somewhere if you are going to have a DR site. _ From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 7:06 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I do have HA, DRS, V Motion and VCB so I'm aware of and use all these. My thoughts are how best to protect/reproduce an environment if our single site has a disaster. SRM came out today, I think, but as mentioned in OP, I don't have the budget for a co-lo at this time. Andy Shook Decision Support LLC Direct:704.844.1848 Fax:704.847.4875 http://www.decisionsupport.com/ www.decisionsupport.com _ This message with attachments (message) may be privileged, confidential or proprietary, and if you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender, do not use or share it, and delete it. Unless specifically indicated, this message is not an offer to sell or a solicitation of any product or service. Subject to applicable law, Decision Support LLC may monitor, review and retain e-communications (EC) traveling through its networks/systems. The laws of the country of each sender/recipient may impact the handling of EC, and EC may be archived, supervised and produced in countries other than the country in which you are located. This message cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free. _ _ From: Mike Semon [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:00 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations You did not say if you purchased HA and DRS. If you have a VMware cluster of 2-3 hosts this will provide you with a level Of high availability and fault tolerance. If one host dies they are restarted on another host or if one node becomes overloaded It will move to another host. I would 86 using VM Server as backup. You can used either ESX Ranger or VCB. With VCB you Can incorporate in existing backup solution. You just have to setup Backup proxy. You did not say what type of shared storage You are using. If using Fibre Channel SAN backup proxy must be physical and have HBA. With iSCSI you can use VM as backup Proxy. Site Recovery Manager should be available soon which will allow fail over to DR site. Mike _ From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 1:36 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: DR\BC for ESX design considerations List, I'm neck deep in a developing documenting a business continuity plan and right now I'm working on the ESX portion of my infrastructure and to put this in proper context, I don't have the budget for a secondary facility/co-lo or needed HW/SW/licenses right now but I'm planning for it sometime in the future. In the interim, I've got BackupExec, VCB and Vizioncore vRanger PRO at my disposal. I've got half a dozen servers that I decommissioned when I migrated everything to my ESX cluster. 1. Why not throw an OS and VM Server (the free product) on each of these boxes and have them on standby? 2. Keep a couple of the physical boxes online (domain controller w/all network services, single Exchange box, single SQL box) so that I could perform dial tone restores if ever needed. 3. I can copy the VM files to secondary storage (DAS) but the host server doesn't have enough horsepower to bring up every VM. I'm really getting into vRanger Pro, as it's a pretty happening product, despite the flame wars over on the VMWare forums of it vs VCB. I realize with either one of these scenarios I'm assuming the risk that something could happen to our building and I lose everything (I'm a single site operation at this time) but my budget is gone for the year due to cutbacks. Any insight on ESX protection for free would be much appreciated. Shook ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~image001.jpg
RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations
If I had a single site I would be looking to 'save' the SAN because I can always put boxes on the end with VI3 and mount the images. Again DRBD would work with a bunch of cheap hardware and no cost if you don't have a san already. At the end of the day your sole need is to get your vmdk's onto available media. In your scenario how do you think you would best complete that? suspend the vm's and copy out to remote disks (NAS/USB etc) , use one of your built in options, or run some other app that backs up. Heck, even vmware convertor could fill the spot here and with the paid version you can schedule it. _ From: Andy Shook [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, May 15, 2008 8:06 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: DR\BC for ESX design considerations I do have HA, DRS, V Motion and VCB so I'm aware of and use all these. My thoughts are how best to protect/reproduce an environment if our single site has a disaster. SRM came out today, I think, but as mentioned in OP, I don't have the budget for a co-lo at this time. ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja!~ ~ http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm ~
