MARTIN COUNTY ADMINISTRATION INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES RECOMMENDATION ON
PRODUCTS & SERVICES FOR
SERVER BACKUP AND RECOVERY SOFTWARE
May 27, 2003
Version: Draft 1.0
Tim Murnane, Systems Administrator II Bob Burden, ITS Operations Manager
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OBJECTIVE ...3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY...3 CURRENT ENVIRONMENT... 3 RECOMMENDATION... 3 DETAILED ANALYSIS...5BACKGROUND & HISTORY ... 5
PROBLEM DEFINITION ... 5
REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS ... 6
ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS... 7
ALTERNATIVE 1 (RECOMMENDED SOLUTION)... 7
ALTERNATIVE 2... 7
ALTERNATIVE 3... 7
ALTERNATIVE 4... 7
RECOMMENDATION AND JUSTIFICATION... 7
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OBJECTIVE
Recovery is a critical service delivered by Information Technology Systems (ITS) organizations. Enterprises depend on ITS organizations to provide high levels of recovery services at a reasonable cost. Martin County Information Technology Services must provide the highest levels of recovery services.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
CURRENT ENVIRONMENT
Information Technology Systems server backup and recovery services are primarily supported by three components:
Backup/recovery software to create and manage backup images of server data Backup/recovery media such as computer tape subsystems or remote network copies Backup/recovery processes and procedures
Martin County Information Technology Services currently utilizes multiple solutions for each of the backup/recovery components above, based on the type of application, database or network server.
Martin County Information Technology Services plans to standardize on one or two backup/recovery software products across all Unix variants and Microsoft Windows Servers platforms to ensure the highest levels of recovery services. This standardization will enable the centralized monitoring and administration of backup services, and provide operational economies of scale. It can also limit the amount of training needed for specialized tools and the time spent managing vendors.
RECOMMENDATION
Data Center Services recommends that Martin County Information Technology Services standardize on one solution, Veritas NetBackup Version 4.5, for backup and recovery software supporting all application, database and network server systems under ITS Department
management. NetBackup 3.1.1 is currently used by ITS for Unix server backup. An upgrade to NetBackup Version 4.5 would support backup/recovery of all Unix-based and all Windows Server-based systems. This recommendation is based on the following:
Veritas NetBackup is the leading software according Gartner Group, a leading technology industry consulting firm.
Veritas NetBackup is currently the standard in use at Martin County ITS.
Martin County ITS has a license for the most current version 4.5 of Veritas NetBackup. Martin County ITS has in-house expertise in the use and support of Veritas NetBackup. Data Center Services also recommends that the Veritas NetBackup upgrade from 3.1.1 to Version 4.5 be completed after the selection and implementation of our proposed new tape backup library system, so as to limit the amount of conversion to NetBackup 4.5.
Data Center Services also recommends that two copies of all tape backups be produced: one copy for storage within the Martin County Administration Data Center for quick server recovery, and one copy for offsite storage at Martin CountyEOCfacility for disaster recovery.
Finally, Data Center Services recommends that backup and recovery processes and procedures be tested for all servers under ITS Department management once both Veritas NetBackup Version 4.5 and selected new tape library system are implemented..
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DETAILED ANALYSIS
BACKGROUND & HISTORY
The business requirement for continuous access, coupled with the added complexity of the growing disk "farms," requires new backup strategies to deliver on recovery-time objectives. Data loss is unacceptable and business continuity is mandatory. Even applications that historically have not been viewed as business-critical (for example, e-mail) require 24x7 availability. These factors have caused "backup windows" to disappear and forced recovery times to shrink. Enterprise backup is not an option. It is the most commonly purchased enterprise application.
Martin County Information Technology Services has developed a comprehensive plan of server backup and recovery processes and procedures to support the activities of the County
Administration. This plan include backup of all server operating system, application systems, database systems, and user data systems. This plan has evolved over the years as changes in platforms and applications have occurred.
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Martin County Information Technology Services currently utilizes multiple solutions for each of the backup/recovery components of software, media and process/procedure, based on the type of application, database or network server. These solutions include:
Backup/recovery software
ITS currently utilizes Veritas NetBackup Version 3.1.1 for must Sun Microsystems Unix server backups, Microsoft NTBackup for Windows Server backups, Oracle backup for database servers, File Transfer Protocol (FTP) for ???, and disk mirroring and remote network copy for ????. Backup/recovery media such as computer tape subsystems or remote network copies
ITS currently utilities a Sun Microsystems L1000 Tape Library for Sun Unix applications and database servers, disk-to-disk FTP copy over network for ???, and ???. Tape backup copies are stored in the ITS Data Center to support individual server recovery, but does not support recovery if the data center itself is lost from fire, storm, etc.
Backup/recovery processes and procedures
ITS has developed and documented backup & recovery procedures on the BORG data center management server. ITS has also automated the daily and weekly backup processes using Unix and Windows scripts and monitors the operation of those scripts through the Orwell monitoring server.
The goal, where applicable, is to maintain offsite five days of daily backups, plus a weekly backup, a monthly backup, a quarterly backup and an annual backup of any systems or data files that change over time.
The table below summarizes the components that have been identified for backup/recovery and the current method for backup:
Systems Component Backup Method
D W M Q A Comments
Unix OS Files Unix Data Files
Oracle RDBMS Raw Files Oracle RDBMS Logical Files Windows OS Server Files Windows Data Files Windows SQLServer Raw Windows SQLServer Logical Desktop Files Mapped Drives Desktop Files Home Directory Unix Operating System Media Windows Server OS Media Windows Desktop OS Media Applications Software Media Other Software Media
REQUIREMENTS AND SPECIFICATIONS
Ability to backup and restore Sun Microsystems Solaris Unix Systems. Ability to backup and restore Microsoft 2000 Server Systems.
Ability to manage backup media including industry standard tape and disk. Ability to manage versions of full file system and database backups.
Ability to manage versions of incremental file system and database backups.
Ability to integrate with industry standard database management systems including Oracle and Microsoft SQLServer.
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ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS
ALTERNATIVE 1 (RECOMMENDED SOLUTION)
Veritas' NetBackup is the top-selling backup product for the third year in a row, since finally outselling Veritas' workgroup product Backup Exec in 2000. Veritas again leads on the Magic Quadrant. It has successfully created market demand, industry recognition and leveraged partner relationships. The company added bare metal restore — technology that automates the server recovery process — with the acquisition of The Kernal Group in December 2001 and added a Vault option to expand its media management capabilities with the version 4.5 release in April 2002. A feature pack release in February 2003 introduced NetBackup Instant Recovery Option for faster recovery with data snapshots.
ALTERNATIVE 2
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) is seeing new demand for its use of disks in the backup process, a feature that was built into the original design for TSM and is now being used more extensively for disk backup. The Sysback bare metal restore product for AIX was moved into the Tivoli storage group from IBM Global Services and will be the basis for expanded platform support for bare metal restore options. TSM has the most extensive language support of all the products in this Magic Quadrant.
ALTERNATIVE 3
Legato Software has refocused on innovation with its newly released Networker 7, expanding its disk backup support and adding new support for OpenVMS on Alpha and Linux on zSeries. The company is effectively leveraging its expanded portfolio of media management, active archiving, replication and Hierarchical Storage Manager (HSM) capabilities to gain new visibility in the market and capture new customers. A new Legato Networker Business Edition was released to target the workgroup, department and small-to-midsize enterprise.
ALTERNATIVE 4
Computer Associates continues to focus on expanding the penetration of its BrightStor
Enterprise Backup product, released in July 2001, by leveraging technology from the Alexandria and ARCserve products into a new backup solution. With the 10.5 version, targeted for a May 2003 release, the backup product will contain BrightStor Portal technology, providing an enterprisewide monitoring and reporting platform for all backup/restore operations, including support for competitor backup products. Integration with other BrightStor and Unicenter products continues.
RECOMMENDATION AND JUSTIFICATION
Because the purchase of backup software is so widespread, the enterprise backup market is fairly mature. The majority of enterprise backup market sales represent the replacement of a current vendor, consolidation of backup resources or support for new applications/servers. As with any maturing market, the differences between offerings are subtle and thus, the differentiator becomes the vendor's ability to execute.
New storage technologies continue to require product enhancements, and the push for a focus on recovery is driving vendors to leverage disk as well as tape. Better support for application
recovery provides new revenue opportunities for vendors that can deliver effective solutions. The emergence of lower-cost Serial ATA disk drives is increasing the interest in disk backup and the better use of replication for recovery of mission-critical applications.
In many ITS operation centers, staff can quickly discover problems with incremental backups because there are enough single-filerecovery requests.They need to “practice”orperiodically test larger scope recoveries.
The only way to ensure that a recovery is possible is to test the recovery process. The type of operations staff member performing a post-recovery validation depends on the type of server involved (e.g., file server/LAN administrator, e-mail server/e-mail administrator or database server/database administrator). IS organizations that test their business continuity plans are also periodically testing their system- and application-level recovery capabilities.
Backup is often a decision that enterprises must live with for the long term. Furthermore, in a mature market, don't expect dramatic changes to vendor positioning unless acquisitions occur. Additionally, after a couple of years without acquisition activity, enterprises should expect there will likely be changes as the market consolidates.
Vendors that appear in the Gartner Enterprise Backup/Restore Magic Quadrant (see below) have demonstrated the ability to scale and address the heterogeneous backup requirements of the Global 2000.
Enterprise Backup/Restore Magic Quadrant
Smaller vendors will continue to deliver new functionality to the market before some of the larger vendors. The enterprise backup/restore software market is a maturing market, with 10 vendors capturing more than $10 million in new license revenue in 2002; however, only two of the 10 reported more than $100 million. As the amount of data stored continues its unabated growth, businesses are placing greater demands on storage management, specifically enterprise backup/restore.
6/13/2005 Page 9 of 10 Data Center Services recommends that Martin County Information Technology Services standardize on one solution, Veritas NetBackup Version 4.5, for backup and recovery software supporting all application, database and network server systems under ITS Department
management. NetBackup 3.1.1 is currently used by ITS for Unix server backup. An upgrade to NetBackup Version 4.5 would support backup/recovery of all Unix-based and all Windows Server-based systems. This recommendation is based on the following:
Veritas NetBackup is the leading software according Gartner Group, a leading technology industry consulting firm.
Veritas NetBackup is currently the standard in use at Martin County ITS.
Martin County ITS has a license for the most current version 4.5 of Veritas NetBackup. Martin County ITS has in-house expertise in the use and support of Veritas NetBackup.
COST SUMMARY / BENEFIT ANALYSIS
ATTRIBUTE CURRENT ALT#1 ALT#2 ALT#3 ALT#4 Vendor/Product Veritas NetBackup on Unix Veritas NetBackup 4.5 on Windows IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) Legato Networker 7 Computer Associates BrightStor Enterprise Backup Solution Fit Good Excellent
Current
Expertise Extensive Strong None Limited None Software License Fees Software Annual Maintenance Fees Other Costs (Training, etc.) Total Cost of Ownership Other