Client system overhaul
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I've been asked my opinion on the following:
Current setup
Server 1 - bare metal - Server 2008 AD, File/print, RDS serving an app, using 1.2 TB of data, unknown how much free space they haveServer 2 - Hyper-V
a) VM 1 - Exchange 2010
b ) VM 2 - Application (don't recall which)
c) This sever has enough resources to add another 1 VCPU, 4 GB RAM, 40 GB disk VMThey are looking for a better backup solution. Currently they use Windows backup to backup to local disk (local to the metal or local to the VM)
They have two NASs they purchased. The thinking is to have one onesite and replicate it to another one offsite.
FYI - Exchange will not be migrated to O365 or hosted in any way. They want to keep it in house. No point in beating that dead horse, please.
They are willing to buy software.
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Maybe virtualise Server 1, then use Veeam to backup to both NASs (on-site and off-site)?
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Didn't say what NAS they have, but NetApp has the ever so useful Snapmirror, which will replicate all the data to another device automagically.
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapmirror.aspx
Performing replication is gonna depend on how fast they want to recover. Using things like Veeam to send data back and forth is fine, but the delta would be kind of a problem. Using snapmirror would replicate in real time and recovery would be within seconds.
I would beef up the two servers, slap all of the VMs on one, run Veeam to clone across to the secondary for local redundancy, keep critical data on the NAS and shuffle the data over to the offsite backup with the other NAS.
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Are they looking to replace both with new hardware? or just reallocate what they have?
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@Carnival-Boy said:
Maybe virtualise Server 1, then use Veeam to backup to both NASs (on-site and off-site)?
That's the obvious starting point. Get everything onto HyperV as a starting point. The best tool for backups is starting from virtualization. Physical servers have many caveats, difficulty and expense in backups is a key one.
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@gjacobse said:
Are they looking to replace both with new hardware? or just reallocate what they have?
Good question. A single new server would handle everything here easily. But as he mentioned available capacity (how did you determine that only 1 vCPU was available - that's not how capacity works) it seems like they are trying to use what they have currently.
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@PSX_Defector said:
Didn't say what NAS they have, but NetApp has the ever so useful Snapmirror, which will replicate all the data to another device automagically.
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapmirror.aspx
Performing replication is gonna depend on how fast they want to recover. Using things like Veeam to send data back and forth is fine, but the delta would be kind of a problem. Using snapmirror would replicate in real time and recovery would be within seconds.
I would beef up the two servers, slap all of the VMs on one, run Veeam to clone across to the secondary for local redundancy, keep critical data on the NAS and shuffle the data over to the offsite backup with the other NAS.
This would require a significant storage purchase at minimum, but not a bad idea, assuming the system will hold enough disk that is.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@gjacobse said:
Are they looking to replace both with new hardware? or just reallocate what they have?
Good question. A single new server would handle everything here easily. But as he mentioned available capacity (how did you determine that only 1 vCPU was available - that's not how capacity works) it seems like they are trying to use what they have currently.
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The plan is to use the hardware they have, no replacements.
I don't recall what type of NASs they were, but it was mentioned that they could possibly self sync, so PSX's solution might be the play for offsites.
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So the client doesn't want to spend on hardware, but is willing to spend on software to use the equipment they have; to implement an onsite/offsite backup solution.
Correct?
Are Disks even on the table to be purchased?
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I've updated the first post a bit.
My associate said that they are sure there are enough resources to load up an additional VM and give is approx 40 GB of storage on the host. As for the 1 VCPU and 4 GB RAM, I was guesstimating that we could pull at least that amount of resources for this additional VM.
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Maybe use Powershell to perform full VSS backup to the onsite NAS, and use the built in tools on that to backup to the offsite unit.
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My proposal followed most of yours.
First, virtualize Server 1. This should be pretty straight forward, just install the Hyper-V role in Server 2008, done.
Then stand up another VM on Server 2, install Windows server (might have to buy license), and install Veeam. Use the local NAS as the target to backup both VMs. Veeam could also be used to replicate the data to the second NAS, but PSX's solution might be better.
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@DustinB3403 said:
So the client doesn't want to spend on hardware, but is willing to spend on software to use the equipment they have; to implement an onsite/offsite backup solution.
Correct?
Are Disks even on the table to be purchased?
Maybe, I guess it would depend on why you want disks? Is it to follow PSX's suggestion?
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Well you need space to keep backups, and you didn't specify how much free space you had on these NAS units.
And if you're wanting to use them for backup, you're going to want RAID 10 (for spinning rust) which is going to consume a good amount of space.
So to recoup that space, get larger disk and build the array out of those.
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@Dashrender said:
@PSX_Defector said:
Didn't say what NAS they have, but NetApp has the ever so useful Snapmirror, which will replicate all the data to another device automagically.
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapmirror.aspx
Performing replication is gonna depend on how fast they want to recover. Using things like Veeam to send data back and forth is fine, but the delta would be kind of a problem. Using snapmirror would replicate in real time and recovery would be within seconds.
I would beef up the two servers, slap all of the VMs on one, run Veeam to clone across to the secondary for local redundancy, keep critical data on the NAS and shuffle the data over to the offsite backup with the other NAS.
This would require a significant storage purchase at minimum, but not a bad idea, assuming the system will hold enough disk that is.
Considering what they are probably using, I bet it wouldn't cost much. We ain't talking about my Cisco UCS blades with NetApp SANs. I would bet the "server" is some off the shelf junk from Fry's and the NASes are some kind of Buffalo device. Don't bother with PCI-E SSDs and fancy Fibre Channel SANs, this is fairly simple in the grand scheme of things. Some high quality SATA would do them just fine.
First, take the first machine and P2V it into the second machine. No point leaving it bare metal. Then take the first machine, nuke and pave then install Hyper-V or ESXi stand alone. Move your three VMs over to the first machine, nuke and pave the second machine with Hyper-V or ESXi, setup Veeam replication between them, then map the NAS through whatever way you need to for it to keep data onsite and off.
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@DustinB3403 said:
Well you need space to keep backups, and you didn't specify how much free space you had on these NAS units.
And if you're wanting to use them for backup, you're going to want RAID 10 (for spinning rust) which is going to consume a good amount of space.
So to recoup that space, get larger disk and build the array out of those.
Aww.. you're right. The purpose of the NASs is to be the backup storage. They will go with either RAID 10 or RAID 6 depending on how much storage they feel they need. The NAS doesn't need to be the fastest thing in world.
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@PSX_Defector said:
First, take the first machine and P2V it into the second machine. No point leaving it bare metal. Then take the first machine, nuke and pave then install Hyper-V or ESXi stand alone. Move your three VMs over to the first machine, nuke and pave the second machine with Hyper-V or ESXi, setup Veeam replication between them, then map the NAS through whatever way you need to for it to keep data onsite and off.
WOW, this ends up with 4 copies of the data, probably overkill for them.
I'm guessing they only have two server because the first one ran out of resources and storage slots, so they bought a second one. I have no idea how old the servers are, or what brand (though I'd guess Dell knowing my friend), etc.
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@Dashrender said:
@PSX_Defector said:
Didn't say what NAS they have, but NetApp has the ever so useful Snapmirror, which will replicate all the data to another device automagically.
http://www.netapp.com/us/products/protection-software/snapmirror.aspx
Performing replication is gonna depend on how fast they want to recover. Using things like Veeam to send data back and forth is fine, but the delta would be kind of a problem. Using snapmirror would replicate in real time and recovery would be within seconds.
I would beef up the two servers, slap all of the VMs on one, run Veeam to clone across to the secondary for local redundancy, keep critical data on the NAS and shuffle the data over to the offsite backup with the other NAS.
This would require a significant storage purchase at minimum, but not a bad idea, assuming the system will hold enough disk that is.
That's how data safety works - lots of copies. If you want a good, reliable onsite storage and a good, reliable offsite one you are going to have to have a lot of copies for all of that to exist.
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@Dashrender said:
@scottalanmiller said:
@gjacobse said:
Are they looking to replace both with new hardware? or just reallocate what they have?
Good question. A single new server would handle everything here easily. But as he mentioned available capacity (how did you determine that only 1 vCPU was available - that's not how capacity works) it seems like they are trying to use what they have currently.
Was there supposed to be a reply on this one? There is a blank quote above.
