Technical white paper

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Simple and efficient snapshot management

Table of contents

Overview 3

Traditional backup and recovery challenges 3 Hot backup limitations 3 Tape-based backup and infrastructure bloat 4 Impossible recovery-time objectives 4 Capacity sprawl 4 Lack of integration 4 ESE Streaming Backup API no longer supported with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 4 Exchange Server 2010 data availability groups 5

The solution: HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange 5

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Microsoft SQL Server 5 HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange 6

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software Architecture 6

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefits 11 No more backup window 11 Maintaining multiple recovery points 11 Improved hot backup 11 Low-impact topology 12 Flexible RPO and RTO 12 Thin snapshot technology reduces sprawl 12 Storage tiering for snapshots 12 Application awareness 12 Backup integration via NetBackup, BackupExec, and HP Data Protector 13

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefits summary 13

Appendix A: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service 14

Appendix B: HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshots 15

HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software benefits summary 16

Appendix C: recovery and restoration options 17 Quick RTO via snapshot mount 17 Standard recovery 17 Acronyms 17

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Overview A common challenge across IT organizations is the backup and recovery of always-on databases, applications, and data sources (file systems). These Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) and collaboration systems (including messaging and communication tools) must be available 24x7, so they cannot be taken offline for backup. Microsoft, recognizing these challenges, has provided the Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) framework as an enabler to create and maintain consistent point-in-time copies of data. Microsoft VSS addresses the need to freeze the data at a single, recoverable point in time. From these point-in-time snapshots, customers can nondisruptively backup and restore data and applications after a failure, corruption, or deletion. Recoveries can be made from tape or from disk-based snapshots themselves.

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager for Exchange have been specifically designed to integrate with Microsoft VSS to provide a simple, efficient, and highly scalable solution for backup and recovery of Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange environments. HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software enables point-and-click or Command Line Interface (CLI) management of HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software and its snapshots. Virtual Copy is a high-performance, non-duplicative, reservationless, copy-on-write snapshot technology that runs on HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage as part of the HP 3PAR Operating System Software.

With its application awareness, HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software is able to discover individual databases connected to SQL and Exchange Servers and map them to Virtual Copy snapshots. This functionality simplifies the backup and restoration of these popular platforms, and does so with capacity-efficient, non-duplicative Virtual Copy snapshot technology.

Traditional backup and recovery challenges In the past, backup was considered a race to daylight, with the backup window representing the time period between the last nightly batch files and daylightthe point at which employees would return to work and systems needed to be online. As the need for nightly processing increased in response to greater interaction between departments as well as the rise of businesses-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce modelsand as enterprises grew to international scalethe backup window all but disappeared. Today, there is often no available window for downtime, as data processing never rests in modern enterprise.

Hot backup limitations To capture a consistent and recoverable backup of a database or email system that is constantly changing, software vendors have had to enable methods to freeze the database in a consistent state, enabling backup applications to capture the state of the data at that point in time. These hot backup capabilitiesso called because the application remains hot (or available) while the point-in-time data image is captured for backupenable backup windows to be created during the course of regular operations. The term hot backup mode describes the same state as a database frozen for backup, and both describe the concept of quiescing the database files for backup while allowing uninterrupted access by end users.

However, one limitation of hot backup is that, during the backup, the application is placed into a backup mode and is encumbered by additional processing that occurs as the database redirects data updates to a temporary holding area (or logging space). Therefore, if the tape backup takes three hours, the application performance is reduced for that three-hour period. Furthermore, there is a limit on how many backups can be made in a day, as these hot-backup periods are run serially. In the example stated, with a three-hour tape backup, there could be no more than eight distinct points in time captured during a given 24-hour period.

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Tape-based backup and infrastructure bloat Traditionally, each Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange Server host has required individual backup management. Backup application clients needed to be loaded on every production host, along with the appropriate licensing, and had to be capable of being updated individually as the vendor issued patches.

This traditional host-based tape backup typically required significant CPU and storage area network (SAN) or local area network (LAN) utilization at the client, which negatively affected production service levels. Many organizations have gone as far as to install additional costly Fibre Channel fabrics as well as additional Fibre Channel host bus adapters (HBAs) in each host in order to offload backup to an additional backup SAN infrastructure. Where backups are done over TCP/IP to a media server, organizations have often added additional Gigabit Ethernet networks to offload the traffic from the production LAN interfaces.

Impossible recovery-time objectives The demands of the application often impose an impossible Recovery Time Objective (RTO) on the backup technology. While a backup protects your data, the protection provides limited benefit if your business is impacted severely by a lengthy return to operations. Restoring all or part of a backup is only valuable if you can meet your RTO.

Capacity sprawl Todays tape drives are faster than the prior generations of tape technology. However, because tape is a streaming media that needs to be rewound and managed, a limited number of tape drives within even the largest tape libraries exist on the market today. As a result, relative to other technologies, tape represents a backup bottleneck in most data centers. Tapes need to be managed, accounted for, and queued into an available drive mechanism on demand. While tape remains invaluable for long-term archival of dataparticularly due to its low energy requirements when compared to disk-based backupit is still less than ideal for short-term backups, which can be better served by random-access disk devices.

As disk capacity has dropped in price, enterprises have increasingly moved to a Disk-to-Disk-to-Tape (D2D2T) or Disk-to-Disk (D2D) backup/recovery architecture. By staging backups to disk, faster recovery is possible without waiting for tape devices to be become available. Administrators can choose to keep several backups available on disk, giving them recovery point choices. While D2D and D2D2T architectures provide flexibility to the administrator, they come at a cost. Keeping many copies of data on disk in order to meet finer Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) multiplies the cost of the disk infrastructure.

Lack of integration Enterprises wanting to take advantage of various technologies in order to overcome the challenges mentioned above have had to manage self-integration efforts, often building complex scripts to coordinate hot backup, D2D backup, array-based snapshots, and backup to tape. The development and maintenance of this integration, which is customized for each environment in the enterprise, is costly and time consuming.

ESE Streaming Backup API no longer supported with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 Since the earliest versions of Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft has included a streaming backup Automatic Programming Interface (API) through which third-party vendors could develop Exchange-aware backup and recovery applications. With the advent of Exchange Server 2010 and its improvements in high availability and disaster recovery, Microsoft has removed the Extensible Storage Engine (ESE) streaming backup API, leaving VSS as the only option for Exchange-aware backups and restores. HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange 2010 is a VSS requestor and fills this gap perfectly. Additionally, Recovery Manager enables integrated, snapshot-based, Exchange-aware backups to tape or other supported target through integration with Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, and HP Data Protector.

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Exchange Server 2010 data availability groups Starting with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, all previous forms of clustering and replication in Exchange (Single Copy Cluster [SCC], Continuous Cluster Replication [CCR], Standby Continuous Replication [SCR], and Local Continuous Replication [LCR]) have been replaced with a new technology called Data Availability Groups (DAGs). There can be up to 16 nodes in a DAG and each mailbox database can have up to 15 replicas spread across the DAG. According to Microsoft, DAGs with three or more nodes, used in conjunction with time-lagged replicas as well as Personal Archives (another new feature in Exchange Server 2010), may be used as a potential replacement for backup altogether. However, there are several complications with this approach:

The number of restore points is limited to a maximum of 15. Each replica is a full copy of the source mailbox database, whereas a snapshot-based backup captures only the

delta changes at the volume block level.

In addition, note that data replicas are always in use by Microsoft Exchange Server. This means that the replicas cannot be easily used for backup to tape or for mailbox recovery using Microsoft or third-party tools.

With Exchange 2007 CCR and SCC, there are even fewer restore points; one and none, respectively.

The solution: HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange HP offers HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange as solutions to the challenge of managing backup and recovery of complex, always-on databases. Recovery Manager simplifies the management and use of HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshots by integrating with Microsoft SQL Server and Microsoft Exchange Server through Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS). Administrators interested in the technical details can refer to Appendix A: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service for a detailed description of the mechanics of Microsoft VSS and how HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software integrates with it for supportable, consistent backups. HP Recovery Manager enables the administrator to create hundreds of consistent, read-only snapshots of either production or replica databases. Snapshots are space efficient and only capture the changed blocks of a give volume. In addition to providing the ability to restore a database and bring it back online quickly, snapshots can be used for instant access to data for other purposes such as database testing and analysis or Exchange mailbox recovery.

In addition to enabling simplified disk-based backup and rapid recovery of SQL Server and Exchange Server hosts, Recovery Manager also integrates array-based snapshots with backup to media via Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector.

The following sections describe key features of Recovery Manager for both SQL Server and Exchange environments:

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Microsoft SQL Server Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and Microsoft

SQL Server 2012

HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshot and backup management via graphical user interface (GUI) and command-line interface (CLI)

Snapshot management of SQL servers running in a Microsoft Cluster environment Off-host backup of snapshots via Symantec NetBackup , Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector Automated, rapid recovery of SQL Server databases from snapshot (supports point-in-time and point-of-failure

recoveries as well as restoring in NORECOVERY mode for subsequent transaction log recovery; also supports granular database restore from a single snapshot of entire instance)

Optional instant mount of read-write snapshots to the host for a quick RTO, deferring recovery of the production volume until a planned outage at a more convenient time

Time- or quantity-based snapshot management Support for replicating consistent snapshots to a remote HP 3PAR array using Remote Copy feature of HP 3PAR array

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Support for coexistence with Geographically Dispersed Windows Clusters with HP 3PAR Cluster Extension (CLX) software Support for Always On Availability Group (AAG) databases in Microsoft SQL Server 2012

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange Support for Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 or 2010 Virtual Copy snapshot and backup management via GUI and CLI Rapid recovery of Exchange Server 2007 Storage Groups or Exchange 2010 databases from snapshot to point in time or

point of failure

Support for Exchange 2007 CCR and Exchange DAG replica databases Off-host backup of snapshots via Symantec NetBackup , Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector Off-host verification of Exchange databases using Microsoft tools Optional instant mount of read-write snapshots to the host for a quick RTO using Microsoft and third-party mailbox

recovery tools, deferring recovery of the production volume until a planned outage at a more convenient time

Time- or quantity-based snapshot management

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software Architecture HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software uses a client-server architecture to allow simple, central management of Virtual Copy snapshots for multiple Microsoft SQL Server or Exchange Server hosts from a single management interface. In this architecture, the Recovery Manager client is a management interface (GUI and CLI) that runs on a backup server that can optionally back up snapshots to a Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec media server or HP Data Protector. The server component is the HP 3PAR VSS Provider that runs on the SQL Server and Exchange Server hosts.

HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software is a high-performance, non-duplicative, reservationless copy-on-write snapshot technology that runs on HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage with HP 3PAR OS Software.

The following features of Virtual Copy are key to making Recovery Manager a superior snapshot management product:

Non-duplicative snapshots reduce the capacity required for D2D/D2D2T backups. A single copy-on-write operation is performedand therefore little capacity consumedwhen a production volume is changed, regardless of the number of snapshots associated with the production volume.

Reservationless snapshots reduce management overhead and the wasted capacity introduced by snapshot reservations in other technologies.

Read-write snapshots can be mounted directly by the hosts and used for processing. This extends the benefit of snapshots to their use in test or development environments. Traditional read-only snapshots can be read but not mounted for processing.

Additional technical details on Virtual Copy can be found in Appendix B: HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software Snapshots.

In the following diagram, the Backup Server (running the Recovery Manager backup server component) is connected to the same HP 3PAR StoreServ Storage that is supporting each of the production Exchange Server hosts. Snapshots taken of volumes exported to each of the Exchange Server hosts can be automatically mounted on the Backup Server and spooled to tape via Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector.

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Figure 1

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The diagrams below show multiple recovery options available:

Option 1 (Figure 2)Use virtual copies to achieve the fastest possible RTO. When the snapshot is still available, the fastest RTO can be met in two ways. The fastest access to data is met by mounting a Virtual Copy snapshot directly to a host. Mounting a snapshot versus restoring it defers the lengthier restoration of the production volume until a planned outage can be taken at a more convenient time. The second-fastest RTO is met by restoring the original database volumes. The array-based copy of data from the snapshot back to the original volume is referred to as a Promote. Promotion is performed inside the array for the highest performance and lowest network impact.

Figure 2

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Option 2 (Figure 3)Rapid Recovery from snapshot. This recovery method involves mounting the snapshot and then copying the data to the production volume in a Disk-to-Disk (D2D) operation. This process is automated via the Recovery Manager backup server, integrating with Microsoft VSS for a supportable restoration of data. This process is more time-intensive than Option 1, though it makes restores more flexible. File copy restores enable a variety of recovery options, especially for SQL Server.

Figure 3

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Option 3 (Figure 4)Recovery from tape directly to the Recovery Manager backup server using Recovery Manager or to the original host using the backup softwares client. With this method, the administrator can choose to run a Symantec NetBackup client or Symantec BackupExec client directly, or HP Data Protector on the Recovery Manager backup server and restore directly from tape. Of the two tape options, this method requires the least data movement.

Figure 4

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Option 4 (Figure 5)Recovery from tape to the backup server. With this method, the administrator can choose to restore from tape back to a read-write snapshot mounted to the backup server running the Recovery Manager client. After restoration, the snapshot can be mounted to the original host (per Option 1) or the data files can be copied to the production host (per Option 2). While Option 4 takes more data movement (tape to snapshot, snapshot to production), it allows for that extra snapshot copy to be retained on disk for other uses such as test/development or forensic study (should the cause of the original data failure be unknown).

Figure 5

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefits

No more backup window HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshots eliminate the need for a backup window by integrating with Microsoft VSS to create an instant, nondisruptive point-in-time snapshot that can then be backed up from a server other than the production SQL or Exchange server.

Maintaining multiple recovery points Not only can HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software eliminate the problem of a shrinking backup window, it also enables administrators to maintain many more recovery points throughout the day over the latest built-in, high-availability technologies such as Exchange DAG and SQL AAG.

Improved hot backup Hot backup capabilities, such as those provided by Microsoft VSS, can be used without a snapshot-based backup. The downside of backing up directly to tape is that the applications in hot backup mode can have either a processing impact

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due to the overhead of transaction logging, a disk-capacity impact due to long-term storage of the state of the disk, or both. However, by integrating Virtual Copy snapshots with Microsoft VSS, the duration of time during which the application is quiesced is greatly reduced, and so is the potential impact to performance and capacity consumption. Recovery Manager alleviates hot backup, providing the application with multiple points of recovery via high-performance, non-duplicative snapshots. It should also be noted that Exchange 2010 no longer has a backup API for hot backups. Only Microsoft VSS can be used for Exchange 2010.

Low-impact topology Where traditional backups require added SAN or LAN capabilities in order to handle increased bandwidth at multiple touch points in the data center, with HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software, snapshots are presented to the backup host directly by the array, and only tape backups go out over the backup network. Instead of increasing the SAN and LAN bandwidth for every host, 3PAR Recovery Manager requires only a single backup server with sufficient network bandwidth to send backups to a backup media server. Recovery Managers client-server architecture offloads the tape backup process to a backup server. This reduces the CPU and SAN traffic utilization on the production database server.

Flexible RPO and RTO Recovery Managers scalable, non-duplicative snapshots allow the administrator to specify a greater number of snapshots for a frequent or extended history of recovery points, allowing flexibility when committing to a given RPO. Flexibility to restore from snapshot (fast D2D restore) or to mount the snapshot directly on the host (instantaneously) allows administrators to offer increasingly aggressive RTO service-level agreements to their internal customers. (The ability to mount snapshots directly for a quick RTO is discussed in Appendix C: recovery and restoration options.)

Thin snapshot technology reduces sprawl Non-duplicative snapshots also reduce the redundant copies of data that result from traditional D2D backups without the complexity of additional data deduplication appliances.

Storage tiering for snapshots The storage space assigned to the snapshots can be on a different storage tier and of a different RAID type than the production storage space and can even vary from database to database. Additional storage tiers (supported storage targets) can be leveraged to keep additional copies of databases through tape backup software integration with NetBackup, BackupExec, or DataProtector.

Application awareness HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software is fully integrated with the Microsoft VSS framework and applications like Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange Server. Integration with Microsoft VSS is a supported method for online backups of SQL Server and Exchange database. For Exchange 2010, VSS is the only supported backup interface; there is no longer a tape backup API. VSS integration ensures that the data is backed up in a transaction-consistent manner, avoiding the potential data loss associated with crash recovery of data that was snapped or backed up without VSS.

The goal of the integration is to hide the storage-specific nuances and provide an application view with which application administrators are intimately familiar when it comes to performing backup and recovery.

Recovery Manager provides the following capabilities:

Automatically discover and display the database objects associated with an application Automatically discover all the volumes associated with an application instance Group all the volumes associated with an application in real time to create application-consistent snapshots for all of the

volumes in a given database or database instance (SQL)

Minimize administration by enabling application administrators to backup and recover from the Recovery Manager GUI

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Customers can also leverage Recovery Manager to create an application-consistent snapshot and then use a separate application to back up the data to tape or other supported storage target for archival purpose. This essentially minimizes administration and provides the ability to maintain the snapshots for rapid recovery, which is important because in some instancesfor example, with Exchange 2010Microsoft has eliminated the tape backup API that the backup vendors could otherwise use.

Because application awareness occurs with Recovery Manager, additional application-specific agents for the tape backup software are no longer necessary. Standard file streaming agents are used instead.

Backup integration via NetBackup, BackupExec, and HP Data Protector HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software not only manages the protection of point-in-time snapshots of SQL Server and Exchange databases, but it also manages backup and restoration of the snapshots to media via Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector. This capability allows snapshot data to be kept on a longer retention cycle without burdening the capacity of the array. Furthermore, it allows for the same snapshot data to be transported offsite. With both Recovery Manager for Exchange and SQL Server, the GUI and CLI provide single-action methods for backing up a storage group or database to tape.

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefits summary

Recovery Manager feature Recovery Manger benefits

Eradicates backup window Leverages Virtual Copy snapshots for instant, non-disruptive, point-in-time capture of the database. Offloads backup to a backup server, with integration into the customers tape backup infrastructure via Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector.

Maintains multiple recovery points Allows administrators to maintain multiple recovery points throughout the day.

Improves hot backup Reduces the hot backup period to lessen host impact.

Leverages Virtual Copy snapshots to eliminate long-term hot backup logging space.

Offers low-impact topology Offloads host backup to a backup server via snapshots to reduce the management points for backup and the cost of the backup infrastructure. No more dedicated Fibre Channel SANs or LANs for backup and no more production host backup processing.

Allows flexible RPO and RTO Utilizes Virtual Copy to allow administrators to keep many snapshots of a given volume without the additive performance or capacity hit associated with traditional snapshots. The ability to take many snapshots allows for extended or more frequent recovery points. The ability to directly mount high-performance, read-write snapshots back to the host allows for a quick return to operations, deferring the restoration of the primary volume to a planned outage at a later time or date.

Reduces data sprawl Utilizes the Microsoft VSS framework to coordinate data structure discovery, database application quiesce, filesystem buffer flush, and array-based snapshots to ensure data integrity. VSS integration simplifies snapshots and eliminates the need for complex, hard-to-support scripts specific to a single customer application. Backup to tape is made possible through integration with Symantec NetBackup and HP Data Protector.

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Appendix A: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service Microsoft VSS is included with Windows Server operating systems to simplify the enterprise storage environment. VSS provides a framework for creating a point-in-time copy of a single or multiple volumes. VSS allows the coordination of applications, filesystems, and storage hardware in a way that can be supported by the multiple vendors involved in the backup solution. Prior to the introduction of the VSS framework, this coordination was only possible by scripting the various heterogeneous components together in a custom fashion. With VSS, Microsoft applications can be quiesced, the file system buffers flushed, and snapshots taken in a standardized fashion. Without quiescing and flushing the data, snapshots will not contain the data expected at that point in time, and databases will need a crash recovery, as the metadata and data is not guaranteed to be on disk.

Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service supported on Microsoft Windows works with VSS-aware applications to determine when a volume shadow copy (snapshot) can be made. A snapshot is a copy of a data set at a specific point in time. VSS communicates with the operating system and applications and freezes computing tasks to allow snapshot creation. Without the freeze function, data could become corrupted when the snapshot is taken because the system might be in the middle of a task. When a VSS operation is underway, applications continue to run uninterrupted. The original volume continues to change as the process continues, but the shadow copy of the volume remains constant. VSS permits the backup application to access the volume and back it up in its frozen state. The shadow copy volume is then used for the actual backup. After the shadow copy volume is saved on the backup device, the shadow copy is deleted. Recovery Manager software comes with application awareness, and the standard file backup agent is used so that application-specific modules for the tape backup software are no longer necessary.

VSS coordinates between Requestors (backup applications such as HP 3PAR Recovery Manager), Writers (applications in Windows services such as SQL Server and Exchange Server), and Providers (components that create the shadow copies, such as the HP 3PAR VSS Hardware Provider that comes bundled with all HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software products).

VSS component Description

Requester Vendor or third-party supplied backup software that initiates the creation of the shadow copy. Recovery Manager is a VSS requestor.

Writer Application software that participates in the shadow copy process (application files and data are included in the process). Examples of VSS writers are Microsoft SQL Server and Exchange Server.

Provider Vendor-supplied storage-specific technology that performs the actual shadow copy operation on the hardware. An example is the HP 3PAR VSS provider.

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Appendix B: HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshots HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software harnesses the power and flexibility of point-in-time snapshots made possible by HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software. Virtual Copy is a high-performance, non-duplicative, reservationless copy-on-write snapshot technology that runs on the HP 3PAR Storage System as part of the InForm OS. HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software uses a unique system of pointers to increase performance, reduce disk-capacity requirements, and enable read-write snapshots that can be mounted for rapid recovery or used in test and development environments.

As shown in the following illustration, the copy-on-write I/O overhead grows with a traditional array volume as each snapshot requires its own copy of the changed data. I/O is multiplied by every new snapshot created and free capacity is reduced by the storage required for each snapshot reservation. Conversely, with Virtual Copy, the copy-on-write penalty is minimized by a single copy required for all Virtual Copy snapshots of a given volume. I/O overhead is minimized, and snap reservation space doesnt consume wasted capacity.

Figure 6

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HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software benefits summary

Virtual Copy feature Benefit

Reservationless allocation of disk Simplified management eliminates the need to make decisions about sizing upfront.

Alleviates both the problem of capacity waste due to over allocation and snapshot failure due to insufficient space.

Flexibly allows for differing policies for RAID layout and growth limits on each Common Provisioning Group (CPG).

Offers optional, user-configurable growth warnings and limits that allow administrators to be notified of CPGs that are growing larger than anticipated.

Non-duplicative, copy-on-write functionality

Reduced space requirements mean that 10 snapshots of a volume taken during the work day consume no more space than a single snapshot taken at the start of the day.

Scalability of performance means that the performance hit caused by copy-on-write data movement does not grow as more snapshots are created. Virtual Copy allows you to take hundreds of read-only snaps and dozens of read-write snaps of any given volume without suffering a growing additive performance hit.

Enables the retention of hundreds of snapshots for CDP-like rapid restoration to fine-grained points in time throughout the day.

Snapshots can be created from other snapshots for quick, simple sharing of data for applications such as data mining, development, and testing.

High-performance disk layout featuring wide striping

Snapshots enjoy the same massive parallelism that ensures scalable, predictable performance of regular base volumes. Traditional snapshots aggregate the copy-on-write data on a limited number of spindles in the reservation space.

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Appendix C: recovery and restoration options HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software assists in the restoration of backups from disk or tape media as well as instant recovery from mounting read-write snapshots.

Quick RTO via snapshot mount A unique capability enabled by high-performance Virtual Copy snapshots is the ability to mount the snapshot directly to the original host, replacing the original data volumes. This capability is only viable as a quick RTO solution, due to the ability of Virtual Copy to maintain high-performance, read-write snapshots with no special configuration required and its ability to promote any given snapshot back into the primary volume. Promotion is an internal, array-driven operation that pushes the differences of the altered read-write snapshot back into the original volume.

Upon loss of data at the host, the administrator takes a very short outage, unmounting the original data volumes and mounting the appropriate volumes of the desired recovery point. The application is restarted, allowing processing to continue. The administrator can operate the application on this snapshot indefinitely, allowing the flexibility to choose a planned outage at a later date in order to promote the snapshot data back into the primary volume. The primary volume is then remounted and the application restarted.

The quick return to operations via mounting of snapshots is integrated into Recovery Manager. Right-clicking on a dataset presents the mount option, simplifying the administrators duties during the critical time period while the application is down. The later promotion of the snapshot back into the primary volume is a simple step using the Recovery Manager GUI.

Standard recovery Administrators also have the option of initiating a manual recovery from tape or snapshot.

Both HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange use the restore CLI option to restore data from media previously backed up via Symantec NetBackup, Symantec BackupExec, or HP Data Protector. This action moves the data from tape back to disk and can be used to stage data for a full database restore or for other applications such as data mining, compliance research, and development.

Acronyms AAG: Always-On Availability Group (Microsoft SQL 2012) CCR: Continuous Cluster Replication (Microsoft Exchange 2007) CLI: Command Line Interface CPG: Common Provisioning Group (3PAR) DAG: Data Availability Group (Microsoft Exchange 2010) GUI: graphical user interface RPO: Recovery Point Objective RTO: Recovery Time Objective VSS: Volume Shadow Copy Service (Microsoft)

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Copyright 20112012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

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4AA3-8317ENW, Created November 2011; Updated November 2012, Rev. 2

OverviewTraditional backup and recovery challengesHot backup limitationsTape-based backup and infrastructure bloatImpossible recovery-time objectivesCapacity sprawlLack of integrationESE Streaming Backup API no longer supported with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010Exchange Server 2010 data availability groups

The solution: HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for SQL Server and HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for ExchangeHP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Microsoft SQL ServerHP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software for Exchange

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software ArchitectureHP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefitsNo more backup windowMaintaining multiple recovery pointsImproved hot backupLow-impact topologyFlexible RPO and RTOThin snapshot technology reduces sprawlStorage tiering for snapshotsApplication awarenessBackup integration via NetBackup, BackupExec, and HP Data Protector

HP 3PAR Recovery Manager Software benefits summaryAppendix A: Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy ServiceAppendix B: HP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software snapshotsHP 3PAR Virtual Copy Software benefits summaryAppendix C: recovery and restoration optionsQuick RTO via snapshot mountStandard recoveryAcronymsFor more information