Chapter 1: Introduction: Why the Backup 1.0 Mentality Is Killing You

Throughout computing history, backups have been practical, simple procedures: Copy a bunch of data from one place to another. Complexities arise with "always-on" data like the databases used by Exchange Server and SQL Server, and various techniques have been developed to access that form of in-use data; however, backups have ultimately always been about a fairly simple, straightforward copy. Even magnetic tape—much more advanced than in the 1960s, of course—is still a primary form of storage for many organizations’ backups.

I call it "Backup 1.0"—essentially the same way we’ve all been making backups since the beginning of time, with the only major changes being the storage medium we use. Although many bright engineers have come up with clever variations on the Backup 1.0 theme, it’s still basically the same. And I say it’s no longer enough. We need to re-think why we do backups, and invent Backup 2.0—a new way to back up our data that meets today’s business needs. Surprisingly, many of the techniques and technologies that support Backup 2.0 already exist—we just need to identify them, bring them together, and start using them.

In the first chapter, we will take a look at the pitfalls of Backup 1.0, and then go on to outline the basic questions that you must ask of any backup program. We will conclude with a few different backup approaches as well as an overview of what lies ahead with Backup 2.0!

Chapter 2: 12 Horror Stories—We Thought We Had a Backup!

Horror stories. Tales from the trenches. Case studies. Call them what you will, I love reading them. They’re a look into our colleagues’ real‐world lives and troubles, and an opportunity for us to learn something from mistakes—without having to make the actual mistakes ourselves. In this chapter, I’m going to share stories about backups to highlight problems that you yourself may have encountered. For each, I’ll look at some of the root causes for those problems, and suggest ways that a modernized “Backup 2.0” approach might help solve the problem. Some of these stories are culled from online blog postings (and I’ve provided the original URL when that is the case), while others are from my own personal correspondence with hundreds of administrators over the years. One or two are even from my own experiences in data centers. Names, of course, have been changed to protect the innocent—and those guilty of relying on the decades‐old Backup 1.0 mentality.

The important takeaway is that each of these stories offers a valuable lesson. Can you see yourself and your own experiences in these short tales? See if you can take away some valuable advice for avoiding these scenarios in the future.

Chapter 3: Whole‐Server Backups

Recovered from the horror stories of the previous chapter? Ready to start ensuring solid backups in your environment, the Backup 2.0 way? That’s what this chapter is all about, and what I call “whole server backups” is definitely the right place to begin. This is where I’ll address the most common kinds of servers: file servers, print servers, directory servers, and even Web servers—the workhorses of the enterprise. I’ll show you what some of the native solutions look like, discuss some of the related Backup 1.0‐style techniques and scenarios, and detail why they just don’t cut it for today’s businesses. Then I’ll assemble a sort of Backup 2.0 wish list: All the things you want in your environment for backup and recovery. I’ll outline which of those things are available today, and wrap up by applying those things to some real‐world server roles to show how those new techniques and technologies impact real‐world scenarios.

Chapter 4: Rethinking Exchange Server Backups

Ask anyone in the organization what their most mission critical piece of infrastructure is, and you'll probably hear "email" as a common answer. Or you might not: Many folks take email for granted, although they expect it to be as available and reliable as a telephone dial tone. Users who have never suffered an email outage almost can't imagine doing so; once they do experience an outage, they make sure everyone knows how much they're suffering. As one of the most popular solutions for corporate email, Exchange Server occupies a special place in your infrastructure. It's expected to be "always on," always available, and always reliable. Disasters simply can't be tolerated. What's more, users' own mistakes and negligence become very much your problem, meaning you have to offer recovery services that are quick and effective, even when you're recovering something that a user mistakenly deleted on their own.

In this chapter, you will learn about Exchange Server's native backup and restore capabilities as well as the challenges that they present. By examining the old-style Backup 1.0 solutions for Exchange recovery, you will understand what works and what doesn't in these traditional solutions. This chapter goes on to detail how Backup 2.0 will improve restore scenarios and disaster recovery for Exchange Server, and closes with a list of some Exchange-specific concerns such as de-duplication, data corruption, and search and e-Discovery.

Chapter 5: SQL Server Backups

More and more companies are using Microsoft SQL Server these days—and in many cases, they don't even realize it. While plenty of organizations deliberately install SQL Server, many businesses find themselves using SQL Server as a side effect, because SQL Server is the data store for some line ‐ of ‐ business application, technology solution, and so on. In fact, “SQL sprawl” makes SQL Server one of the most challenging server products from a backup perspective: Not only is SQL Server challenging in and of itself, but you wind up with tons of instances!

Here's what I see happening in many organizations: The company has one or more “official” SQL Server installations, and the IT team is aware of the need to back up these instances on a regular basis. But there are also numerous “stealth” installations of SQL Server, often running on the “Express” edition of SQL Server, that the IT team is unaware of. The data stored in these “stealth” installations is no less mission critical than the data in the “official” installations, but in many cases, that data isn't being protected properly. Dealing with this “sprawl” is just one of the unique challenges that Backup 2.0 faces in SQL Server.

Chapter 6: SharePoint Server Backups

Microsoft's SharePoint Server has probably had the most variety in its backup and restore solutions. The first version of the product was essentially a modified version of Exchange Server, and used the same database engine that Exchange did at the time. Today, SharePoint Server uses multiple databases to store its content, configuration, search catalogs, and more—and even stores some critical files as simple disk files. All that data stored in different places helps make SharePoint Server one of the most difficult Microsoft server products to work with in terms of business continuity and disaster recovery. It becomes even more complex when you start dealing with SharePoint Server farms— collections of servers designed to serve up the same content for load-balancing purposes. Is it even possible to move beyond the Backup 1.0 mindset and start using Backup 2.0 when it comes to SharePoint?

Native Solutions

Microsoft defines three levels of data recovery for SharePoint Server:

• Content recovery is when you recover one or more items using a Recycle Bin or retrieve a previous version of the items from the content database. This relies on functionality within SharePoint itself and is accessible to end users.
• Site recovery is when you recover an entire SharePoint Server site, or Web site. This is the type of recovery most administrators are concerned with.
• Disaster recovery typically involves site recovery to new hardware.

Chapter 7: Rethinking Virtualization Server Backups

Virtualization is the hot new code word for today's businesses, and it's changing everything we thought we knew about backup and recovery. I actually consider that to be a Really Good Thing, because it means-at least with regard to virtualization-we don't have to un-learn as many Backup 1.0 habits in order to see how a Backup 2.0 technique might be more effective.

Native Solutions

Oddly, it's almost like virtualization vendors know that backups are complicated and that native solutions are usually deficient in key capabilities, because most virtualization vendors-we're talking Citrix, VMware, and Microsoft, here-don't really provide any native backup capabilities at all. Sure, most of them have backup solutions they'll sell you, but most of those are still good old Backup 1.0-style, "get it done during the evening backup window" solutions.
But let's take a step back and look at why virtualization backups have the potential to be more challenging than a physical server backup.

Problems and Challenges

As illustrated in Figure 7.1, a virtualized server runs on a virtualization host-like VMware vSphere or Windows Hyper-V. The host controls the hardware of the physical machine, while the virtualized server has its own, virtualized hardware environment. The virtual server's hard disks are generally just files sitting on the physical host. I realize this is probably nothing new to you; I'm just setting some context.

Figure 7.1: Virtual server running on a virtual host.

Chapter 8: Getting More from Backups: Other Concerns and Capabilities

This chapter is in production - we will post an excerpt as soon as this chapter is available!

Chapter 9: Keeping Your Backups: Storage Architecture

This chapter is in production - we will post an excerpt as soon as this chapter is available!

Chapter 10: What’s Your Disaster Recovery Plan?

This chapter is in production - we will post an excerpt as soon as this chapter is available!

Chapter 11: Upgrading Your Backup Mentality: Is It Really Worth It?

This chapter is in production - we will post an excerpt as soon as this chapter is available!

Chapter 12: Tales from the Trenches: My Life with Backup 2.0

This chapter is in production - we will post an excerpt as soon as this chapter is available!