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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Buffington, Jason, 1970– Data protection for virtual data centers / Jason Buffington. — 1st ed. p. cm. ISBN: 978-0-470-57214-6 (pbk) ISBN: 978-0-470-90823-5 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-90825-9 (ebk) ISBN: 978-0-470-90824-2 (ebk) 1. Virtual computer systems. 2. Data protection—Management. 3. Microsoft Windows server. I. Title. QA76.9.V5B94 2010 005.8—dc22 2010015508 TRADEMARKS: Wiley, the Wiley logo, and the Sybex logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates, in the United States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents Chapter 1  •  What Kind of Protection Do You Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 In the Beginning, There Were Disk and Tape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Overview of Availability Mechanisms..........................................2 Storage Availability .......................................................3 Asynchronous Replication .................................................7 Clustering................................................................9 Application Built-in Availability ........................................... 10 Decision Question: How Asynchronous?.................................... 11 Overview of Protection Mechanisms.......................................... 12 Let’s Talk Tape........................................................... 12 Disk vs. Tape ............................................................ 14 Microsoft Improvements for Windows Backups.............................. 15 Summary.................................................................. 16 Chapter 2  •  Data Protection by the Numbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The Technical Metrics: RPO and RTO ......................................... 19 Recovery Point Objective.................................................. 19 Recovery Time Objective.................................................. 20 Putting RPO and RTO Together............................................ 21 Making RPO and RTO Real with SLAs...................................... 21 Business Metrics: RA and BIA................................................ 24 Risk Analysis (RA): The Science of Worrying ................................ 24 Business Impact Analysis (BIA): How Much Will It Cost?...................... 26 Risk Mitigation: Fixing It in Advance..........................................33 Protection or Productivity?................................................34 Availability..............................................................34 Protection............................................................... 35 Total Cost of Ownership..................................................... 36 Return on Investment ....................................................... 37 Calculating ROI.......................................................... 38 Which ROI Method Is Most Accurate? ...................................... 39 The Credibility Challenge of ROI........................................... 39 Turning IT Needs into Corporate Initiatives.................................... 41 Summary..................................................................42 Chapter 3  •  The Layers of Data Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43 What Data Looks Like from the Server’s Perspective ............................43 Hardware-centric Protection .................................................44 Storage Level 1: Protecting Against Spindle Failure...........................45 Storage Level 2: Protecting Against Array Failure ............................ 51 Storage Level 3: Protecting Against Storage Node Failure ..................... 52 Storage Level 4: Protecting Against SAN Fabric Failure .......................54 How Disk-Based Communication Works.................................... 55 Synchronous Replication in Storage ........................................ 57 File-centric Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Application-Agnostic Replication ..........................................60 How Application-Agnostic Replication Works ............................... 60 Protection and Availability................................................63 When to Use Application-Agnostic Availability ..............................65 Application-centric Protection................................................66 Where to Store Your Protected Data........................................... 67 Tape-Based Protection .................................................... 67 Disk-Based Protection .................................................... 67 Cloud-Based Protection................................................... 70 Use Each Media Type for What It Does Best ................................. 72 Summary.................................................................. 73 Chapter 4  •  Better Backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75 Solving the Problem from the Inside Out ...................................... 75 Supportability and Reliability in Legacy Backup Solutions .................... 76 How Microsoft Addressed the Issue........................................77 Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)...........................................77 VSS Writer .............................................................. 78 VSS Requestor ........................................................... 78 VSS Provider ............................................................ 78 How VSS Backups Work .................................................. 79 The Windows Server Backup Utility........................................... 82 Getting Started with WSB.................................................83 Restoring with WSB ......................................................85 System Center Data Protection Manager ....................................... 87 Why Did Microsoft Build a Backup Product? ................................ 87 How Does DPM Work? ...................................................90 Getting Started with DPM 2010 ............................................ 96 Configuring DPM 2010 Protection......................................... 102 Restoring Data with DPM 2010............................................ 116 Using DPM 2010 in Heterogeneous Environments........................... 135 Disaster Recovery with DPM 2010......................................... 138 Summary................................................................. 141 Chapter 5  •  File Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .143 File System Availability and Protection in Windows Server ..................... 143 What Is the Distributed File System? ......................................... 144 Distributed File System Namespace ....................................... 144 Distributed File System Replication ....................................... 145 DFS Terminology ....................................................... 146 Enabling DFS on Your Windows File Servers .................................. 147 Infrastructure Prerequisites .............................................. 147 Installing DFS on Windows Server 2003 and 2003 R2 ........................ 147 Installing DFS on Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ........................ 149 Getting Started with DFS-N................................................. 150 How a DFS Namespace Works............................................ 150 Configuring a DFS Namespace............................................ 153 Getting Started with DFS-R ................................................. 160 Before DFS-R, There Was FRS............................................. 161 Key Concepts in DFS Replication.......................................... 162 How DFS-R Works: Remote Differential Compression ....................... 162 How Initial Replication Works............................................ 164 Configuring DFS Replication ............................................. 165 DFS Replication Options ................................................. 171 Mixing DFS-R and DFS-N for Real-World Solutions ............................ 174 File Distribution ........................................................ 176 Branch Office Availability and Centralized Backup.......................... 177 Collaboration Between Branches .......................................... 179 Migration and Growth................................................... 179 DFS Enhancements in Windows Server 2008 R2 ............................... 180 Summary................................................................. 181 Chapter 6  •  Windows Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Overview of Clustering in Windows Server 2008 and 2008 R2 ................... 183 Scale Out with Network Load Balancing ................................... 183 Scale Up with Failover Clustering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Failover Clustering Terms and Concepts ................................... 185 The Anatomy of a Failover Cluster ........................................ 186 Building Your First Cluster ................................................. 187 Start with Shared Storage ................................................ 187 Creating Your Virtual Hands-on Environment.............................. 191 Getting Started with MSCS in Windows Server 2008......................... 193 How Failover Clustering Works ............................................. 203 The Cluster Heartbeat ................................................... 203 When Failover Occurs ................................................... 203 Quorum Models........................................................... 204 Witness Disk (Only) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205 Node and Disk Majority ................................................. 205 Node and File Share Majority............................................. 206 Node Majority.......................................................... 206 What Changes with the Third Node and Beyond............................ 208 Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clustering.................................. 210 What’s New in Failover Clustering (Windows Server 2008 R2) ................ 211 Building Your Second Cluster Using Windows Server 2008 R2 in Hyper-V...... 212 Migrating to Windows Server 2008 R2 Failover Clusters...................... 213 Summary................................................................. 219 Chapter 7  •  Microsoft Exchange . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221 Exchange within Microsoft Cluster Services................................... 221 Single Copy Clusters .................................................... 221 Getting Started with SCCs ...............................................222 Failover Behavior .......................................................223 Challenges with SCC .................................................... 224 Exchange 2007 Continuous Replication ....................................... 227 How Does Continuous Replication Work?.................................. 227 Seeding a Database......................................................228 Local Continuous Replication (LCR).......................................228 Cluster Continuous Replication ........................................... 232 Standby Continuous Replication .......................................... 244 Exchange 2010 Database Availability .........................................250 Database Availability Group..............................................250 Getting Started with DAG................................................ 255 Data Protection Considerations with DAG.................................. 262 Summary................................................................. 265 Chapter 8  •  Microsoft SQL Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .267 SQL Server Built-in Resiliency .............................................. 267 SQL Terminology ....................................................... 267 Clustering or Mirroring?................................................. 268 SQL Failover Clustering .................................................... 269 Preparing to Cluster SQL Server .......................................... 269 Task 1: Installing SQL Server onto the First Clustered Node .................. 272 Task 2: Installing SQL Server onto the Second Clustered Node................ 276 What Happens When a Database Changes Nodes? .......................... 278 Should You Cluster SQL Server? ..........................................280 SQL Database Mirroring.................................................... 281 Starting the Mirror Session............................................... 282 How Mirroring Works...................................................283 Task 3: Preparing the Database Mirror..................................... 287 Task 4: Getting Started with Database Mirroring............................ 291 SQL Database Failover...................................................... 292 Can I Get a Witness?..................................................... 293 Task 5: Adding a Witness to the Mirroring Configuration .................... 294 SQL Quorum........................................................... 295 Automatic Failover...................................................... 297 Manual Failover ........................................................ 298 Other Recovery Methods.................................................300 Forcing Service .........................................................300 Client Connectivity...................................................... 301 SQL Log Shipping and Replication........................................... 302 Introducing SQL Log Shipping ...........................................303 Task 6: Getting Started with SQL Log Shipping .............................303 Introducing SQL Replication ............................................. 307 Which SQL Server HA Solution Should You Choose?........................... 307 Backing Up SQL Server.....................................................309 The Most Important Rule in Backing Up SQL Server.........................309 The Other Most Important Rule in SQL Server Backups...................... 310 Restoring Databases with DPM 2010....................................... 311 Summary................................................................. 315 Chapter 9  •  Virtualization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317 Virtualization Changes Everything .......................................... 317 Protecting Virtual Machines ................................................ 317 Challenges in Virtual Machine Protection.................................. 318 VSS-Based Backups of Virtual Machines ................................... 319 Host-Based vs. Guest-Based Backups ...................................... 323 Restoring Virtual Machines .............................................. 326 Availability of Virtual Machines............................................. 327 How Live Migration Works............................................... 329 Defining Clustered Shared Volumes.......................................330 Requirements for LM and CSV............................................ 332 Getting Started with CSV ................................................333 Backing Up CSV Configurations ..........................................342 How Virtualization Makes Data Protection and Availability Better...............343 Disaster Recovery Staging ..................................................344 Legacy Options for Physical BC/DR sites...................................344 Using Virtualization for Physical Server Business Continuity.................345 Using Virtualization for Virtual Server Business Continuity.................. 349 Bare Metal Recovery ....................................................... 349 Server Rollback............................................................350 Summary................................................................. 352 Chapter 10  •  Management and Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353 Well-Managed Systems for Higher Uptime.................................... 353 Large Enterprise Deployment and Manageability..............................354 Introducing Microsoft Systems Management ...............................354 System Center Configuration Manager 2007 R2 and R3....................... 355 Configuration Manager Site System Roles .................................. 356 The Configuration Manager Console ...................................... 358 Asset Identification and Agent Installation ................................. 359 Centralized Software Deployment ........................................ 362 Securing Resources with Software Update Management ..................... 368 Identifying Desired State Compliance ..................................... 373 Deploying Operating Systems ............................................ 376 Preventing Unsecure System Access....................................... 382 Virtualization Management.................................................383 Overview of VMM 2008 R2...............................................384 Key Features of VMM 2008 R2............................................ 387 Intelligent Placement for VMs ............................................ 388 Integration with Operations Manager...................................... 389 Midsized Management: Physical and Virtual.................................. 398 Introducing SCE 2010.................................................... 399 Getting Started with SCE 2010 ............................................ 399 Summary.................................................................409 Chapter 11  •  Monitoring Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .411 The Need for Monitoring ................................................... 411 Challenges in Monitoring................................................... 412 Enterprise End-to-End Monitoring........................................... 413 Introducing Operations Manager 2007 R2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415 Getting Started with Operations Manager.................................. 418 Monitoring the Health and Performance of Key Workloads .....................428 Monitoring Data Protection Manager...................................... 429 Monitoring Distributed File Services ...................................... 429 Monitoring Windows Failover Clustering ..................................430 Monitoring Exchange Replication ......................................... 431 Monitoring SQL Mirroring............................................... 431 Monitoring Virtualization................................................ 432 Monitoring in Midsized Organizations Using System Center Essentials ..........434 Introducing SCE 2010....................................................434 Discovering Midsized Resources..........................................435 Monitoring Midsized Environments.......................................436 Knowledge Applied to Midsized Scenarios.................................438 Virtualization Monitored in Midsized Datacenters ..........................440 Summary................................................................. 441 Chapter 12  •  Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .443 What Makes BC and DR So Special?..........................................443 Real Business Continuity Planning........................................443 Regulatory Compliance..................................................446 The Real Reason to Do Disaster Recovery .................................. 462 Get Your Data Out of the Building ...........................................463 Don’t Cry “I Wasn’t Ready Yet” ...........................................464 Tactical DR vs. Strategic Disaster Preparedness .............................465 BC = DR + HA.............................................................465 Multiple Datacenters ....................................................466 Branch Offices’ BCDR....................................................468 Branch Offices for DR.................................................... 470 Hosted Providers ....................................................... 470 Service Providers ....................................................... 471 BC/DR Solution Alternatives................................................ 472 Application- or Workload-Specific Features................................. 472 Application-Agnostic Replication and Failover.............................. 473 Using Virtualization to Achieve Business Continuity........................... 474 Challenges with Traditional Disaster Recovery Staging ...................... 474 Disaster Recovery Staging, Virtually ...................................... 475 Restoring Your Infrastructure within Hyper-V.............................. 478 Additional Notes on Virtualized BC/DR Sites .............................. 481 Planning for BC/DR to Get Better Backups and Availability..................... 482 Summary.................................................................483 Where BC/DR is today...................................................483 Where BC/DR is heading ................................................483 Appendix  •  Links and Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .485 Microsoft Software.........................................................485 Topical Resources..........................................................485 Chapter 4: Data Protection Manager.......................................486 Chapters 4, 5, and 6: Windows Server......................................486 Chapter 7: Exchange..................................................... 487 Chapter 8: SQL Server ...................................................488 Chapter 9: Virtualization.................................................488 Chapters 10 and 11: System Center ........................................488 Chapter 12: BC and DR .................................................. 489 The Author ............................................................... 490 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .491 Chapter 1 What Kind of Protection Do You Need? The term data protection means different things to different people. Rather than asking what kind of protection you need, you should ask what data protection problem you are trying to solve. Security people discuss data protection in terms of access, where authentication, physical access, and fire- walls are the main areas of focus. Other folks talk about protecting the integrity of the data with antivirus or antimalware functions. This chapter discusses protecting your data as an assurance of its availability in its current or previous forms. Said another way, this book splits data protection into two concepts. We’ll define data protec- tion as preserving your data and data availability as ensuring the data is always accessible. So, what are you solving for — protection or availability? The short answer is that while you’d like to say both, there is a primary and a secondary priority. More importantly, as we go through this book, you’ll learn that it is almost never one technology that delivers both capabilities. in the Beginning, There Were Disk and Tape Disk was where data lived — always, we hoped. Tape was where data rested — forever, we presumed. Both beliefs were incorrect. Because this book is focused on Windows data protection, we won’t go back to the earliest days of IT and computers. But to appreciate where data protection and availability are today, we will briefly explore the methods that came before. It’s a good way for us to frame most of the technology approaches that are available today. Understanding where they came from will help us appreciate what each is best designed to address. We don’t have to go back to the beginning of time for this explanation or even back to when computers became popular as mainframes. Instead, we’ll go back to when Windows was first becoming a viable server platform. During the late 1980s, local area networks (LANs) and servers were usually Novell NetWare. More notably for the readers of this book, data protection typically equated to connecting a tape drive to the network administrator’s workstation. When the administrator went home at night, the software would log on as the administrator, presumably with full access rights, and protect all the data on the server. In 1994, Windows NT started to become a server operating system of choice, or at least a serious contender in networking, with the grandiose dream of displacing NetWare in most environments. Even with the “revolutionary” ability to connect a tape drive directly to your server, your two choices for data protection were still either highly available disk or nightly tape. With those as your only two choices, you didn’t need to identify the difference between data protection and data availability. Data protection in those days was (as it is now) about preventing data loss from