Transcript
Azure Backup for Dell EMC XC Xpress HyperConverged Appliances – Solutions Guide Azure Backup with XC Xpress using Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC Dell EMC Engineering June 2017
A Dell EMC Solutions Guide
Revisions Date
Description
June 2017
Initial document
June 2017
Updated Conclusion
The information in this publication is provided “as is.” Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license. Copyright © 2017 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell, EMC, and other trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Other trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. Published in the USA. [6/28/2017] [Solutions Guide] [| A01] Dell EMC believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change without notice.
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Table of contents Revisions.............................................................................................................................................................................2 Executive summary.............................................................................................................................................................5 1
2
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................................................7 1.1
Objective .............................................................................................................................................................7
1.2
Audience .............................................................................................................................................................7
1.3
Terms ..................................................................................................................................................................8
Technology overview ....................................................................................................................................................9 2.1
Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances ...........................................................................................9
2.1.1 Nutanix architecture ..........................................................................................................................................10 2.2
Azure backup from Dell EMC ...........................................................................................................................11
2.2.1 How to get Azure Backup from Dell EMC ........................................................................................................12
3
2.3
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS) .........................................................................................13
2.4
Microsoft Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS) ................................................................................................14
Azure Backup solution architecture ............................................................................................................................15 3.1
Overview and setup of Azure Backup from Dell EMC ......................................................................................16
3.2
Overview of the XC Xpress with Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS) .....................................................16
3.2.1 XC Xpress Hyper-V solution with MARS technology .......................................................................................17 3.3
Overview of the XC Xpress with Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS)............................................................17
3.3.1 XC Xpress Hyper-V solution with MABS technology........................................................................................18 4
Azure Backup scenarios.............................................................................................................................................19 4.1
XC setup tasks with Azure and MARS .............................................................................................................19
4.1.1 Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of files using MARS ..........................................................20 4.2
XC setup tasks with Azure and MABS .............................................................................................................27
4.2.1 Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of Exchange Workload using MABS.................................29 4.2.2 Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of SQL Workload using MABS .........................................41
3
5
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................................................51
6
Technical support and resources ...............................................................................................................................52
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Related resources ......................................................................................................................................................53
A
Azure backup solution configuration details ...............................................................................................................54 A.1
System configuration with MARS .....................................................................................................................54
A.2
System configuration with MABS .....................................................................................................................55
A.3
MABS backup server configuration ..................................................................................................................56
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A.4
4
Network configurations .....................................................................................................................................56
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Executive summary This document provides a solutions guide for Azure Backup of Dell EMC XC Xpress appliances using Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC. Azure Backup is a feature of Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC. You can store multiple copies of onpremises data such as files, folders, and workloads across multiple Azure datacenters/regions and the data can be encrypted while in transit and at rest. Dell EMC provides a streamlined on-boarding and set-up process with Azure Cloud Services. Azure Cloud Services takes care of all of the mechanics for account and subscription set-up and has a customer fully operational in a matter of hours. Dell EMC provides a single point of monitoring and integrated billing with the Dell EMC Azure Control Portal for all of the Azure Cloud Services used. With Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC there are no up-front capital expenses. Customers pay only for services consumed with pay-as-you-go pricing to help customers adopt hybrid clouds quickly and effortlessly. The Azure backup scenarios covered in this solutions guide are for files, folders and workloads from an onpremises XC Xpress cluster. The two Microsoft backup technologies to accommodate these scenarios are:
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS) Microsoft Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS)
The Dell EMC XC Xpress cluster brings the power and simplicity of the XC Series to smaller IT organizations with a simple, reliable, and affordable “Out-of-the-box” infrastructure solution. This solution combines industry proven Dell PowerEdge servers and Nutanix software from each appliance into a shared-everything model for simplified operations, improved agility, and greater flexibility. Dell EMC and Nutanix together deliver simple, cost effective solutions for the SMB and midmarket workloads yet includes enterprise level features such as deduplication, compression, cloning and tiering. The simplification comes from having the hardware and software installed at the factory on an appliance that is ready to deploy out of the box and optimized for a smaller environment.
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The XC Xpress platform is hypervisor agnostic, and supports your choice of hypervisor. With a focus on easeof-use and the ability to rapidly deploy multiple virtualized workloads the XC Xpress is the preferred platform for many SMB and midmarket customers alike. The XC Xpress platform uses the Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF) which delivers a unified pool-of-storage from all appliances across the cluster, using techniques including:
Striping Replication Auto-tiering Error detection Failover Automatic recovery
XC Xpress delivers storage through multiple protocols such as NFS, SMB, and iSCSI while leveraging standard network infrastructure.
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Introduction This Solutions Guide identifies how to integrate Dell EMC XC Xpress hyper-converged appliances with Azure Backup from Dell EMC using the following Azure Backup components:
Microsoft Azure Recovery Service (MARS) - Files / folders Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS) - Files / folders / workloads (example: SQL and Exchange)
Note: MABS also supports VM backups, but at this time this feature is not supported on XC Xpress clusters. This guide also conveys key integration points between an XC Xpress cluster, Azure backup from Dell EMC, and cloud backup to Microsoft Azure.
1.1
Objective This paper presents:
1.2
An overview of Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances An overview and benefits using of Azure Backup from Dell EMC High-level configuration of XC Xpress cluster integrated with Azure Backup from Dell EMC Concluding thoughts on XC Xpress and backup/restore use cases
Audience This document is intended for decision makers, managers, architects, cloud administrators, backup administrators, and technical administrators of IT environments who want a solution guide that demonstrates backup of workloads, data, files and folders based on Hyper-V hypervisors. You must be familiar with Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances, Microsoft Hyper-V, Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC, and have a basic familiarity with storage, compute, and network technologies. Business and end-user readers of this document must be familiar with general IT, backup and cloud technologies, and have an understanding of the relationship between their business, IT, and the backup requirements that are part of multiple business units.
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1.3
Terms Solution terminology
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Term
Description
Nutanix Distributed Storage Fabric (DSF)
DSF delivers a unified pool of storage from all appliances across the cluster, using techniques including striping, replication, auto-tiering, error detection, failover, and automatic recovery.
Cloud tier
Cloud tier automatically backs up files (typically inactive) to cloud storage for long term retention (LTR).
Hyper-converged
Hyper-converged seamlessly integrates server and storage resources in a fully redundant solution.
Tiering
Tiering stores data on various types of media based on performance, availability, and recovery requirements.
XC Xpress cluster
An XC Xpress cluster is a hyper-converged infrastructure solution that consolidates compute and storage into a single integrated appliance and creates a distributed virtual computing platform. Each appliance in the cluster runs an industry standard hypervisor and all the appliances work together to form a cluster which is scalable.
XC Xpress container
XC Xpress container is a logical segmentation of the storage pool and contains a group of VMs or files.
MABS Agent
Microsoft Azure Backup Server - can protect application workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange and Windows clients from a single console. Note: MABS also supports VM backups, but at this time this feature is not supported on XC Xpress clusters.
MARS Agent
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent can protect application files and folders from a single console.
Azure Backup from Dell EMC
A flexible, secure, scalable solution for data running in Azure, virtual machines, or on physical servers. Stores multiple copies of data in multiple datacenters/regions, encrypts data in transit and at rest.
Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC
Used to modernize core IT capabilities including: backup, application migration/replication, infrastructure as a service, business continuity and software development/testing.
PRISM
PRISM is a Nutanix based software that enables simple, centralized infrastructure management powered by advanced data analytics and heuristics with built-in automation.
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Technology overview Dell EMC customers benefit in leveraging this integrated solution for their primary workload data protection needs. This integrated solution offers deployment and lifecycle management for the combined solution offering. Protection for newly deployed and existing workloads, databases, files and folders. Easy usage of Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC and best practices and the consequent streamlining of the data protection workflow are the primary goals for this solution. This section provides an overview of the products used to validate the solution.
2.1
Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances Dell EMC XC Xpress hyper-converged appliances start with the proven Dell PowerEdge 13th generation R430 server platform and incorporates many of the advanced software technologies that power leading scalable and cloud infrastructures and is the preferred platform for SMB and midmarket customers. Backed by Dell EMC global service and support, these 1U appliances are preconfigured for specific virtualized workloads, and are designed to maintain data availability in case of node and disk failure. The XC Xpress infrastructure is a scalable cluster of high-performance appliances (up to 4 appliances), or servers, each running a standard hypervisor and containing processors, memory, and local storage (consisting of solid state disk (SSD) flash for high performance and high-capacity SATA disk drives). Each appliance runs virtual machines just like a standard hypervisor host as displayed in Figure 1.
Standard hypervisor host.
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2.1.1
Nutanix architecture Nutanix software provides a hyper-converged platform that uses DSF to share and present local storage to all the virtual machines in the cluster. The general Nutanix architecture is shown in Figure 2.
Nutanix Architecture. DSF virtualizes local storage from all appliances into a unified pool. DSF uses local SSDs and disks from all appliances to store virtual machine data. Virtual machines running on the cluster write data to DSF as if they were writing to shared storage. XC Xpress supports multiple hypervisors and provides choice to customer. In addition, DSF virtualizes local storage from all appliances into a unified pool. DSF uses local SSDs and disks from all appliances to store virtual machine data. Virtual machines running on the cluster write data to DSF as if they were writing to shared storage. XC Xpress offers customer a choice of hypervisors without being locked-in. In this document, the focus is on using Microsoft Hyper-V. In addition, the solution includes the Nutanix Controller VM (CVM), which runs Nutanix software and serves I/O operations for the hypervisor and all VMs running on that host. Each CVM connects directly to the local storage controller and its associated disks thereby reducing the storage I/O latency. The data locality feature ensures virtual machine I/Os are served by the local CVM on the same hypervisor appliance, improving the VM I/O performance regardless of where it runs.
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2.2
Azure backup from Dell EMC Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC provides comprehensive end-to-end solutions, including public cloud provisioning, billing, support, and services. The Azure Backup feature is offered as a pay-as-you-go, nocontract, monthly service. Dell EMCs white glove onboarding for backup ensures that you are fully configured and operational for the service. In addition, Dell EMC offers a fee-based support for backup and tiering. Dell EMC offers four hour blocks of remote consulting services that can assist your backup implementation. Protect all your applications and data: Eliminate the hassle of tape backup Keep your backup offsite with six copies of data across two datacenters Get a 99.9 percent availability guarantee Lower your cost of incremental and full backups, and eliminate the cost of additional backup capacity Secure your data with encryption in transit and at rest Ensure you are compliant with long-term retention For Hyper-V, VMware, and physical environments Protect critical workloads and data wherever it exists, in VMs, in Azure, or on physical hosts
Reduce the burden on your IT department and deliver greater efficiency: Simplify key IT services Free IT from having to manage the mechanics of backing up and restoring Adopt a usage-based consumption model Get a single-point-of-contact for service provisioning, and technical and billing support
Become more agile with a comprehensive infrastructure plan for your business: Quickly scale IT services to match business demand. Scale capacity as needed, when you want it, and on demand. Transform legacy IT services to agile, scale-on-demand, cloudbased services. Migrate to cloud services on your terms and your timeframe with a choice of engagement models. Leverage Dell and Microsoft expertise to extend and enhance data center operations with trusted services used by over 90% of the Fortune 500.
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Benefits from Azure Backup from Dell EMC
2.2.1
Benefits
Description
Environment
Used to back up physical, hybrid, and cloud environments.
Scheduling
You can specify daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly policies.
Retention
Data can be retained in Azure for up to 99 years.
Throttling
You can configure network throttling so that optimal bandwidth usage happens during off-peak time.
Incremental
After the initial seeding, backups are incremental, ensuring that resources such as storage and bandwidth are efficiently used.
Compression
Data is compressed on the client side so there is less bandwidth consumption and less storage consumed.
Secure
Data is encrypted in your datacenter and stored encrypted in Azure – the encryption key is stored and managed locally.
Reliable
Three copies of the data are stored to a single datacenter location and optionally, at an additional, remote datacenter.
How to get Azure Backup from Dell EMC To sign up email:
[email protected] To get more details on Azure Backup from Dell EMC, go to the following website: http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/learn/microsoft-cloud-azure-services-from-dell
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2.3
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS) Azure Recovery Services Agent can protect application files and folders from a single console. Back up Windows Server (or Windows computer) files and folders to Azure using deployment of the Resource Manager. Component
Benefits
Limits
Azure Recovery Services (MARS) agent
Back up files and folders on physical or virtual Windows operating system (VMs can be onpremises or in Azure) No separate backup server required.
Backup up to 3x per day Not application aware; file, folder, and volume-level restore only No support for Linux.
What is protected?
Where are backups stored?
Files Folders
Recovery Services vault
MARS Agent Overview
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2.4
Microsoft Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS) With Azure Backup Server, you can protect application workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange and Windows clients from a single console. Azure Backup Server Benefits
Limits
What is protected?
Where are backups stored?
App aware snapshots (VSS) Full flexibility for when to take backups Recovery granularity (all) Can use Recovery Services vault Linux support on Hyper-V and VMware VMs Backup and restore VMware VMs Does not required a System Center license
Cannot back up Oracle workload. Always requires live Azure subscription. No support for tape backup. Separate on-premises server required (to run MABS)
Recovery Services vault Locally attached disk
Files Folders Volumes VMs Applications Workloads
Note: VM Backups are not supported for the Dell EMC XC430 Xpress cluster at this time.
MABS Agent Overview
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Azure Backup solution architecture Dell EMC is advancing the robustness of Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliance infrastructure (HCI) environments by integrating with Microsoft Azure backup solutions. This solution helps administrators reduce the complexity of their data protection environment while adhering to data protection best practices.
Azure Backup
Benefits of using Azure Backup Benefits
Definition
Deliver efficiency
Free IT from managing the mechanics of backing up and restoring.
Lower costs
Pay for what you use, with consumption based pricing.
Simplify data backup services
With a single-point-of-contact for service provisioning, setup, technical and billing support.
Reliable
Offers 99.9 percent availability guarantee.
Eliminate costly overprovisioning
Of backup capacity, scale capacity on-demand.
Ensure compliance
Ensure compliance with data retention regulations.
Flexible
Backup data from VMs (Hyper-V, ESXi), physical servers.
The network topology used for this solution uses redundant switches, which allows for redundancy in the network paths between components.
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For an overview of the network topologies used,see Appendix A.4.
3.1
Overview and setup of Azure Backup from Dell EMC For more step-by-step details on setting up the Azure Recovery Services vault go to the following site: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-configure-vault
3.2
Overview of the XC Xpress with Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS) Figure 6 shows an overview of high-level integration and data flow between the XC Xpress cluster, MARS, and Azure.
Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment using MARS backup technology – for files/folder backups
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3.2.1
XC Xpress Hyper-V solution with MARS technology The table here shows key Azure backup components that you must deploy and configure when using MARS. Azure backup components when using MARS. Component
Description
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services Agent (MARS)
Agent software used to transfer data to the Microsoft Azure Recovery Services vault. It must be registered with the Microsoft Azure Recovery Service Vault.
Microsoft Azure Online storage entity in Azure used to hold data such as backup copies, Recovery Services vault recovery points, and backup policies.
3.3
Overview of the XC Xpress with Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS) This section provides an overview of high-level integration and data flow between the XC Xpress cluster, MABS, and Azure.
Dell EMC XC Xpress Hyper-converged appliances in a Microsoft Hyper-V environment using MABS backup technology – for workload and files/folder backups
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3.3.1
XC Xpress Hyper-V solution with MABS technology The table shown here includes the Key Azure backup components that you must deploy and configure when using MABS. Table 7 Key Azure backup components when using MABS.
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Component
Description
Microsoft Azure Backup Server Agent (MABS)
Microsoft Azure Backup Server - can protect application workloads such as Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint Server, Microsoft Exchange and Windows clients from a single console.
Microsoft Azure Recovery Services vault
Online storage entity in Azure used to hold data such as backup copies, recovery points, and backup policies.
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Azure Backup scenarios There are various types of components and workloads that you can backup depending on the required protection scenarios, based on business requirements. The Azure Backup scenarios, which were validated as part of this solution are listed below. Validated Azure backup scenarios
4.1
Item
Description
Azure Portal
Using Resource Manager Portal and not the Classic Portal.
Files and folders
Using either MARS or MABS, you can backup and recover files and folders to the Azure cloud.
Workloads/applications (for example: SQL and Exchange)
A MABS application aware client can seamlessly allow database and mailboxes to be backed up to, and recovered from, the Azure Cloud.
XC setup tasks with Azure and MARS The tables in this section outline the XC setup tasks with Azure and MARS.
Setting up and registering Target Azure Recovery Services vault Task
Description
Creating a Recovery Services vault
Sign into Azure Portal using credentials provided by Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC and create the Recovery Services vault. Also assign geographical location of where the backups will be stored as well as redundancy.
Configure the Recovery Services vault
Identify where workloads are running (on-premises). Also determine what to backup (files and folders).
Setting up source environment for Azure Backup
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Task
Description
Creating containers in Nutanix Foundation PRISM
Prior to creation of VMs, you must create a storage container in PRISM.
Creating VMs
Use Hyper-V to create VMs on the appliances in the XC Xpress cluster.
Configuring VM hardware
The virtual hardware in the VM must be configured to the right resource reservations you have available.
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Setup Source Systems for backup Task
Description
Install and register the agent
Download the MARS agent from the Azure portal, install on the source VM, and register with the Recovery Services vault.
Scheduling backup and retention policy setup Task
Description
Scheduling a backup
In the MARS agent, you can schedule when and what to backup.
Setting up retention policy
In the MARS agent, you can select and customize a retention policy for each scheduled backup.
Performing the backup
Backups can be performed based on the created schedule or can be performed on-demand. MARS agent console will show status of a backup job.
For more step-by-step details on backing up with MARS, go to the following site: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-try-azure-backup-in-10-mins
4.1.1
Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of files using MARS The following screenshots display an example Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of files using MARS.
Microsoft Azure Backup console before starting any file/folder backups.
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A TestFolder and two Test files created for demonstration. Test1 and Test2 saved at 1:06PM and 1:07PM, respectively. Test1.txt has some text in it that we will modify and then restore. Test2.txt will be deleted and then restored.
The folder and two files selected for backup to Azure.
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The backup job has completed.
Backup console shows the backup completed at 1:36PM.
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Azure recovery services vault showing files and folders backed up from the machine with the MARS Agent installed and completed at 1:36:35 PM.
Test1 modified with additional line of text and saved at 1:42PM. Test2 was deleted.
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Start of recovery process. Chose the backup from 1:36 PM. Clicked Mount to create a recovery volume with the recoverable files/folders.
Recovery volume has been created as the E:\ drive.
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Original TestFolder on C:\ drive and the Recovery volume E:\ drive open. Original location still showing Test1 with modified time of 1:42 PM and no Test2 file. Recovery volume shows both files with original creation time of 1:06 PM and 1:07 PM.
Copy both files from E:\ drive to C:\ drive.
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Chose to replace files in C:\ drive with files copied from E:\ drive.
Original location shows files back to the original creation time. Once completed, clicked the Unmount button in the Recover Data Wizard to remove the recovery volume.
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Backup console showing completed recovery at 1:47 PM.
4.2
XC setup tasks with Azure and MABS The tables in this section list the XC setup tasks with Azure and MABS. Setting up and registering Target Azure Recovery Services vault
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Task
Description
Creating a Recovery Services vault
Sign into Azure Portal using credentials provided by Azure Cloud Services from Dell EMC and create the Recovery Services vault. Also assign geographical location of where the backups will be stored as well as redundancy.
Configure the Recovery Services vault
Identify where workloads are running (on-premises). Also determine what to backup (files, folders, workloads)
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Setting up MABS Server (on-premises) Task
Description
Create Microsoft Azure Backup Server
Install windows Server 2012 R2 DataCenter with Hyper-V manager role to support Hyper-V VMs.
Add MABS server to a domain
Join a domain that is accessible by the XC Xpress cluster.
Create VM to host MABS server
Use Hyper-V to create VM on the Windows Server.
Configure the Recovery Services vault
Identify that workloads are running on-premises. Also determine what to backup (files and folders, VMs, workloads)
Install and register MABS
Download MABS from Azure portal and install on MABS Server VM. Download credentials and register system with the Recovery Services vault.
Setting up VM for files/folder and workload backup Task
Description
Resolve firewall dependency
Either create the necessary exceptions in the Windows firewall, or disable the firewall temporarily on each target server that will be protected. To learn more, go to https://technet.microsoft.com/enus/library/hh757794(v=sc.12).aspx
Discover VMs
From the MABS Server, use the MABS management console to locate target VMs.
Download MABS agent
In the MABS management console, push the agent to the target VM.
Scheduling and Retention policy setup task Task
Description
Scheduling a backup
In the MABS management console, you can schedule when and what to backup.
Setting up retention policy
In the MABS management console, select and customize a retention policy for each scheduled backup.
Performing the backup
Backups can be performed based on the created schedule or can be performed on-demand. MABS management console shows status of a backup job.
For more step-by-step details on backing up with MABS, go to the following site: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-microsoft-azure-backup
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4.2.1
Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of Exchange Workload using MABS For additional information about backing up an Exchange server to Azure Backup with Azure Backup Server – see: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-exchange-mabs
Start protection group creation process. This shows Exchange server has the agent installed and is recognized as an Exchange server. Exchange database “Database01” is selected to backup for demonstration.
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Shows protection group has been created, replica allocated, and online policy created.
Instead of waiting for defined start time, we started the Online Recovery Point creation manually to speed things up.
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Shows recovery point created at 7:34:01 PM.
Shows Azure backup space used.
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Azure recovery vault showing Database01 backed up to Azure at 7:34:01 PM.
Test user account mailbox sent six items. Time is 8:28 PM.
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Three emails deleted at 8:29 PM.
Start of recovery process. We chose the original online backup time of 7:34 PM. Database01 was selected as the recoverable item.
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Start of recovery wizard showing the selected item to be recovered.
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Recover to the original Exchange database. This overwrites current database with version that was backed up. The AllowFileRestore flag was required to be set to true on current database to use the original location option.
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Database was set to be mounted after recovery.
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Summary showing Database01 was originally on WindowsTest2 will be recovered to WindowsTest2 from the online recovery point in Azure.
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Progress of the recovery.
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Recovery successfully completed at 8:32:40 PM.
Test user mailbox at 8:34 PM showing all six items available again.
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MABS server jobs showing the replica creation, online recovery point, scheduled recovery point ran, recovery from Azure to the staging area, then from staging area to original location on WindowsTest2.
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4.2.2
Example of Microsoft Azure backup and recovery of SQL Workload using MABS For more information about backing up an SQL Server to Azure with an Azure Backup Server, go to: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-sql-mabs
Start protection group creation process. This shows the SQL server has agent installed and is recognized as a SQL server. The SQL database shows “Master” is selected to backup for demonstration.
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Shows protection group created, replica allocated, and online policy created.
Instead of waiting for the defined start time, we started the recovery point creation manually to speed things up.
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Shows recovery point created at 5:55:34 PM.
Shows Azure backup space used.
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Azure recovery vault showing “Master” database backed up to Azure at 5:55:34 PM.
Start of recovery process. Original online backup time of 5:55 PM is selected. “Master” database is selected as the recoverable item.
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Start of recovery wizard showing selected item to be recovered.
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Recover to original SQL instance. This overwrites current database with version that was backed up.
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Summary showing the “Master” database originally on SQL-1A will be recovered to SQL-1A from the online recovery point in Azure.
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Progress of recovery.
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Recovery successfully completed at 7:08:42 PM.
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MABS server jobs showing replica creation, online recovery point, recovery from Azure to staging area, then from staging area to original location on SQL-1A.
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Conclusion The solution detailed in this paper shows that you can integrate a Dell EMC XC430 Xpress cluster with Azure Backup from Dell EMC to offer robust backup and recovery. With the power of Dell EMC XC Xpress, you get a solution that is:
Ready to easily deploy out of the box with software already installed Optimized for smaller environment Hypervisor comes preinstalled Tight integration with Microsoft Multi-hypervisor support Powerful enough to run any application or consolidate any workload into a single cluster Easily managed by a single person Complete all in one solution
By combining a Dell EMC XC Xpress cluster and Azure Backup from Dell EMC, you can backup and restore your workloads, files, and folders on premise to Microsoft Azure in a way that is reliable, secure, and costcompetitive. With Azure Backup, you get a solution that provides seamless cloud backup providing you peace of mind that mission critical data is backed up safely and securely. XC Xpress and Azure Backup Service is a complete all in one solution for your backup and recovery needs.
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Technical support and resources
Dell.com/support is focused on meeting customer needs with proven services and support.
Dell EMC XC Series Hyper-converged appliances Solution is an online technical community where IT professionals have access to numerous resources for Dell EMC XC Series hyper-converged appliances. http://www.dell.com/XCSeriesSolutions for all white papers associated with Dell EMC XC Series.
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Related resources See the following referenced or recommended resources related to this document: Note: The links below are open to customers although some may require registration for access.
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Nutanix Bible: http://nutanixbible.com/ Nutanix blog: http://longwhiteclouds.com/ Acropolis Block Services: http://go.nutanix.com/rs/031-GVQ-112/images/acropolis-block-services.pdf Dell EMC Tech Center for XC Series: http://en.community.dell.com/techcenter/storage/w/wiki/11454.dell-emc-xc-series-hyper-convergedsolution Azure Services from Dell EMC: http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/learn/microsoft-cloud-azure-servicesfrom-dell Azure Recovery Services vault setup: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backupconfigure-vault Introduction to Azure Backup: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-introduction-toazure-backup Microsoft Azure Recovery Services agent (MARS): https://docs.microsoft.com/enus/azure/backup/backup-try-azure-backup-in-10-mins Configure firewall settings: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh757794(v=sc.12).aspx Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS): https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backupazure-microsoft-azure-backup Back up an Exchange server to Azure Backup with Azure Backup Server: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/backup/backup-azure-exchange-mabs Back up SQL Server to Azure with Azure Backup Server: https://docs.microsoft.com/enus/azure/backup/backup-azure-sql-mabs Supported configurations on which MABS can be deployed, go to following site: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh758176.aspx DPM server hardware requirements to be used for a MABS, go to the following site: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj651645(v=sc.12).aspx
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A
Azure backup solution configuration details
A.1
System configuration with MARS Primary Hyper-V system configuration with MARS Primary Source configuration: hardware and software components
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Description
XC Xpress
3x XC430 Xpress @ 1U: Firmware/BIOS: 2.3.4 Hypervisor: Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Datacenter AOS: 4.7.5.2 2 x Intel Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v4 2.1 Ghz 128 GB RAM (32 x 4 GB DIMMS) 1 x 960 GB SATA SSD drives 3 x 6 TB SAS drives 1 x Intel ® X520
Windows VM configuration
1 x Windows VM Windows Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
Windows VM that is hosting the files and folders to be backed up to Azure.
MARS agent
Version: 2.0.9077.0
MARS agent installed on the Windows VM.
Network
2x Dell EMC Networking S4048-ON switches
Dual redundant switches were used for high availability.
Monitoring
Nutanix PRISM Microsoft Hyper-V Manager
Monitoring for XC Xpress cluster is done using Nutanix PRISM and Microsoft Hyper-V Manager.
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A.2
System configuration with MABS Primary Hyper-V system configuration with MABS Primary Source configuration: hardware and software components
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Description
XC Xpress
3x XC430 Xpress @ 1U: Firmware/BIOS: 2.3.4 Hypervisor: Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Datacenter AOS: 4.7.5.2 2x Intel Xeon® CPU E5-2620 v4 2.1 Ghz 128 GB RAM (4 x 32 GB DIMMS) 1 x 960 GB SATA SSD drives 3 x 6 TB SAS drives 1 x Intel ® X520
Windows VM configuration
4 x Windows VM for (SQL, Exchange, Windows Workloads) Hypervisor: Microsoft Server 2012 R2 Datacenter
Windows VMs that is hosting the files and folders and workloads to be backed up to Azure.
MABS
Version: 12.0.332.0
Backup management console that’s installed on the Windows VM that is hosting the files and folders and workloads to be backed up to Azure.
Network
2x Dell EMC Networking S4048-ON switches
Dual redundant switches were used for high availability
Monitoring
Nutanix Prism Microsoft Hyper-V Manager
Monitoring for XC Xpress cluster is done using Nutanix PRISM and Microsoft Hyper-V Manager.
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A.3
MABS backup server configuration Microsoft Azure Backup Server (MABS), is functionally equivalent to System Center Data Protection Manager (DPM) with three differences:
MABS does not integrate with System Center. MABS does not support backup to tape. MABS requires an active Azure Backup subscription.
DPM server hardware requirements applies to MABS. For more detailed information about supported configurations on which MABS can be deployed, go to following site: https://technet.microsoft.com/library/hh758176.aspx For more details on the DPM server hardware requirements to be used for a MABS, go to the following site: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj651645(v=sc.12).aspx
For more details on MABS, go to the following site: https://docs.microsoft.com/enus/azure/backup/backup-azure-microsoft-azure-backup
Below are limitations for MABS: Azure Backup Server is designed to run on a dedicated, single-purpose server. You cannot install Azure Backup Server on: A computer running as a domain controller A computer on which the Application Server role is installed A computer that is a System Center Operations Manager management server A computer on which Exchange Server is running A computer that is a node in a cluster
A.4
Network configurations The network diagrams below in figures 53 and 54 show the ideal network topology used for this solution. This solution used a Dell Networking S4048-ON switches. A minimum of two 10 GbE interfaces are recommended for each host. Each host should connect to dual redundant switches for network path redundancy. Network components
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Components
Description
Data and management network
10 GbE switch (optical)
XC internode connection (VM traffic)
10 GbE switch (optical)
iDRAC inband network
1 GbE switch (copper)
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Network topology for MARS Hyper-V environment.
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Network topology for MABS Hyper-V environment.
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