Backing up Windows workloads can be a challenge, and cumbersome for many companies. Backup and recovery for Windows workloads on AWS, however, can be easy. This session will cover best practices for backup and recovery, how to configure Windows workloads to back up to AWS; pitfalls to look out for; and recommended reference architectures.
2. Backup and Recovery Solution Space
On Prem Backup and Recovery
Process to protect data in the event of accidental deletion, corruption or failure with the ability to
restore data to given point in time.
Disaster Recovery
Ability to restore service in the event of failure.
Storage
Snapshots
Storage ISV Hypervisor Tape Storage
Off-site Tape
Vault
Archiving
Long term retention of data, generally for
compliance requirements.
3. Backup & Recovery Challenges
Backup systems are often underfunded
Organizations forget about recovery
• Bad recovery experiences trigger backup system changes
Backup systems change slowly
• Always try to work with existing platforms
No one cares about backups. Everyone cares about recovery.
5. Remote Office/Branch Office Backups
clients
Field office
Internet
Home office
client
Hotel
client
Airport
client
Coffee Shop
client
Data Center
6. Common Backup and Recovery
Data growth spiraling out of control
• Challenging to meet backup windows
Traditional technologies and processes don’t scale
Try to accurately predict storage needs
Bandwidth / WAN constraints for remote office / branch office (ROBO)
RPOs / RTOs can be difficult to achieve
• Recovery Point Objective
• Recovery Time Objective
Backup and Archive HW + SW is expensive
Tape is unreliable, cumbersome, error prone, with low durability
Off-site vaulting is cumbersome
Days or Weeks
7. Why AWS for backup?
Metered usage:
Pay as you go
No capital investment
No commitment
No risky capacity planning
Avoid Opex and risks of
physical media
handling
Control your
geographic locality for
performance and
compliance
11. Long term backup retention in Amazon Glacier
Stop managing
physical media
Amazon Glacier has
lower cost than
Amazon S3 with the
same durability
Amazon Glacier is
optimized for infrequent
retrieval
12. Easy ways to transfer data
AWS Direct Connect
Dedicated connectivity
to AWS Edge Locations
AWS Import/Export
Data transfer using
portable disk drives
Transfer data in a
secure SSL tunnel over
the public Internet
13. Where AWS fits natively: S3 & Glacier
Backup
Master
Backup
Database
Media
Server
Media
Amazon S3
WANBoundary
Amazon Glacier
or
Client
Client
HTTPS
HTTPS
HTTPS
14. Where AWS fits natively: AWS Storage Gateway
Backup
Master
Backup
Database
Media
Server
Media
Amazon S3
AWS Storage
Gateway
cached
volume
virtual tape
library
VTL
WANBoundary
Caching
disk
Amazon Glacier
iSCSI
16. Branch office backup to cloud
Considerations:
- Backup Software
- Storage / Caching Gateway
- WAN or Internet
- Deduplication
- Compression
- Encryption
- WAN Acceleration
17. Core data center backup to cloud
Considerations:
- Backup Software
- Storage / Caching gateway
- Direct Connect or Internet
- Telco Burst Models
- Time Warner Telecom
- Deduplication
- Compression
- Encryption
- WAN Acceleration
18. Cloud backup to Cloud
Applications running on EC2 backing up to S3 / Glacier
Considerations:
- Backup software
- Encryption
- Deduplication
- Compression
- Native S3 and Glacier
integration
- AMI Backup Appliance?
- AMI = Golden Master
- EBS Snaps / Scripting
21. Backup and restore (into AWS)
On-site infrastructure
S3 Bucket
Over the
Internet
AWS Import/Export
or
AWS Storage Gateway
AWS region
Corporate
data center
Using
AWS Direct Connect
Availability Zone
Amazon Elastic
Compute
Cloud (EC2)
Amazon
S3 bucket
Backup
and
restore
23. Pilot light architecture – Failover
Pilot
light
Not Running
Database
Server
Data
Volume
Corporate data center
Web
Application
Server
Master
Database
Server
www.example.com
Application
Server
Web Server
Server
25. Warm standby architecture – Failover
Warm
standby
Elastic
Load
Balancer
Active
Production
Amazon
Route 53
www.example.com
Corporate data center
Data
Volume
Application
Server
Slave
Database
Server
Web
AWS region
Web
Application
Server
Master
Database
Server
26. Windows - General
VM Import
• no additional charge beyond Amazon EC2 and Amazon
S3
• Use the AWS CLI or other developer tools to import a
virtual machine (VM) image
• VMware vSphere - AWS Management Portal for vCenter
to import your VM
• Windows and Linux VMs that use VMware ESX or
Workstation, Microsoft Hyper-V, and Citrix Xen
virtualization
27. Windows - AD
AWS Directory Service
• AD Connector
• connect your Microsoft Active Directory to the AWS Cloud
• Integrate with your existing RADIUS-based MFA
infrastructure
• Domain Join Instances
28. Windows - Database
Amazon RDS for SQL Server
• Import Your Data – pre-steps
• Create a snapshot of the target database.
• Disable automated backups on the target database.
• Disable foreign key constraints, if applicable.
• Drop indexes, if applicable.
• Disable database triggers, if applicable.
• Import & Export Wizard
• Bulk Copy