Data backup in virtualization systems for small and medium-sized companies
Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers SMB companies wishing to secure their virtualized systems with a simple and inexpensive backup solution.
To solve this problem in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise portfolio, HPE Data Protector has long been an enterprise-level backup and recovery product that can work in any IT environment, including mixed ones, when part of the used IT systems are physical, and part - virtual. Information is protected at all levels - from the core to the access level within the physical, virtual or cloud infrastructures. Copying becomes a standard procedure regardless of which virtualization platforms the data comes from and where it is sent for storage. At the same time, HPE Data Protector provides not only comprehensive data protection, but also real-time analytics through the use of HPE Backup Navigator, as well as storage optimization with the HPE Storage Optimizer solution, which makes backup and recovery easy, reliable, rational and inexpensive process adapted to your organization’s IT environment.
However, for small and medium businesses that are increasingly interested in virtualizing their IT systems and also need backup products, any enterprise-class solution is too complicated and expensive. It has many opportunities not needed by SMB enterprises, for its maintenance it is necessary to have a staff of experts who are knowledgeable in the intricacies of customization, and therefore it is very costly for small and medium enterprises - both in acquisition and in operation.
SMB customers tend to use the most popular hypervisors — various versions of VMware or Microsoft products, and often not the latest. They do not support heterogeneous environments - if virtualization is used, then everything is virtualized. They have relatively few virtual machines, and their small IT departments do not have dedicated backup and restore staff.
Simple, convenient, automatic ...
For these customers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers HPE VM Explorer software, or, as it is called, HPE VMX. This product appeared in the portfolio of the corporation after the purchase in February of the Swiss company Trilead. And at the end of March, HPE introduced the next version of the product: VM Explorer 6.1 - the first release created within the walls of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
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HPE VMX allows you to back up data in the most popular virtualization environments - VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, which are typically used by small and medium-sized enterprises. The solution is undemanding of resources: a server with 8 GB of RAM is enough, running under Microsoft Windows Server 2008 / 2008R2 or Windows Server 2012 / 2012R2 operating systems. The distribution takes only 35 MB and is installed in half a dozen mouse clicks in a few minutes; approximately at the same time, a backup is also created.
It is recommended to use HPE VMX in systems with a maximum - about 100 - number of virtual machines. This limitation is not technical, you can configure backups from a larger number of machines, however, as experience shows, in such cases more complex administrative solutions are needed.
The system works on the principle of “deployed, configured and ... forgotten” - it does not require constant attention, an intuitive web interface allows you to perform all the necessary operations to an employee who does not have special knowledge. However, for “advanced” users there is the possibility of creating individual scripts (for example, with the aim of correctly backing up self-written applications).
You can control the operation of the application through the web interface using any popular browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari) or through a “fat” client, since the opportunities provided by both access methods are absolutely identical.
After installation, VMX automatically connects to virtualization environments, “learns the environment” and is ready to perform backups on a predetermined schedule.
The product copies Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, ESXi virtual machines (including the free option), as well as individual virtual machine disks. What is interesting, along with modern versions of hypervisors, quite old ones are supported, for example, VMware - up to VI3; This allows VMX customers to be more flexible in their solutions.
Data can be stored on tape devices, in SAN storages, in local and network storages, in public clouds - Amazon S3, Rackspace, and also in private based on OpenStack, for example HPE Helion.
You can restore virtual machines as a whole, as well as individual disks and even individual files, placing the data either in the same place or a new one, and the files in a randomly selected directory. There are two modes to choose from: standard, in which recovery comes from backup storage, and instantaneous using Instant VM Recovery, when the virtual machine starts directly from the backup and is transferred on the fly to productive storage.
A "fresh" backup can be tested automatically - the system expands the saved virtual machine and takes screenshots of the process by which the administrator can verify that the machine is indeed recreated without errors. This eliminates the need for manual recovery of virtual machines in order to make sure that the saved copies are working.
In addition to the functionality of creating backup copies and restoring them, VMX has a replication functionality of virtual machines. During the copying process, it is indicated that after it is completed, the replication of the machine to the remote server should take place and in case of problems on the main server or its planned shutdown, the current copy of the virtual machine will immediately start working on the remote one.
A more complicated option is also possible when a local backup is made at a remote site (to ensure quick system recovery), then it is copied to the main storage and updated by transferring changes in the system (no need to transfer all the information again). If necessary, a copy of the virtual machine from the main site is transferred for long-term storage to external media, and the current "replica" will insure the remote server.
You can track events in the copying system not only from a specialized monitoring console, but also through the usual Microsoft Event Viewer, which frees you from having to buy any specialized solution.
Although HPE VMX is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, sometimes it is also used by large companies to ensure the integrity of data from IT systems that are separate from the main enterprise network, for example, created for a temporary project, test environment, etc. It is easier for IT leadership to “give out” our product to a new structure, rather than including it in general data backup plans.
... and inexpensive
The solution is available in two versions: Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition. Their capabilities are shown in the sidebar. As for pricing, it is very simple: you get a starter pack and can re-purchase processor licenses as needed. The package includes licenses for four processors for the professional version, and six for the corporate version. It is important to keep in mind that only running processors are payable, and not “empty” sockets in the server. That is, for example, you can buy four four-processor servers (“for growth”) with one processor installed in each and put on them the starting professional package, and as the demand grows, they will need to purchase processors and licenses for them.
For those who want to try out our product, we offer a test version, valid for 10 days. If HPE VMX is suitable for solving your problems, then it is enough to buy a key, and the product will fully function; reinstall anything not required. The transition from the Professional version to the Enterprise version is also not difficult - you need to purchase a license for the upgrade, and with it you will get additional features of the corporate edition of the product.
Those who wish to learn more can view the information on our website using the Product Bulletin or by downloading the trial version posted at hpsw.co/hpevmx. You can ask questions to the staff of the HPE Russian office by e-mail .
Thanks for attention!
Virtualization is a very popular way to “equip” an IT system in our time. One of the most important tasks for organizations wishing to virtualize their IT landscape is to ensure data security by creating a backup and disaster recovery system.
To solve this problem in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise portfolio, HPE Data Protector has long been an enterprise-level backup and recovery product that can work in any IT environment, including mixed ones, when part of the used IT systems are physical, and part - virtual. Information is protected at all levels - from the core to the access level within the physical, virtual or cloud infrastructures. Copying becomes a standard procedure regardless of which virtualization platforms the data comes from and where it is sent for storage. At the same time, HPE Data Protector provides not only comprehensive data protection, but also real-time analytics through the use of HPE Backup Navigator, as well as storage optimization with the HPE Storage Optimizer solution, which makes backup and recovery easy, reliable, rational and inexpensive process adapted to your organization’s IT environment.
However, for small and medium businesses that are increasingly interested in virtualizing their IT systems and also need backup products, any enterprise-class solution is too complicated and expensive. It has many opportunities not needed by SMB enterprises, for its maintenance it is necessary to have a staff of experts who are knowledgeable in the intricacies of customization, and therefore it is very costly for small and medium enterprises - both in acquisition and in operation.
SMB customers tend to use the most popular hypervisors — various versions of VMware or Microsoft products, and often not the latest. They do not support heterogeneous environments - if virtualization is used, then everything is virtualized. They have relatively few virtual machines, and their small IT departments do not have dedicated backup and restore staff.
Simple, convenient, automatic ...
For these customers, Hewlett Packard Enterprise offers HPE VM Explorer software, or, as it is called, HPE VMX. This product appeared in the portfolio of the corporation after the purchase in February of the Swiss company Trilead. And at the end of March, HPE introduced the next version of the product: VM Explorer 6.1 - the first release created within the walls of Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
')
HPE VMX allows you to back up data in the most popular virtualization environments - VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V, which are typically used by small and medium-sized enterprises. The solution is undemanding of resources: a server with 8 GB of RAM is enough, running under Microsoft Windows Server 2008 / 2008R2 or Windows Server 2012 / 2012R2 operating systems. The distribution takes only 35 MB and is installed in half a dozen mouse clicks in a few minutes; approximately at the same time, a backup is also created.
It is recommended to use HPE VMX in systems with a maximum - about 100 - number of virtual machines. This limitation is not technical, you can configure backups from a larger number of machines, however, as experience shows, in such cases more complex administrative solutions are needed.
The system works on the principle of “deployed, configured and ... forgotten” - it does not require constant attention, an intuitive web interface allows you to perform all the necessary operations to an employee who does not have special knowledge. However, for “advanced” users there is the possibility of creating individual scripts (for example, with the aim of correctly backing up self-written applications).
You can control the operation of the application through the web interface using any popular browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome, Safari) or through a “fat” client, since the opportunities provided by both access methods are absolutely identical.
After installation, VMX automatically connects to virtualization environments, “learns the environment” and is ready to perform backups on a predetermined schedule.
The product copies Microsoft Hyper-V, VMware ESX, ESXi virtual machines (including the free option), as well as individual virtual machine disks. What is interesting, along with modern versions of hypervisors, quite old ones are supported, for example, VMware - up to VI3; This allows VMX customers to be more flexible in their solutions.
Data can be stored on tape devices, in SAN storages, in local and network storages, in public clouds - Amazon S3, Rackspace, and also in private based on OpenStack, for example HPE Helion.
You can restore virtual machines as a whole, as well as individual disks and even individual files, placing the data either in the same place or a new one, and the files in a randomly selected directory. There are two modes to choose from: standard, in which recovery comes from backup storage, and instantaneous using Instant VM Recovery, when the virtual machine starts directly from the backup and is transferred on the fly to productive storage.
A "fresh" backup can be tested automatically - the system expands the saved virtual machine and takes screenshots of the process by which the administrator can verify that the machine is indeed recreated without errors. This eliminates the need for manual recovery of virtual machines in order to make sure that the saved copies are working.
In addition to the functionality of creating backup copies and restoring them, VMX has a replication functionality of virtual machines. During the copying process, it is indicated that after it is completed, the replication of the machine to the remote server should take place and in case of problems on the main server or its planned shutdown, the current copy of the virtual machine will immediately start working on the remote one.
A more complicated option is also possible when a local backup is made at a remote site (to ensure quick system recovery), then it is copied to the main storage and updated by transferring changes in the system (no need to transfer all the information again). If necessary, a copy of the virtual machine from the main site is transferred for long-term storage to external media, and the current "replica" will insure the remote server.
You can track events in the copying system not only from a specialized monitoring console, but also through the usual Microsoft Event Viewer, which frees you from having to buy any specialized solution.
Although HPE VMX is designed for small and medium-sized businesses, sometimes it is also used by large companies to ensure the integrity of data from IT systems that are separate from the main enterprise network, for example, created for a temporary project, test environment, etc. It is easier for IT leadership to “give out” our product to a new structure, rather than including it in general data backup plans.
... and inexpensive
The solution is available in two versions: Professional Edition and Enterprise Edition. Their capabilities are shown in the sidebar. As for pricing, it is very simple: you get a starter pack and can re-purchase processor licenses as needed. The package includes licenses for four processors for the professional version, and six for the corporate version. It is important to keep in mind that only running processors are payable, and not “empty” sockets in the server. That is, for example, you can buy four four-processor servers (“for growth”) with one processor installed in each and put on them the starting professional package, and as the demand grows, they will need to purchase processors and licenses for them.
For those who want to try out our product, we offer a test version, valid for 10 days. If HPE VMX is suitable for solving your problems, then it is enough to buy a key, and the product will fully function; reinstall anything not required. The transition from the Professional version to the Enterprise version is also not difficult - you need to purchase a license for the upgrade, and with it you will get additional features of the corporate edition of the product.
Those who wish to learn more can view the information on our website using the Product Bulletin or by downloading the trial version posted at hpsw.co/hpevmx. You can ask questions to the staff of the HPE Russian office by e-mail .
What can HPE VMX
- Features Professional Edition
- Automatic backup check,
- Restore individual files
- Incremental reservation
- Tape support
- Cloud Storage Support
- Task Scheduler
- Replication
- Emailing Reports
- Command line interface
- Additional Enterprise Edition Features
- Multi-user interface with support for integration with Active Directory
- Instant VM Recovery
- VM background migration back to productive storage
- Hardware snapshot support
- Automatic verification of backups in the cloud
- Restore individual files from the cloud
- VMware vSAN support
- Encryption (256bit AES)
Thanks for attention!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/308260/
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