On the previous blog; I wrote about “Why You Should Always Have More Than One Backup”. As a refresher these are the 3-2-1 backup scheme:
On the previous blog; I wrote about “Why You Should Always Have More Than One Backup”. As a refresher these are the 3-2-1 backup scheme:
1. Have at least 3 copies of data.
· That is one copy of data we’re using and at least two backups.
· Related to “Toy Story 2” stories in the previous blog; the first data is Pixar’s primary-working-data, second is their tape backup and third (incidentally, not by intention but still served as backup data) is the Mom’s “home computer”.
2. Keep these backups on 2 different media.
· Using different media can prevent same type of incident affecting the media that we’re using on storing the backup.
· Related to story before, the first media is hard-disk (1st as working data and 2nd is replicate from working data to Mom’s “home computer” as “Mom” work from home during its maternity leave) and second media is tape drive backup.
3. Keep 1 backup offsite.
· By calculating the disaster into equation, even if primary site is compromised beyond recovery, another one is safely stored offsite.
Implement an Ideal 3-2-4 Backup Scheme
Ideal working backup (in this example I use VMs on VMware with illustration in the latter part) that crossed my mind with this 3-2-1 scheme are:
1. Have 3 copies of data:
a. First one is production data.
b. Second-copy is being kept in the server mirror (can be done either by using vSphere replication or Backup software replication). This can be utilized for fast restore & also high-availability.
c. The last of the copy data is stored inside external backup media, normally a tape backup (definitely using Backup software). This data will be written periodically, rotated and transferred to the off-site.
2. Have two different media.
a. One is on disk-drive
b. Another one is in on tape backup (external backup media)
3. Have 1 on off-site backup.
a. One copy of data is stored remotely to site which unaffected by disaster happened on the primary site.
b. I won’t normally consider cloud backup as a backup alternative, because it still susceptible to data-loss and outage. But it still falls to the criteria of “off-site”.
