Finals Flashcards
What influenced backup and DR?
data growth compliance with regulatory laws, undesirable maintenance, downtime windows, demand for high availability and quick data processing rate
recovery operation checklist
assessing the problem, escalating it, declaration of disaster, activating and implementing the plan in DR phase
Enumerate the different backup methods
Full Backup, Incremental Backup, Differential Backup, Full Backup + Incremental Backup, Full Backup + Differential Backup, Incremental forever Backup, Synthetic Backup
What backup method?
- all files and folders are backed up
- used as an initial backup
- repeated after a set of incremental or differential backups to update the original full back-up with updates
full backup
advantages of full backup
advantages
- easy to manage
- easy to maintain
disadvantages of full backup
- takes a very long time
- consumes massive storage space
- exact same files are stored repeatedly, inefficient use of storage
all changes or newly added data since the last full backup or incremental backup are backed up; generally used after a full backup to save time
incremental backup
advantages of incremental backup
- much faster backup
- efficient use of storage space; files are not duplicated
disadvantages of incremental backup
- restores are slower
- restores are complicated; the full backup and all consecutive incremental backups are needed to perform a restore
all changes or newly added data that took place since last full or differential backup are backed up and merged into next days’ differential backup, making restoration process faster
differential backup
advantage of differential backup
- faster backups and restores
- faster backup than full backup but slower than incremental
- faster restoration than incremental backup but slower than full backup
disadvantage of differential backup
- not an efficient use of storage space; files modified after a differential backup will be duplicated again with the following differential backup
- restores are slightly complicated; full backup and last differential backup copies are needed to restore
full backup is repeated after a set of incremental backups; last full backup and incremental backups are needed to restore data
full backup + incremental backup
the full backup is repeated after a set of differential backups; the last full backup and last differential backups are needed to restore data
full backup + differential backup
all changes that take place since first full backup copy are backed up; sequential backups are conducted forever
incremental forever backup
advantage of incremental forever backup
- reduce length of backup window
- no need for scheduling the full backup
- reduces load on network
- availability of data
- transparency in restoration procedure
disadvantage of incremental forever backup
full backup + all incremental backup are needed to restore
initial full backup then incremental backups are performed; this backup is not created from original data; full backup will be merged into the following incremental backup to form a new synthetic full backup
synthetic backup
advantages of synthetic backup
- consumes less time to perform backup
- costs are reduced
- lower restore time
what are the two most important storage system technologies
file level storage and block level storage
this is the process of creating raw blocks of storage, which can be handled individually; commonly used in SAN (storage area network); it is presented as a hard disk to the server; the blocks are controlled by the server based OS
block level storage
advantages of block level storage systems
- offers better speed
- popular with SAN users
- reliable
- transport system is efficient
what does NAS mean?
network attached storage device - centralized storage device for storing data on a network
what does SAN mean?
storage area network - special high speed network that stores and provides access to large amounts of data; fault tolerant; data is shared among several disk arrays
this is the process of backing up entire file system if there is a slight modification in any of the files; this is the most common storage system that we find with our hard-drives, NAS (network attached storage), which is used to share files with users
File level storage
They are configured with common file level protocols such as NTFS (windows) and NFS (linux); this method is cost effective when compared to block level storage
file level storage
advantages of file level storage system
- simple usage
- comparatively cheaper
- transparency in storing and accessing files
- popular with NAS users
- bulk access to files
when a disaster occurs, time period prior to occurrence of a disaster during which data is lost and is of allowable limit can be defined as
recovery point objective
the time period between the disaster occurrence and time where application, server or business activities are up and running again in their established order can be defined as the
recovery time objective
this is measured in days or hours; this refers to the time period a backup copy will be retained
age of backup
time taken for a backup to be successfully executed and stored
time taken to backup
time taken by the server for the recovery of lost data. this
time taken to recover
this depends on factors such as network speed, size of data, type of network, speed of the media
time taken to recover
this is the financial estimate of backup and DR plan in an enterprise, which includes both capital and operational expenses
total cost of ownership
this refer to initial costs in setting up backup and DR infrastructure
Capital costs
This refer to maintaining equipment and procurements
Operational costs
This step-by-step procedure of performing a backup can be defined in the numbered order
Backup operation
Enumerate the steps in backup operation
- Backup server initiates scheduled backup process
- Backup server retrieves backup-related information from the backup catalog
- Backup server instructs storage node to load backup media in backup device
3b. Backup server instructs backup clients to send data to be backed up to storage node - Backup clients send data to storage node and update the backup catalog on the backup server
- Storage node sends data to backup device
- Storage node sends metadata and media information to backup server
- Backup server updates the backup catalog
What is metadata?
data about the data (author, creation date, or file size)
What is a backup server
The central controller of the backup operation
What is a storage node
A server that acts an intermediary between backup device and backup server; it manages the flow of data
Enumerate the steps in restoring data
- Backup clients requests for data restore
- Backup server scans catalog to identify the data that is to be restored and client that will receive data
- Storage node loads backup media in backup device
- Data is read by backup device and sent to the backup clients
- Storage node sends restore metadata to backup server
- Backup server updates backup catalog
What should be considered in backup and DR strategies?
- what recovery time is being promised and to what limit can the enterprise handle data loss
- what backup types are necessary and if they can support applications used by the enterprise
- based on what policy are backup media stored at offsite storage
- how expensive is the backup and DR plan
Advantages of cloud-based backup and DR
- Low total cost of ownership
- Easier deployment
- Flexible
- Easier upgrades
- Lower downtime
Category: cloud-based backup and DR advantages
This system requires minimal capital costs
Low total cost of ownership
Category: cloud-based backup and DR advantages
Traditional backup solutions are more complex as they need more pieces of software or agents. Cloud-based solutions have less complexity and have less pieces of software to manage. Its deployment is very easy, as it does not require an agent to be installed on every existing device in enterprise
Easier deployment
With login credentials, a user can access the data from any location
Flexible
Software updates do not require rebooting of all devices
Easier upgrades
It is very difficult to schedule recovery drills with tape-based solutions; it is easier to perform recovery drills with cloud-based solutions; cloud offers multi-tenancy, encryption and compression, not offered by tape-based solutions
lower downtime
Disadvantages of cloud-based solutions
- Security
- Storage Space
- Bandwidth Utilization
Category: Disadvantage of cloud-based solutions
Cloud backup solutions are sometimes susceptible to security worries because data travels over networks, subject to hacking
Security
Category: Disadvantage of cloud-based solutions
Enterprise need to keep on increasing the size of online storage according to growth in data
Storage space
Category: Disadvantage of cloud-based solutions
One of the main factors in cloud-based backup and DR. it is required for both data transfer and storage operations. it has impact on recovery timeframe
bandwidth utilization
True or false: Many cloud solutions are not comprehensive; they will backup only certain types of data but not all. Traditional backup solutions can usually backup any kind of data
True
What improvements are needed by enterprises relative to backup and DR
improvement in timeliness, better RTO and RPO, faster restoration, high availability
Give examples of research in improving existing technologies without a high impact on budget
- CPU and memory utilization values may be evaluated while conducting a recovery operation
- Different cloud providers may be chosen to achieve deeper understanding