Offsite backup is a key component to any company’s D/R strategy. Most companies contract the services of a media storage and retrieval company or have a second D/R location where they replicate their backups to. Many of my customers do not have a second site and are looking for less costly, and more agile, off-site backup solutions.
There are numerous cloud-based backup services, but most of them require companies to change the backup software they already use and are comfortable with. One of my customers was looking for cloud backup where they could continue to use the enterprise backup manager that they were proficient in and that they trusted. In this case, the backup manager was HP Data Protector. One of the backup options with the latest version of Data Protector (9.0.1) is cloud-based backup to HP Helion OpenStack. HP Data Protector sends backups off-site to an OpenStack Swift object store within the HP Helion cloud. A few of the benefits to this architecture are:
- No need to own or rent an off-site D/R backup location
- No need to contract a media management company to store one’s tapes
- Pay-per-use backup based on the amount of data stored
- The local availability of backup data should a company’s D/R machines also be located in the HP Helion cloud
Here are the 5 steps required to extend HP Data Protector to the HP Helion cloud:
- Create an account with HP Helion Cloud
- Update HP Data Protector to version 9.0.1
- Create an HP Helion Backup Device from within Data Protector
- Create an HP Data Protector backup specification with HP Helion as the destination
- Run a backup
That’s it. Now, let’s dive into each step.
- Create an account with HP Helion Cloud
- Visit www.hpcloud.com
- Click “Sign Up Today” and follow the instructions
- Update Data Protector to version 9.0.1
- Create an HP Helion Backup Device from within Data Protector
- Within the Data Protector Manager, choose Devices and Media, right click Devices and choose Add Device.
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- Fill in the blanks choosing Backup to Disk for Device Type and Cloud for Interface Type. Management Console URL is automatically filled in.
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- Click Next
- Describe your HP Cloud instance.
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- The Authentication service is your Identity URL found by choosing Roles and API Endpoints and then Service API Endpoints in your HP Cloud console.
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- Choose Username and password for Authentication. Your Tenant / Project is found under Identity and Projects. Username and password are obvious. The container for your backups can be created in the HP Cloud console or through Data Protector.
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- You will also need to create a local Helion gateway between Data Protector and HP Helion. I used my cell manager as the gateway host
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- Create an HP Data Protector backup specification with HP Helion as the destination
- Add a backup from the Data Protector Cell manager by choosing Backup and right clicking on Filesystem
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- You can choose Blank Filesystem Backup and Source-side deduplication and click OK
- On the next screen, pick some systems, directories and files to back up and click Next
- On the next screen, choose your HP Helion definition as the destination and click Next
- Name the backup specification, choose a protection level and optionally select “Display statistical info” within Filesystem Options -> Other and click Next
- Choose a schedule and click Next.
- Review your specification and click Next then Save your backup specification
- Run a backup
- Right-click on your Helion backup specification and select Start Backup
- Choose Full or Incremental, the Network Load and click OK. The backup will start and the message output and progress indicator will be displayed. When complete, you will get a pop-up as well as statistical information on compression and objects written to the HP Helion Cloud.
- In your HP Cloud console, you will see the backup represented as an objects within the Container you defined in Data Protector.
- Restore is simple. Under Restore in the Data Protector Cell Manager, choose the files you would like to restore, their destination and click Restore
[Note: I was going to show you a TCO of HP Helion versus sending backup tapes to a media retention location. The only problem is – HP is still offering me new user pricing and charged me $0.00 for a month of backup storage! The standard rate is $0.09/GB/month, so each 10 TB of compressed data would cost $921/month.]
I hope you have found this helpful. Please provide comments, corrections, input, improvements as well as ideas for future posts.
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