UNIT-4

HYBRID STORAGE SOLUTIONS

 Virtualization
• It is the technique of splitting a physical resources into many logical
resources as we want . Ex: CPU memory

OR
• It is a technology that transform hardware into software.
 Virtualization
• Virtualization is the process of using special software on physical machine
to create virtual machines.
• This special software is called “Hypervisor”.
• For example, if you were to partition a basic hard drive to create two hard
drives, then they would be two ‘virtualized hard drives,’ as the hardware is
technically a single hard drive that was digitally separated into two
• A virtual machine is called Guest and physical machine is called Host.
• We can create and run many virtual machines a we like as log as
CPU,RAM and other resources allow.
• All the virtual machines share the same resources of the host, yet each
virtual machine works independently.

• A virtual machine is little more than a file sitting on a hard drive, but to
users a virtual machine appears and acts no differently from a physical
computer but also a different type CPU storage drive or NIC than its host.
 Differences
• Firmware usually Firmware is a term for a piece of software that is
installed on a hardware of the device in order to make it run properly.
• The firmware, once installed, is usually changed infrequently and only
through updates from the manufacturer.
• Ex: BIOS check of system, firmware in storage devices (hard disks, DVD
drives, flash storage) , television remote control is an example of an
engineered product that contains firmware. The firmware monitors the
buttons, controls the LEDs,

• Software is most often meant to describe a program or piece of data that is

meant to be viewed, changed or otherwise interacted with most often by the
user.
• Software is designed to be updated frequently and usually can be removed
or edited in a system .
• Software installed on top of OS.
• This includes utilities such as operating systems, word processers,
executables, databases and other programs useful to the user.. Installed on
top of OS. Ex. Application software
• Hypervisor: A special software that creates and runs virtual machines.
There are two types of hypervisor .

• Type 1: which run directly on top of host’s hardware that’s why they are
called “Bare Metal” hypervisor. They control the hardware and virtual
machines. Firmware is installed directly on hardware of system.

• Enterprises or companies uses type 1 hypervisor.

• Type 1 hypervisors act just like OS. Example: Xen, Vmware’s Esxi,
Microsoft’s Hyper-V or KVM. Vmware ESXi(Elastic Sky X integrated)
runs on host server hardware without any underlying OS.
• ESXi provides a virtualization layer that abstracts the CPU, storage,
memory and networking resources of the physical host into multiple virtual
machines.
• Type 2: Hosted Hypervisor, most frequently referred to as Virtual
Machine Monitor(VMM) is like an application program running on top of
a conventional OS, such as Windows, Linux or Mac OS. Software is
installed on OS
• Learning and testing purpose type-2 hypervisor is used.
• Virtual machines are created and managed by both VMM through the host
OS.
• Example: VMware work stations, VMware player, virtual box or parallel
desktop for MAC
 What Benefits Does Virtualization
Provide?
• There are numerous benefits to virtualization including
decreasing costs, saving time and energy and minimizing risk
overall.
 Benefits for Companies
• Virtualization provides several benefits for companies,
including:
– Greater efficiency and company agility
– Ability to more-effectively manage resources
– Increased productivity, as employees access the company
network from any location
– Data stored on one centralized server results in a decrease
in risk of lost or stolen data
 Benefits for Data Centers
• Not only is it beneficial for companies, but virtualization
provides several benefits for data centers as well,
including:
• Cutting waste and costs associated with maintaining and
cooling its servers by maximizing the capabilities of one
server
• Allows data centers to be smaller in size, resulting in
overall savings due to a reduction in —
– Energy needed
– Hardware used
– Time and money needed for maintenance
• Advantages:
• Saving Money:
• Without virtualization, we might
buy several different physical
servers in our data center or many
work stations for testing or
learning purposes, in our class
room or lab.
• With virtualization we can place
multiple virtual machines, servers
or workstations on a single
powerful physical system.
• With virtualization we also reduce
device storage space and electrical
power use substantially

• Simplify management: we don't

have to manage as many separate
devices .
• Threat Isolation: In a virtual
environment the isolation of each
guest system means, the problem
with one guest does not affect the
others.
• Security attacks on guest may
have little effect on a host
physical machine. This feature is
great for a cyber security lab.

• System Backup and Recovery:

Virtual machines are simply files
and like any file, they can be
copied and they can be restored.
• The feature of snapshot enables to
create multiple, identical copies of
one virtual machine. If something
happens to the system, what we
need is simply to restore the copy.
• Disadvantage:
• Compromised performance:
The host and all guest share
limited resources.
• Complexity: Managing virtual
machine is more complex than
managing physical machines.
More skills are required as
virtualization becomes more
popular.
• Risk: There is big risk since we
keep all of our eggs in one basket.
If a host machine fails, all its
virtual machines will fail too. This
type of risk is called single point
of failure.
• License Cost: Its is also a
important factor.
 Types of Virtualizations
• Hardware Virtualization/Server Virtualization
• Hardware Virtualization is nothing but creating a completely new system
on the existing primary system via virtualization that acts as a real
computer with an operating system it is also termed as a virtual machine.
• For e.g. creating a virtual machine via means of hypervisor or virtual
machine manager with Ubuntu Linux operating system on a computer
which is already running a Microsoft Windows OS.
• Here both the host system and the virtual machine utilizes same hardware
of the primary system and work on completely distinct environments and
handles completely distinct applications.
• Network Virtualization
• Network Virtualization is virtually pooling & managing all the available
network resources such as IP’s, Switches, Routers, NIC’s, VLAN tags etc.
via means of tools such as routing tables in real time and each channel is
independently secured and distinct from one another.
• For e.g. Virtual Private Network (VPN) allows us to create a virtual
network over the internet without the use of actual wires or physical
hardware. Network virtualization can be categorized into two categories viz
• Internal – Provides a network to a single system.
• External – Combines network array or parts of networks into a virtual unit.

•
• Storage Virtualization
• In Storage virtualization the servers are in an array which are managed with
a centralized virtual storage system. Storage virtualization is generally
classified into two categories ie.
• Block – It replaces controllers and takes over at the disk level & works
before the file system exists.
• File – The server that uses the storage must have the software installed on
it in order to enable file-level usage.
• Data Virtualization
• Data virtualization enables to decrease the data errors and workloads. It
also enables to simply manipulate data, where is it physically located and
how is it formatted.
• Desktop Virtualization
• Desktop virtualization lets you run multiple desktop operating systems,
each in its own VM on the same computer.
• There are two types of desktop virtualization:
• Virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) runs multiple desktops in VMs on a
central server and streams them to users who log in on thin client devices.
In this way, VDI lets an organization provide its users access to variety of
OSs from any device, without installing OSs on any device.
• Local desktop virtualization runs a hypervisor on a local computer,
enabling the user to run one or more additional OSs on that computer and
switch from one OS to another as needed without changing anything about
the primary OS.
• Application virtualization
• Application virtualization runs application software without installing it
directly on the user’s OS. This differs from complete desktop virtualization
(mentioned above) because only the application runs in a virtual
environment—the OS on the end user’s device runs as usual. There are
three types of application virtualization:
• Local application virtualization: The entire application runs on the
endpoint device but runs in a runtime environment instead of on the native
hardware.
• Application streaming: The application lives on a server which sends
small components of the software to run on the end user's device when
needed.
• Server-based application virtualization: The application runs entirely on
a server that sends only its user interface to the client device.
• Memory Virtualization
• Memory Virtualization is the process of aggregating & pooling the
complete Random-Access Memory (RAM) resources from the network
grid or cluster into a single memory pool. It provides a greater memory
capacity and the disk drive also serves as an extension of the main memory.
• Implementations
• Application-level integration: Applications running on connected
computers directly connected to the memory pool through an API or the
file system.
• Operating System Level Integration – The operating system first
connects to the memory pool, and makes that pooled memory available to
applications.
• Server virtualization
• Server virtualization is the process of dividing a physical server into
multiple unique and isolated virtual servers by means of a software
application. Each virtual server can run its own operating systems
independently.
• Key Benefits of Server Virtualization:
• Higher server ability
• Cheaper operating costs
• Eliminate server complexity
• Increased application performance
• Deploy workload quicker
Types of Server Virtualization
• Full Virtualization – In it, the complete simulation of the actual hardware takes
place to allow software to run an unmodified guest OS. Example : VMWare ESX
server uses this method
• Advantages:
• No modification to Guest operating system required.
• Limitations:
• Complex
• Slower due to emulation
• Installation of new device driver difficult.

• Para Virtualization – In this type of virtualization, software unmodified runs in

modified OS as a separate system. The guest operating system is modified and
recompiled before installation into the virtual machine.
• Example : Xen primarily uses Para virtualisation
• Advantages:
• Easier
• Enhanced Performance
• No emulation overhead
• Limitations:
• Requires modification to guest operating system
• Partial Virtualization – In this type of virtualization, the software may need
modification to run.
• Examples : AMD – V Pacifica and Intel VT Vanderpool provides hardware support
for virtualisation.

• Advantages:
• No modification to guest operating system required.
• Very less hypervisor overhead
• Limitations:
• Hardware support Required
• Data center virtualization:
• Data center virtualization
abstracts most of a data center’s
hardware into software,
effectively enabling an
administrator to divide a single
physical data center into multiple
virtual data centers for different
clients.
• Each client can access its own
infrastructure as a service (IaaS),
which would run on the same
underlying physical hardware.
Virtual data centers offer an easy
on-ramp into cloud-based
computing, letting a company
quickly set up a complete data
center environment without
purchasing infrastructure
hardware.
Backup and Recovery
 Backup and Recovery
• Data backup and recovery is the process of backing
up your data in the event of a loss and setting up secure
systems that allow you to recover your data as a result.

• The primary difference between backup and recovery is that

The backup is a copy of original data that can be used in case
of a database failure while recovery refers to the process of
restoring your database to its correct (original) state when a
failure occurs.

• The purpose of backup is to protect data from loss.

• The purpose of restore is to recover data that is temporarily

unavailable due to some unexpected event.
 Backup vs. Recovery
• There are two major backup types:

• Physical Backup: This is a copy of physical database files such as

data, control files, log files.

• It is a copy of the files that store database information in another

location and forms the foundation of the database recovery
mechanism.

• Logical Backup: It contains the logical data that is extracted from a

database, and it consists of tables, procedures, views, functions, etc.

• However, keeping a logical backup alone is not recommended or

useful since it only provides structural information.
•
 Types of Data Backup
• Full Backup: It is a basic and complete backup operation that
makes a copy of all your data to another media set such as a
disk, tape, or CD.

• Therefore, a complete copy of all your data is made available

in a single media set.

• It takes longer to perform and requires a lot of storage space.

but they are easiest and fastest to restore.

• It is typically used in combination with either a differential or

incremental backup.

• Full backup media should be stored offsite to protect data from

disasters
– Fire, Flood, Earthquake, Terrorist attack, Sabotage, Hacker
attacks
 Advantage:
• Provides a complete copy of data
• Easy to manage:
– Done less frequently than other types of backups due to
cost and resource requirements:
Monthly, Quarterly, semi-annually, annually.

Disadvantage :
• Usually requires more media space than either differential or
incremental.
• Takes a long time to recover the full backup to a new disk.
• Incremental Backup: This operation results in the copying of only
that data that has changed since your last backup operation.

• An incremental backup only tracks changes made since the last

backup event. If you perform a full 200 GB backup on a server
Monday, and 2 GB of new data are added on Tuesday, an
incremental backup will only capture the new 2 GB. If another 1 GB
changes on Wednesday, only the new 1 GB is captured.

• A backup application will record and keep track of the time and
date that all backup operations occur.

• This operation is faster and requires less storage media.

• Frequency of incremental backups depends on the client needs.

– Weekly, daily, hourly, continuously.
• Advantage:
– Keeps a revision history of actively changing files
– Fastest backup type
– Uses the least amount of media to complete a single backup

• Disadvantage:
– Much more difficult to manage
• Differential Backup: Similar to an incremental type, this backup
will copy all changed data from a previous episode but every time it
runs, it continues to copy all the data changed since the stated
previous full backup (not necessarily full backup).

• For example, if 3 GB changes on Monday, 2 GB on Tuesday and 7

GB on Wednesday, each day's differential backup will capture 3 GB,
5 GB and 12GB respectively.

• Differential backups can take longer to make than incremental

backups, but are easier to restore. With a differential backup, only
the full backup and last differential backup must be restored.

• Scheduled less frequently than a full backups: Weekly, monthly.

• Redundancy – potentially many unneeded copies of the same data.

 Types of Backup
Backup Sun (F) Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

Full 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB 2TB

Incr. 2TB 1GB 1.2GB 1.6GB 1.9GB 2.3GB 2.8GB

Diff 2TB 1GB 0.2GB 0.4GB 0.3GB 0.4GB 0.5GB

 Backup hardware
▪ CDs, DVDs and Blu-Ray disks
- Inexpensive, quick, months to years of storage

▪ Thumb drives
- Inexpensive, quick, larger storage capacity than CDs/DVDs,
months to years of storage

▪ Internal hard drive

- Easy transfer from one hard drive to another, many years of storage

▪ External hard drive

- Easy transfer from internal to external hard drive, better connection
options, long-term storage
• Online storage
.
- complete external storage, access from any computer
with internet connection, very secure, long-term storage,
expensive

▪ Network storage
- complete external storage, access from any computer
with internet connection, very secure, large-capacity and
long-term storage, expensive
 After backup
▪ Complete a data restore
- Run a restore to return backed-up files to their original
locations. Do this on a regular basis to ensure the system
is actually working.

▪ Maintain offsite copies of your backups

- In the case that your office files are destroyed by fire,
lightning damage, flooding or theft, make sure you have
multiple, redundant versions of your files elsewhere.

▪ Keep virus protection and Firewall on and up-to-date

- Without the right protection, viruses can be put back
onto your computer after backup and your files can be
deleted through an unprotected port.
 Disaster Recovery
• Disaster recovery refers to security planning to protect
an organization from the effects of a disaster – such as a
cyber attack or equipment failure.
• A properly constructed disaster recovery plan will
allow an organization to maintain or quickly resume
mission critical functions following a disaster.

• The disaster recovery plan includes policies and testing,

and may involve a separate physical site for restoring
operations.

• This preparation needs to be taken very seriously, and

will involve a significant investment of time and money
to ensure minimal losses in the event of a disaster.
• Control measures are steps that can reduce or eliminate various
threats for organizations. Different types of measures can be
included in disaster recovery plan

• There are three types of disaster recovery control measures

that should be considered:

• Preventive measures – Intended to prevent a disaster from

occurring

• Detective measures – Intended to detect unwanted events

• Corrective measures – The plan to restore systems after a

disaster has occurred.
• A quality disaster recovery plan requires these policies be
documented and tested regularly.

• In some cases, organizations outsource disaster recovery to an

outsourced provider instead of using their own remote facility,
which can save time and money.

• This solution has become increasingly more popular with

the rise in cloud computing.
• The Importance of Disaster Recovery (DR)
•
• Disaster recovery allows your organization to quickly maintain
or resume mission-critical functions following the occurrence
of a disaster.

• A disaster can have devastating effects on your business

especially in today’s highly competitive markets.

• Since it is a high possibility for businesses to fail after

experiencing significant data loss, disaster recovery has
become an essential part of operations.
• RTO and RPO (recovery time objective and recovery point
objective) are two key metrics that an IT organizations utilize
data protection best practices to evaluate the risk of data in
order to develop an appropriate disaster recovery plan that can
maintain business continuity after an unexpected event.

• RPO: Refers to the maximum data that organization must

recover from its backup storage to resume normal operations
after a disaster.

• If you back up all or most of your data in regularly scheduled

24-hour increments, then in the worst-case scenario you will
lose 24 hours’ worth of data. For some applications this is
acceptable. For others it is absolutely not.
• For example, imagine that you back up your data once every
day at midnight and a disaster occurs at eight in the morning.
• In that case, you would lose eight hours’ worth of data. If your
RPO is twenty-four hours or longer, you’re in good shape. But
if your RPO is, say, four hours, you're not.
• RPO is categorized by time and technology:
• 8-24 hours: These objectives rely on external storage
backups of the production environment. The last available
backup serves as a restoration point.
• Up to 4 hours: These objectives require ongoing
snapshots of the production environment. In a disaster,
getting data back is faster and brings less disruption to
your business.
• Near zero: These objectives use enterprise cloud backup
and storage solutions to mirror or replicate data.
Frequently, these services replicate data in multiple
geographic locations for maximum redundancy. The
failover and failback are seamless.
• Consider these factors when determining your RPO:
• The maximum tolerable amount of data loss that your
organization can sustain.
• The cost of lost data and operations
• The cost of implementing recovery solutions

• RPO is the maximum acceptable time between

backups. If backups are performed every 6 hours, and a
disaster strikes 1 hour after the backup, you will lose only
one hour of data. This means you are 5 hours under the
projected RPO.
• RTO
• RTO stands for Recovery Time Objective. It’s a metric that helps to
calculate how quickly you need to recover your IT infrastructure and
services following a disaster in order to maintain business continuity.
• RTO is measured in terms of how long your business can survive following
a disaster before operations are restored to normal.
• If your RTO is twenty-four hours, it means you’ve determined that the
business can maintain operations for that amount of time without having its
normal data and infrastructure available.
• If data and infrastructure are not recovered within twenty-four hours, the
business could suffer irreparable harm.
• In the case of outsourced IT services, RTO is defined within
a Service Level Agreement (SLA). IT and other service providers
typically include the following support terms in their SLA:
• Availability: the hours you can call for support.
• Response time: how quickly they contact you after a support
request.
• Resolution time: how quickly they will restore the services.

• Depending on your business requirements, you may need better

RTO. With it, the costs increase as well. Whatever RTO you choose,
it should be cost-effective for your organization.

• Both RTO and RPO involve periods of time for the

measurements. However, while RTO focuses on bringing
hardware and software online, RPO focuses on acceptable data
loss.
• Why Do You Need a Data Backup and Disaster Recovery
Plan
•

• Without a sound data backup and DR plan, your business risks

suffering permanent data loss, unnecessary expenses, and massive
downtime.
• Here are five convincing reasons for a data backup and DR
plan:

• All Data is a Target: Whether you are an attorney, a dentist,

running a pet shop, or a fortune 500 company, your data always
remains vulnerable to threats.
• Accidents, viruses, malware, and hackers are not picky. They will
attack your business for any number of reasons such as fulfilling a
vendetta, acquiring sensitive data, or simply because they can.

• It is Easy to Lose Data: A lot of data loss occurs as a result of

hardware malfunctions or human error as opposed to natural
disasters. This means that your data is very easy to lose.
• Some Data is Invaluable: Some of your business data cannot
be recovered once it is lost.

• Downtime is Not Fun: Losing data results in downtime

because without it, it becomes incredibly hard for your
employees to work.

• It is difficult to handle clients without their account status and

contact information or to work without any of your mission-
critical business applications.
• Without a sound recovery solution in place, your restoration
efforts automatically become rebuilding efforts.

• Your Reputation is Essential: Downtime and losing your data

will definitely affect how other stakeholders view your
business as well as their relationship with you.
• A tarnished reputation can significantly hamper your business
especially when stakeholders cannot trust you with their data.
TOPOLOGY
How does Backup Works
• Metadata is "data that provides information about other data".
In other words, it is "data about data".
• Many distinct types of metadata exist, including descriptive
metadata, structural metadata, administrative metadata,
reference metadata and statistical metadata.
• In a Direct-Attached Backup topology, Backup device
directly attached to the client.
• Only metadata is sent to the backup server through the LAN.
• LAN-Based Backups
• All servers connected to the LAN
• All storage devices are directly attached to the storage nodes.
• SAN Based Backup: It is also known as LAN Free Backup.
SAN infrastructure (FC Channel) to send the backup from the host
to the storage media.
• The backup devices and clients are attached to the SAN.
• LAN-free backups offers high performance and reliability but at a
higher cost.
• Pros of using SAN.
• Security.
• High-Speed Data Transfer.
• Failover Protection (Dynamic)
• Centralized Backup. ...

• Cons of using SAN.

• Might be Expensive for Some.
• Doesn't Work Well with Only a Few Servers.
• Data might Leak.
• Different kinds of backup technologies
Backup technologies can be divided into three main types:
➢ On-premises backup appliances

➢ Cloud backups

➢ Hybrid backup solutions

• On-premises backup appliances — These are
purpose built appliances that backup the data of
specific departments or the entire business using a
configured network and the right credentials.

• Mostly, these appliances sit idle and are used for the
purpose of creating backups. They perform diligently
when accessed to restore data.

• However, how often do you lose data? Not so often

right? That’s exactly the frequency of utilization for
these appliances. That’s also the drawback;

• while they’re purpose is very important for

businesses, especially for businesses with mission
critical data, these appliances sit idle and are used
infrequently.
• However, they do continue to consume resources
like maintenance, power costs, cooling costs, etc.

• The one big benefit of these appliances is that

they’re faster than any other backup technology.

• If your IT infrastructure cannot tolerate delay

when restoring data, then these appliances are the
best option for you.

• They can facilitate heavy Input / Output (IOP)

requirements while keeping the latency in check.
• Pros:
• Clear Visibility
• Feeling of control
• Lots of flexibility

• Cons:
• Proximity Risk
• High Security Risk
• Cost to scale and manage
• Cloud backups — With the accelerating cloud
adoption, backups in the cloud are not a new concept.

• It’s the same as backing up in a backup appliance, the

difference is you’re doing it over the internet and
you’re backing up into someone else’s datacenter.

• The biggest advantage of cloud backups is the cost

efficiency and the scalability of it.

• There are a number of complications involved with

scaling up a physical backup appliance.
• Cloud technology removes all those
complications and makes the whole process
simple.

• In terms of cost, you don’t have to invest as much

as you would have to for the appliance.

• Cloud based services also facilitate pay-as-you-go

payment models.

• You don’t have to initially acquire storage

resources in advance, you can scale-out as you go
and you can pay for them as you scale-out.
• Pros:
• Distributed Risk
• Better Security
• More Scalable and less costly

• Cons:
• Rely on third party
• Risk of cloud outages
• Hybrid backup solutions —Hybrid backup solutions
combine both on-premises and cloud based backup
technologies.

• IT infrastructures can setup physical appliances on-

premises with cloud connect services or cloud
gateway appliances and extend the backups to the
cloud.

• Using this combination, they can keep the frequently

used or mission critical backup data on-premises for
reduced latency while using the cloud for
infrequently used data backups.
• This combination adds the less latent on-premises
technology with the scalable and cost effectively
cloud technology.

• Public cloud:
– Resources on demand
– No capital expenditure required
– No infrastructure management

• On-premises or private cloud:

– Predictable costs
– Known performance
– Control of data and assets
– Consistent security