E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup

windows on a budget

One of the biggest problems plaguing backup administrators is the

volume of data that must be backed up each night is steadily

increasing, but the amount of time allotted for the nightly backup

remains constant. While you could get around this problem by

implementing a continuous data protection (CDP) solution, the

necessary hardware and software may not be within your budget.

Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to reduce backup

windows without spending any money.

Sponsored By:

SearchStorage.com E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Sponsored By: Page 2 of 7

E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup

windows on a budget

Table of Contents

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Resources from Acronis

SearchStorage.com E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Sponsored By: Page 3 of 7

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

By Brien M. Posey

Back up only what you have to

Most organizations that use tape-based backup rely on incremental or differential backups

as a way of decreasing their backup times. Both types of backups only back up the data that

has been modified since the last full backup was made. Although such backups can go a

long way toward decreasing backup times, there are problems with them.

Both incremental and differential backups require that you occasionally perform a full

backup. Depending on how much data you have and your backup infrastructure, the full

backup can take a long time to complete. For example, I know of one organization that

starts their full backup on Friday night, but the backup doesn't actually complete until

sometime on Sunday afternoon.

One way to streamline your full backups and reduce backup windows is to be selective

about what you back up. For instance, finance records that you have from 2007 probably

haven't changed in years. Do you really need to include them in every full backup? Sure,

they are important, but why not create a permanent backup of them and then exclude the

records from all future backups? By identifying and excluding data that never changes, you

can reduce the amount of time that it takes to make a full backup.

Be aware of server maintenance cycles

Administrators often configure backups to run late at night when the network isn't as busy.

Even though this probably seems like a good idea, some software manufacturers also try to

take advantage of the late night lull in activity.

One of the best examples of this is the Exchange Server maintenance cycle. Every night,

Exchange Server performs a number of automated maintenance tasks. Some of these tasks

include checking the Active Directory for deleted mailboxes, processing messages that have

exceeded the retention period and performing a defragmentation of the various databases.

SearchStorage.com E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Sponsored By: Page 4 of 7

By default, the maintenance cycle starts at 1:00 a.m. and runs until 5:00 a.m. If you are in

the habit of backing up your servers late at night, then the maintenance cycle will most

likely overlap with your backup.

The nightly maintenance cycle and the backup can run at the same time, but they are both

disk-intensive operations. Running both at the same time can cause the operations to take

longer to complete. My advice is to schedule the backup and the maintenance cycle in a way

that keeps them from overlapping any more than necessary.

There are many other server applications besides Exchange Server that perform late-night,

disk-intensive operations. Such operations often include the defragmentation or re-indexing

of databases. Make sure to review the applications that are running on your servers to see

which have nightly maintenance cycles so that you can schedule your backups accordingly.

Remember the limitations of physical storage

Server virtualization is becoming more popular, but I've seen quite a few organizations that

didn't adjust their backup schedules after virtualizing their servers. This is a critical step.

Multiple virtual machines (VMs) may share a single storage array, even if each VM uses a

separate volume on that array. So if multiple virtual machines are backed up in parallel,

then the backup operation may place an excessive load on the storage array, greatly

impacting the efficiency of the backup operation. Similarly, I have seen other situations in

which multiple virtual servers shared a single physical NIC, and multiple parallel backups

resulted in a network bottleneck at that NIC.

There is nothing wrong with running parallel backups in a virtualized data center. But be

sure to structure your backups so that they don't simultaneously impact the same physical

resources.

As you can see, there are a number of different techniques that you can use to reduce your

backup windows. The key is to back up only what is necessary and to structure your

backups to prevent them from competing with other processes for server disk resources.

SearchStorage.com E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Sponsored By: Page 5 of 7

Additionally, if you are willing to spend some money, you can further optimize your backups

by investing in a continuous data protection solution or a data deduplication product.

About the author: Brien M. Posey, MCSE, has previously received Microsoft's MVP award for Exchange Server, Windows Server and Internet Information Server (IIS). Brien has served as CIO for a nationwide chain of hospitals and was once responsible for the Department of Information Management at Fort Knox. You can visit Brien's personal website at www.brienposey.com.

Know the feeling? Trying to keep all your Backup and Disaster Recovery needs covered with limited budget and resources?

It’s getting more and more complicated to protect your critical data and systems. Physical, Virtual and Cloud environments. Windows and Linux Platforms. Tape and Disk. Where do you start?

Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 11 can help yousolve all your needs in one single product. If youwant to learn more about all issues related toDisaster Recovery and Data Protection, visit theAcronis® Info Centre for Business Solutions

SearchStorage.com E-Guide

Three ways to reduce backup windows on a budget

Sponsored By: Page 7 of 7

Resources from Acronis

Efficient Data Recovery Demands a Unified Solution

Acronis SMB Guide to Backup and Recovery

Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 11

About Acronis

Acronis is a leading provider of easy-to-use disaster recovery and data protection solutions

for physical, virtual and cloud environments. Its patented disk imaging technology enables

corporations, SMBs and consumers to protect their digital assets. With Acronis’ disaster

recovery, deployment and migration software, users protect their digital information,

maintain business continuity and reduce downtime. Acronis software is sold in more than 90

countries and available in 14 languages. For additional information, please visit

www.acronis.com.

Follow Acronis on Twitter: http://twitter.com/acronis.