Although most IT managers understand the benefits of virtualization, there are a number of challenges associated with it as well. In particular, data backup and disaster recovery become more complex, and while the traditional methods will work, there are some better options available.

Traditionally, IT administrators implement backup and recovery by installing a backup agent on each server. But in a virtualized environment, you could have as many as 10, 15, or even 20 VMs on a single physical server. To employ this method in a virtualized environment, you'd need to purchase and install a backup agent on every VM. Plus, backup applications usually require significant I/O, CPU and memory resources. Because virtualized servers run at much higher levels of utilization, they have fewer cycles available for backup, which can cause unacceptably long backup windows. With these complications combined, the traditional approach really doesn't make sense in virtualized environments.

To achieve backup and recovery on virtualized servers, you could save a copy of each VM and store it somewhere on the network where it can be recovered if needed. In fact, many companies employ this method, although it presents its own problems; specifically, you can't restore individual files without restoring the entire VM.

A mature, robust product for DR management and automation For organizations that have standardized on VMware vSphere as their virtualization platform, VMware Site Recovery Manager is now a mature, robust product for disaster recovery management and automation. Part of VMware's industry-leading suite of management and automation products for the data center, VMware Site Recovery Manager simplifies business continuity planning and testing and reduces the risk and complexity associated with implementing disaster recovery. VMware Site Recovery Manager helps organizations address the challenges of traditional disaster recovery so that they can meet their recovery time objectives (RTO), recovery point objectives (RPO) and compliance requirements. Using Site Recovery Manager, organizations can manage failover from their production data centers to disaster recovery sites. They can also manage failover between two sites that both have active workloads and also act as recovery sites for each other. Site Recovery Manager can also help with planned data center failovers in scenarios such as data center migrations, by automating and simplifying the process of failing over to the new data center. Using Site Recovery Manager, organizations can: • Manage disaster recovery plans. Site Recovery Manager allows organizations to create, update and document recovery plans as an integrated part of managing their VMware virtual environment. Traditional solutions for disaster recovery rely on documenting all of the steps and resources required for failover in runbooks that are difficult or impossible to keep accurate and up-to-date. With Site Recovery Manager, the steps and resources that make up the failover process are managed directly from VMware vCenter Server. • Perform non-disruptive tests of failover and recovery. Using Site Recovery Manager, organizations can execute automated tests of their recovery plans without disrupting their environment. Site Recovery Manager makes it easy to create an isolated environment for testing, while leveraging the recovery plan that would be used in an actual failover.

Get serious about protecting your virtual infrastructure
Are you ready to take the next step toward implementing an automated solution for disaster recovery? Sirius can help. As a VMware Premier Solutions Provider with competencies in Infrastructure Virtualization, Desktop Virtualization, and Business Continuity, Sirius offers a VMware Site Recovery Manager Jumpstart Service which includes a proof-of-concept, on-site installation, and configuration of Site Recovery Manager. As part of this engagement, a VMware Certified Professional (VCP) consultant from Sirius will install and configure Site Recovery Manager in your environment, and then create and execute a sample recovery plan. As part of our knowledge transfer, you will also learn how to prepare an effective disaster recovery plan, and configure Site Recovery Manager to execute the plan for you if an outage occurs.

To hear more about how Sirius can help address your unique business and virtualization requirements, please contact your Sirius client executive, who will gladly arrange a private consultation with one of our certified virtualization solution architects.