by Sean Curiel, on Oct 31, 2018 6:00:10 AM
In the course of our lives there are times when we’re asked to tediously replicate the same task ten times over, quite often in our work. This kind of repetition is what we try to reduce or eliminate through better planning and organization. Of course, not all types of redundancy are bad, especially when it comes to protecting critical data. In fact, the redundancies built into many backup strategies may determine whether or not you are able to restore the right data within a time frame that is acceptable.
Redundancy directly effects both how often a might be required, and also how reliable that data restore might be in executing the requested tasks. Today we’ll take a look at a few of the numerous redundancies built into effective backup solutions.
Metadata Redundancy:
Your metadata summarizes all the basic information (when, where, how) about your files, and helps your backup system to function. If your backup solution stores all this data in a single database on your backup server (as many of them do), than you’re going to have a serious problem in the event that the server fails. Advanced backup solutions store the metadata in multiple locations including the backup command server, the backup client system, and the backup media itself. This ensures that if everything were to burn down to the ground, and only your backup media remained – you could still restore your backups without a lengthy import.
Media Failover Redundancy:
Creating a secondary path for your data to flow in the event that the primary path becomes unavailable, makes your backup system fault-tolerant, and therefore more reliable. Let’s say that your backup destination is a NAS device, and that it is unexpectedly full or offline when backups take place; Will your backup automatically failover to another device to ensure flawless backups happen on schedule?
Backup Media Redundancy:
Another form of redundancy is being redundant with your backup media – in other words, making multiple copies. Backup solutions should be able to employ strategies like D2D2T (disk to disk to tape), duplicating your backups to multiple tapes, multiple removable drives, or even to an external drive which is physically removed by an administrator at the end of the day.
Backup Location Redundancy
(Local, Offsite, Cloud):
Redundancy in the locations where your media is stored is critical when following best practice recommendations for protecting your organizations data. Keeping backups stored locally provides fast access when it comes time to restore, but it can’t help you if a natural disaster affects that physical location. Keeping backups replicated in the cloud, and at offsite locations, ensures that your backups are safeguarded against local disasters and infections.
These are just a few of the ways that redundancy is built into effective backup solutions. You’ll notice that each instance is truly about limiting single points of failure so that your backup system has a clear path to success, even when the unexpected takes place. Does your backup solution utilize these redundancies? If not, we recommend that you speak with our team of experts and learn more about the benefits of NovaStor’s DataCenter backup solution.
Written by Sean Curiel.
Sean is a marketing expert serving NovaStor's DataCenter and NovaBACKUP communities. The views expressed are his own. Learn more about NovaStor's network backup software.
