Acronis Frozen Dessert Maker 10 User Manual

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Solving the Challenges of Server
Consolidation and Disaster Recovery with

Acronis® Backup & Recovery™ 10

Virtual Edition

Copyright © Acronis, Inc.,  – 

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Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................................. 3

Maximizing Server Consolidation .................................................................. 3

Avoiding Frustrations and Hidden Costs......................................................... 4

The Key to Dependable Disaster Recovery ...................................................... 6

Conclusion .................................................................................................... 11

Try it yourself! ............................................................................................... 11

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Introduction

What impact does your choice of software have on your ability to carry out server consolidation and disaster
recovery? It could have plenty.

If you’re consolidating servers to lower IT costs, you should read this paper. And if you’re concerned about
your ability to carry out a disaster recovery within the tight timeframes today’s virtual environments demand,
you should read it. In this paper we introduce initiatives you can put into effect to survive and thrive in our
virtualized world. Then we show how Acronis virtual solutions can save administration time, lower IT expenses
and improve your ability to meet both RTO and RPO goals.

We’ll discuss the value of a unified approach to server consolidation and virtual machine disaster recoveries
and tell you how to get the keys you need to “drive” your own trial version of the finest data protection software
available for virtual environments.

Maximizing Server Consolidation

Virtualizing is fast becoming a way of life for the world’s data centers. An October 2009 research report (ID
number G00171730) from Gartner Group’s VP and distinguished analyst Tom Bittman predicts that more than
half of all data centers will virtualize some portion of their computing inventory by the end of 2012. Even though
a newer survey on virtualization adoption published August, 2010 by InformationWeek suggests that Gartner’s
estimate for 2012 adoption of virtualization could be somewhat optimistic, virtualization is here to stay,
occupying an increasingly large segment of data center server populations.

Virtualization’s most visible cost benefit comes from the way it corrals physical server populations into much
more manageable, less labor-intensive collections of virtual machines.

Consolidation offers several further benefits, including:

• Reduced downtime

• Improved disaster recovery

• Enhanced security

• Reduced networking and cabling costs

• Reduced server TCO

• Legacy environment re-hosting

• Reduced carbon footprint

Still, you have to spend time and money to achieve these goals. While many of the costs of virtualization are very
visible – acquiring host server hardware, NAS or SAN storage, improved security and networking infrastructure
and virtualization platform software – other not-so-obvious costs can cut into the benefits of virtualizing if not
properly handled.

Let’s look at some of the issues a consolidation effort is likely to reveal and discuss what you can do to solve them.

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Avoiding Frustrations and Hidden Costs

Building new virtual machines can take a lot of time, but it doesn’t have to.

Take the fast lane to server consolidation

A well-thought-out migration solution neatly bypasses the need for building each VM from scratch. Instead of
installing the operating system, application or applications one after the other along with settings and system
ID, you can supercharge the process by taking an image of the entire physical or virtual machine, and recover
that machine to a virtual machine or multiple machines at once, knocking hours off the average time it once
took tore-launch each machine.

Of course, no consolidation initiative is ever truly finished, and the software you use to virtualize your servers
will continue to pay dividends, whether you’re transitioning from a free virtual machine product to a paid one,
moving from one virtualization platform to another, or reverting back to a physical machine when a virtualization
effort is unsuccessful for any reason.

Back up everything through a single pane of management glass

Virtualization can create backup headaches if it’s not properly planned and executed. Look for an all-in-one
approach that that supports highly flexible migrations between physical and virtual environments as well as
full data protection. Migrations, backups and – when they’re needed – guaranteed recoveries of files, folders,
whole systems or entire data centers, can be handled without the drama using a unified management tool.

Get rid of unnecessary agents

You can avoid one big administrative headache up front if you avoid placing agents on every virtual machine
you’re backing up. Administering each individual VM server backup agent creates a workload that’s at odds with
virtualization’s promise to simplify operations and reduce costs. Opt instead for agent-less backup; it requires
just a single agent on the physical host to automatically discover a new VM when it’s installed and manages its
backup. You can easily add or subtract VMs on the host without having to keep track of what is being backed
up and what is not.

Cut the cost of protecting each VM

One of the newest innovations in server consolidation is not technical or functional, but cost reduction. Now
you can choose backup and recovery software that is licensed on a per-host basis, rather than paying for each
VM you place on the host. This frees an administrator to place 15 or more VMs on a single host, limited only by
the host’s processor, memory and supporting disk storage. The cost of protecting each VM will fall every time
another VM is added.

Choose feature-rich virtualization products

Server consolidation requires a lot of planning for success, but success isn’t just a measure of what you’ve
consolidated. It’s a measure of how much you can do to minimize administrative overhead. Why not choose a
solution that automates as many repetitive tasks as possible while maximizing virtualization’s promise?

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