Adding Offsite DR Server and Configure Offsite DR Settings in the BDRSuite Backup Server
In the BDRSuite Backup Server navigate to the 'Secondary Copy' > 'Offsite DR' and click on 'Configure Offsite Copy/DR Server'. This option lets you replicate the backup data to your personal data center.
Add Offsite DR Server
Enter the IP Address of your Offsite DR Server.
Click the Test Connection to check the connectivity and also configure Additional Settings.
Configure Offsite DR Settings
Offsite Replication Window
The Offsite Replication Window option lets you set a time period during which replication will pause.
Under 'Select Window', specify the Start and End times, and choose whether it applies to all days or just weekends. During this window, replication will be inactive and will resume only after the designated time ends.
Offsite Retention
Retention settings can be configured for your replicated backup data on the Offsite DR Server. Note that backup and offsite backup copy differ: an offsite backup copy transfers the restore points of the source backup data from the BDRSuite Backup server to the Offsite DR Server. These restore points allow you to roll back to any point during restoration.
Retention for VMware, Hyper-V and Windows Disk Image Backup
Basic Retention
1. Version Based Retention
If you are selecting the version-based retention then you have to specify the number of versions to be retained. You can select from 1 to 999 versions.
2. Day Based Retention
The “day-based retention” feature allows users to specify the number of days the recovery points should be retained. This means that users can select a specific number of days, such as 14, to retain 2 weeks of recovery points.
Additionally, the “Minimum version(s)” option can be selected to avoid losing recovery points due to backup failures. This ensures that the BDRSuite will retain the minimum number of recovery points specified in the “Minimum version(s)” field.
Without this option, the Offsite DR Server would remove all the recovery points. By default, the “Minimum version(s)” option is set to 3 versions, but it can be increased as needed.
GFS Retention
GFS stands for Grandfather, Father, and Son based retention that allows you to retain the recovery points of the backup jobs for long periods like weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly. Under the GFS retention, the weekly backups are referred to as “sons,” monthly backups as “fathers,” and yearly backups as “grandfathers”.
There are two types of GFS retention; 1. GFS with Full Backups & 2. GFS with Incremental.
Note: If you need to enable GFS retention, it is necessary to choose either one of the options in basic retention, as GFS retention works in combination with basic retention.
GFS with Full Backups
The GFS restore points are created using additional full or synthetic full backups.
The additional full backup or synthetic full backups are marked as weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly GFS recovery points.
So, you should have already configured either the synthetic or additional full backup for the backup job.
You can either choose weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly or any combination of GFS recovery points.
For example, If you want to retain 4 weeks, 12 months, 4 quarters of GFS recovery points, the available full backups in the Offsite DR repository will be marked as per the GFS retention schedule. So, based on this configuration, 20 GFS full recovery points will be retained at the end of the year.
GFS with Incremental
The GFS restore points are created using incremental backups without including additional full or synthetic full backups.
The incremental backups are marked as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or yearly GFS restore points.
On the successful completion of the 3rd-day’s first incremental backup, the 1st-day increments will get merged, to form a daily GFS recovery point. Similarly, on the 4th-day, the increments of the 2nd day will be consolidated as a single restore point and so on for the 5th-day and the 6th-day. This process continues to maintain the daily GFS recovery points.
Similarly, if you choose weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly backups, the incremental backups from the previous week /month /quarter /year will be merged and a GFS recovery point will be created.
Retention for File & Application Backup
1. Version based Retention
In the version-based retention you have to specify the number of versions to be retained. You can select from 1 to 999 versions.
2. Full Backup Retention
You can choose the maximum number of full backups you wish to retain.
Bandwidth Throttling
The bandwidth Throttling option enables you to limit the network bandwidth used by backup jobs. This helps in balanced network usage in a work environment.
Options to Throttle Bandwidth
When you enable Bandwidth Throttling in the server end, there will be two options to choose from:
- Throttle bandwidth always: This option will keep the applied bandwidth limit always active.
- Throttle bandwidth ‘From’ - ‘To’: This option allows you to specify a time frame when the applied throttling will be active.
- You will be asked to specify the maximum throttle limit on client machines that range in – Kbps, Mbps, Gbps.
- In addition, a check-box to disable throttling during weekends is provided. Enable if required.
Seed Backup Data Manually
Seeding is the process of copying the initial full backup in a physical drive and manually seeding it to the Offsite DR Server. This is done when the amount of data to be sent over the network is large.
To seed backup data manually from the BDRSuite Backup Server first, enable the Seed Backup Data Manually in the Offsite Copy/DR page on BDRSuite Backup Server.
Step 1: Manage Offsite Seed Migration
The backups from various clients will be listed on the List Seed page and the dump process can be performed for the initial set of backups. Click the Action icon to perform the dump process.
Once you click the action icon it asks for the dump location. Browse the dump location and click OK to continue.
After the process is over, the backup is locally dumped for the migration. You can transfer it over a secondary storage medium to (HDD/USB) the offsite server.
To complete Offsite Seed after transferring the seed data to Offsite DR Server location, log in to Offsite DR Server UI and follow the next step.
Step 2: Import Seed Migration in Offsite DR Server
The seeded data can be imported in the Offsite DR Server, by clicking on Management Tab in Offsite DR Server and selecting the BDR Servers, and then to Offsite Seeding. Browse the location of seed data on your secondary storage medium(HDD/USB) and click Submit to start the migration.
Once the migration of seed backup data completes, the backups will be listed under the Offsite Seed Migration progress window. You can check the status of migration tasks. Offsite seed migration progress window includes – Backup Name, Server Name, Start Time, End Time, Status, and Remarks.
After configuring all settings, click 'Save. This will prepare all backup jobs in the BDRSuite Backup Server for Offsite Replication to the specified Offsite DR Server and according to your configuration.
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