NAKIVO

NAKIVO Backup and Replication

Review NAKIVO Backup & Replication – Multi-Tenancy, licensing and conclusion

In the last part of the NAKIVO Backup & Replication review I highlight the Multi-Tenancy option, licensing and the final conclusion.

Multi-Tenancy and branding

NAKIVO supports multi-tenancy to deliver Backup-as-a-Service (BAAS) and Disaster-Recovery as a Service (DRaas). The tenants are isolated from each other and cannot access other tenants. Each tenant can access their own environment through  a self-service portal and perform all data protection of recovery tasks.

For each tenant custom branding can be used.

A single copy of NAKIVO can create and manage up to 1000 tenants providing a single pane of glass. The multi-tenancy option is available in the Enterprise Essentials en Enterprise license.

Licensing

The following licensing options are available for NAKIVO Backup and Replication for VMware and Hyper-V.

Number of licenses available per  organization Support Price (€) per socket Description
Basic 4 1 year included 84 Basic backup
PRO Essentials From 2 to 6 1 year included 169 Basic backup including backup copy and Backup to Cloud services for small environments up to 6 socket licenses.
Enterprise Essentials From 2 to 6 1 year included 249 All the backup options are included such as Disaster Recovery and Multi-Tenancy (BAAS and DRaaS) for small environments up to 6 socket licenses..
Pro Unlimited 1 year included 329 Same as the Pro Essentials edition with unlimited licenses.
Enterprise Unlimited 1 year included Request price Same as the Enterprise Essentials edition with unlimited licenses.

More information about the editions, options and pricing can be found here, link.

Another licensing option is the NAKIVO Cloud Provider Edition for cloud providers who host multiple customers. With this edition you can buy a pool of licenses per Virtual Machine. All the license are pooled together and can be used over the tenants.

Final conclusion

In  the last months I did multiple blog posts about NAKIVO Backup & Replication v7.5 and v8. I highlighted the following topics:

  • Review NAKIVO Backup & Replication v7.5 released, link
  • Installation and basic configuration, link
  • Backup and Recovery, link
  • Replication, link
  • Multi-Tenancy, editions and licensing and the final conclusion (this post).

The installation, configuration and management of NAKIVO Backup & Replication is very simple. I really like the the Virtual Appliance option and the possibility to install NAKIVO B&R on a NAS device. This saves licensing and hardware costs. The management is done by web browser so no extra software is needed to install.

The backup, restore and replication jobs are wizard based. Within a couple of minutes the configuration is done. There a multiple ways to recover data such as individual files, objects such as Active Directory and SQL, complete VMs and recover VMs cross platform.

Replication of VMs can be done for Disaster Recovery. In version 8 a new feature is added called “Site Recovery”. With this new feature you build automated recovery workflows with one-click failover, failback, and datacenter migration. The recovery workflows can be tested non-disruptive to make sure you meet the RTOs.

For cloud providers who offers Backup-as-a-Service (BAAS) and Disaster-Recovery as a Service (DRaas) there is a multi-tenancy option with custom branding for each tenant. Per VM licensing is available for cloud providers.

And as final the licensing and pricing of NAKIVO is very competitive and attractive when comparing them to other data protection solutions.

In short my final conclusion about NAKIVO Backup and Replication: Simple, fast, lots of great features and competitive pricing.

Next week VMworld Europe 2018 in Barcelona will start. NAKIVO will show at VMworld some new enhancements that will be available in NAKIVO Backup & Replication v8.1.

More information about NAKIVO can be found here: link

Review NAKIVO Backup & Replication v7.5 – Replication

In this part of the NAKIVO Backup & Replication review I highlight the replication feature. With the replication feature you can replicate VMs. The source VMs are copied, a VM replica is created of each and replicated to the target VMware environment (also known as the recovery site).

VM Replication protects for example against the following type of disasters:

  • Natural disasters  (earthquakes, floods, tornados etc.)
  • Data center  problems such as power losses, fire and water damage
  • Hardware problems such as host, network and storage failures
  • Human errors
  • VM failures caused by updates or patches, virus or manually removal

The replication feature can be used for business continuity as part of you’re disaster recovery plan. When a disaster occurs, the protected VM(s) can be quick failed over from the primary site to the recovery site.

When the primary site is restored the VM(s) can be failed back to the primary site.

Another use case it to use replication for migrating the VMs to a new VMware environment for example when moving from on-premises to a cloud provider.

Configuration

The configuration of the replication job can be done by using  a 7 step wizard:

1. VMs. Select the VM(s) that will be replicated.

2. Destination. Select the destination host(s) and datastores the VM(s) will be replicated to.

3. Networks. If the VM on the primary site has another network than on the recovery site you can make a mapping between them. In my test environment I have an stretched L2 network so the source and target network are the same.

4. Re-IP. With this option the replicated VMs will be mapped to a new IP address. In my test environment I have an stretched L2 network so the IP address will not change.

5. Schedule.Select the scheduling for the replication job. The VM replication will be executed at the schedules. So note that the VM(s) in primary site are not synchronous replicated.

6. Retention. Set the retention for the replicated VMs. Per VM you can have up to 30 recovery points.

7. Options. Set the options for the job.

Click on Finish & Run to start the first replication job. The VM will be replicated to the recovery site in a powered off state in the vSphere client.

Perform a VM Failover.

If a disaster occurs at the primary site or something happen with one or more protected VMs you can perform a failover from the primary to the recovery site. To perform a VM failover follow these steps using the following wizard:

In the recover menu select VM failover to replica.

1. Source. Select the VM and recovery point to use.

2. Networks. If the VM on the primary site has another network than on the recovery site you can make a mapping between them. In my test environment I have an stretched L2 network so the source and target network are the same.

3. Re-IP. With this option the replicated VMs will be mapped to a new IP address. In my test environment I have an stretched L2 network so the IP address will not change.

4. Options. In the options section enter the job name. I checked the “Power off source VMs” box to prevent IP conflicts.

Click on the “Finish & Run” button to start the recovery job. The VM in the primary site is powered off and the replica VM is powered on in the recovery site. In the vSphere client, the replica VM is running after the failover.

VM Failback.

After the disaster, the protected VMs are at the recovery site. When the infrastructure at the primary is restored you may want to return these VMs back. With the replication feature these VMs can be transferred back to the primary site. Transferring the VMs back involves performing some manual steps such as deleting the recovery job (with the keep recovered VMs option) and create a new replication job.

In a next release of NAKIVO Backup & Replication a new feature called “site recovery” will be introduced. Site recovery will enhance the replication feature with for example automated testing and workflow options. With these options you can test for example if the disaster recovery plan works as expected in a isolated environment.

Update: August 27, 2018. NAKIVO announced today version 8 with Site Recovery feature. This powerful new feature allows you to:

  • Build automated recovery workflows
  • Run one-click failover, failback, and datacenter migration
  • Perform non-disruptive recovery testing
    Make sure you meet your RTOs

More information about the Site Recovery feature can be found here link.

In the next NAKIVO Backup & Replication review I will highlight the editions, licensing and conclusion of my four reviews.

Review NAKIVO Backup & Replication v7.5 – Backup and Recovery

In this part of the NAKIVO Backup & Replication review the backup and recovery options will be highlighted.

Backup

To begin with backup and recovery we first need a backup job. Configuring a backup job contains the following five steps:

  • 1. VMs: Select the VMs to backup from the inventory of the vCenter Server or ESXi host.

  • 2. Destination: Select the destination to store the VMs. Select the onboard repository with deduplication and compression enabled for storage space savings.

  • 3. Schedule: Create one or more backup schedules

  • 4. Retention: Define the retention period for each Virtual Machine (VM). Each VM will have one or more recovery points were individual files, application object or the the entire VM can be recovered. A Grandfather-Father-Son (GFS) backup rotation scheme can be used.

  • 5. Options: Select the options for the backup job:
    • App-aware mode: Use this option for applications that require that the data is consistent such as Microsoft SQL and Exchange.
    • Change tracking: Only the blocks that are changed since the last backup will be backup ed. This will increase the backup speed.
    • Screenshot verification: After the backup of each VM it will be recovered (with the network disconnected) and a screenshot will be made after the OS is started. The screenshot will be included in the email notification or in the job report.
    • Email notifications: When the job completes the status is send by Email.
    • Transport Mode: Hot Add, SAN, LAN or automatic can be selected
    • Bandwith throttling: With bandwidth throttling you can control the amount of bandwidth that is consumed by NAKIVO Backup and Replication.

The are more options to configure, refer to the following link for all the options to configure.

In 5 easy wizzard based steps a backup job is be configured.

Reports

There are several reporting functions available such as:

  • Last run report.  Provides the status of the last run backup.
  • Point-in-time report. Provides data on a particular job run.
  • Job history report. Provides data on job runs that occurred during a specified time period.
  • Protection coverage report. Contains information about all VMs and instances protected by backup and/or replication jobs, as well as about all unprotected VMs and instances.

The “last run” report is includes information about the backup such as:

  • Summary
  • Virtual Machines
  • Target Storage
  • Alarms & Notifications

This report can be created manually or in the backup job you can specify the email address of one or more recipient(s) were the report will be send to.

When screenshot verification is used, the screenshot is also included in the report.

Restore / Recover

Appliance backup

The configuration of the NAKIVO Backup & Replication server /appliance can be secured by using the Self-backup feature. When something happen with the NAKIVO Backup & Replication server the configuration can be quickly restored on another server.

After the first backup job is finished there a multiple ways to recover VM data. The following options are available to recover data from the backups:

  • Individual files. You can recover files or folders directly from compressed and deduplicated repository.
  • Microsoft SQL Server objects. Enables browsing, searching, and recovering Microsoft SQL Server objects.
  • Microsoft Active Directory objects. Enables browsing, searching, and recovering Microsoft Active Directory objects.
  • Microsoft Exchange objects. Enables browsing, searching, and recovering Microsoft Exchange emails.
  • Export Backups. This is called “Cross-Platform Recovery” and will be handled in the next paragraph.
  • Flash VM boot. Enables to run VMware and Hyper-V VMs directly from repository without the need to recover the VMs first.
  • VM recovery from backup. Full VM recovery. When you recover a VM, a new VM is created and the “old” VM is retained.

I tested several recover options:

  • Individual files. Individual files per VM can be restored. The files can be recovered on a server (for example on the same location as deleted), downloaded to the browser or emailed. I tested to recover two PowerShell files from a VM and selected the download to browser option. The files recovery is performed in seconds.

  • VM recovery from backup. With this option one or more full VMs are recovered.  The original VM will be retained so the recovering VM will not overwrite the original VM.  The recovering VM name will append “-recovered” in the end. The recovery is fast.

  • VM Flash boot. With the VM Flash boot option it’s possible to boot VMs directly from the compressed and deduplicated repository without recovering the VMs first. This saves time and can be used for example for testing software updates. VM Flash boot uses iSCSI technology to connect VM disks stored in the backup to a target to the ESXi host. In this test I recovered two VMs in isolated network and performed a software update for testing. The changes are not written to the recovery point that i’m using. When i’m finished with testing i can discard the VMs with a single click so that all the changes are lost.

  • Cross-Platform Recovery. Cross-Platform Recovery allows exporting virtual disks to other formats such as:
    • VMDKs for VMware
    • VHD for Hyper-V
    • VDHX for Hyper-V

This allows you to recover VMs in different environments (VMware to Hyper-V and Hyper-V to VMware). In this testI exported a VMware Virtual Machine with two VMDK disks to VHDX disks with the Backup Export Wizard. The “Export backups” wizzard is used and by selecting the VM and recovery point, disks and options to start the export job.

When the export completed, I created a new VM in Hyper-V Manager and pointed to the restored VDHX disks. Then i was able to start a Hyper-V VM with the exported disks attached. Cross-Platform Recovery can be used for recover VM disks from between hypervisor such as VMware vSphere to Hyper-V and to VMware Workstation and VirtualBox.

In this part of the NAKIVO Backup & Replication review I highlighted the backup and recovery features. It was a pleasure to test the backup and recovery features because they were easy, quick and they worked out of the box without any troubleshooting skills needed. In the next review I will highlight the replication feature.