Best practices for setting up altaro VM backups

This best practice guide details Altaro VM Backup function , Explain their use and the best way to configure them to make full use of the software .

You will need to adapt it to your specific environment , In particular, it depends on how many resources you have available , But this guide will take you through the most important configurations that are often overlooked .

Set up Altaro VM Backup management console

Altaro VM The backup management console can be used to add and manage multiple hosts in one console . however , These hosts must be located in the same LAN And the same physical site （ The same building ） in . Settings with multiple physical sites must have one at each site Altaro VM Backup example .

To manage these multiple installations , You can use “ Central monitoring console ”, You can remotely monitor and manage these Altaro VM Backup installation .

Single Altaro VM Backup Instances can be managed at the same time Hyper-V and VMware host .

For best results ,Altaro Use （ Multiple ） Single threaded operations run some maintenance specific tasks . For this reason , With higher single thread performance CPU Installed on a machine with more kernels and lower single threaded performance than CPU Installation on your machine will produce better results .

therefore , In order to get the fastest results , It is better to have higher single thread CPU Speed of the machine installed Altaro VM Backup.

Backup location

If the backup location is NAS, Please make sure to disable the opportunity lock (Oplocks).

If your backup location is Windows machine , Equivalent to Oplocks yes ：Set-SmbServerConfiguration -EnableLeasing 0

adopt Powershell Run the above command .

Offsite copy

Use Altaro VM Backup , You can get the function of copying locations in different places , It is the redundancy of backup / Secondary copy . You can even put your VM Backup to 2 Different offsite replication locations , To further realize data redundancy , for example , You can choose a cloud location and a Altaro Remote server .

There are many setting options ：

You can choose the physical drive connected to the management console （ The best practice in different places is to place them in another building / Location ）. Drive rotation / In exchange for , It allows you to set up drives / Network path pool . Network path （ Limited to LAN） Or through WAN/VPN/Internet Connect to an offsite location , This is an ideal tool for disaster recovery purposes . Please note that , In the latter case （ Not LAN） Need to use Altaro Offsite Server Backup to Microsoft Azure、Amazon S3 or Wasabi.

Setting the location of offsite replication is as important as setting the backup to the primary location . In addition to the obvious reason that you will have a set of redundant backups to restore , If the local backup becomes unavailable due to disk damage or other disk failures . Having a secondary copy of the backup set also allows you to retain a wider range of VM Backup history , if necessary , You can also return to a further location when restoring .

Data deduplication

Altaro VM Backup Enhanced inline deduplication is used . It is strongly recommended to enable this feature , And in “ Advanced settings ” On the screen , Because this will basically ensure that any public data block across virtual machines is written to the backup location only once . This helps save a lot of space , And because public information is transmitted only once , So backup is faster .

Start from backup

Boot from backup drive with 2 An option ,“ Verification mode ” or “ Recovery mode ”. This is off RTO A very good choice , Because you can immediately start from the backup location VM And start the restore in the background .

however , It's very important , If you intend to do so , You will need a fast backup location , This position can handle the started VM Of I/O. Please note that , When VM After restore , It is recommended that you restart the restored at the first opportunity VM, To switch to the restored drive , This will have faster I/O throughput .

notice

Email notification is a simple and effective way to monitor backup status , But it's often overlooked . Setting up these notifications will give you a quick overview of the status of your backup jobs , So you don't have to log in every day Altaro The management console to confirm the backup status .

In this way , You will receive an alert of any backup failure , So you can solve the above problems before the next backup plan . This ensures that you always have a recoverable backup point ; therefore , As a general best practice , Please always monitor your backup notifications .

Master encryption key

Altaro The master encryption key in is used for AES 256 Bit encrypted backup . If you choose from “ Advanced settings ” Screen encrypted local backup , Then use it , If you are configuring an offsite replica , You must use it , Because the remote copy must be encrypted .

Altaro VM Backup Encryption key will be required for recovery , So you must remember it or write it down in the security password manager , Because the master encryption key has no recovery method .

Scheduled test exercises

Altaro VM Backup It can verify the backup data manually or automatically . This allows you to run scheduled validation jobs , To check the integrity of the backup at the backup location , Or the plan is complete VM Restore , So that you can actually start VM And make sure everything's OK .VM Will be in NIC Restore when disabled , To avoid contact with production machines IP Conflict .

Storage device failures are not uncommon , Therefore, it is strongly recommended to arrange test exercises to increase peace of mind . A complete description of the configuration test exercise .

Other general best practices

Backup and production VM Should not be placed on the same drive . If the backup location is NAS, Please make sure to disable the opportunity lock (Oplocks). The backup should not be placed on the drive running the operating system . Altaro Use the drive where it is installed as temporary storage , And need a small amount of free space （ According to what you want to back up VM Different in size ）. Keep at least 10% The backup location of is idle . Lord Altaro VM Backup The installation should not be installed on a domain controller (DC) On the machine . Altaro Back up the directory in the folder / The file should not be tampered 、 Delete or move . Don't shoot DFSR Database snapshot ：“DFSR Database or any other Windows Multi master databases do not support snapshots . This lack of snapshot support includes all virtualization vendors and products .DFSR Didn't like Active Directory Implement like that USN Rollback isolation protection domain service .” source .

Replication best practices

Exclude paging files from backup

As you know ,Altaro VM Backup All changes since the last backup are recorded , And transfer all blocks changed to the backup location . Page files will change frequently , And may cause your replication job to take longer .

therefore , Excluding paging files from backup equals transferring fewer changes , So copying jobs takes less time . This can be done by placing the page file in the same place as VM Different in itself VHDX/VMDK File to complete , Then you can follow the steps here , To exclude VHDX/VMDK file .

High disk IO And management program performance

Replication requires CDP（ Continuous data protection ）, So that every few minutes / Back up every hour , This makes replication possible .

But here's the thing , You should only enable HF on the virtual machine you really need CDP（15 Minutes or less ）. This will ensure what you really need VM Can reach the selected maximum frequency , And will not affect your Hypervisor Performance of .

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