Backup & Disaster Recovery

On- & Off-site Data Protection

The On- & Off-site Data Protection feature in VFusionOS Data Storage Software allows users to back up and restore crucial company data in case of an unexpected disaster due to a combination of several technologies. This backup-focused feature enables creating consistent snapshots and asynchronous snapshot replication to local and/or remote destinations. The replication tasks can be set according to the specific user requirements thanks to advanced retention plans. On- and Off-site Data Protection is very flexible, as it covers a wide range of disaster recovery plans without the need to use additional third party tools.

Protection against Ransomware

Very frequent snapshots with instant access to all data provide a quick way to roll-back to the state before a virus attack.

Backup of everything

Copies of all kinds of data are consistent, including databases and running virtual machines with all of their applications and data.

Solved problem of backup window

Backup window is reduced to minutes, since only data changes are replicated within every interval. Additionally, the backup is offloaded from the client machine to the storage server.

Optional removal and rotation of backup media

Thanks to Pool Export and Import functionalities, users can safely remove backup media (disks), rotate with other sets, or ship to another location.

Encrypted transfer

Data stream is sent via SSH for safe transfer via the Internet.

Instant access to and restore of previous data versions

Old data versions can be accessed and restored quickly, since they are kept in the original form. Users can instantly start using their backed up data. Also, every user has a direct access to “Previous Versions” via SMB on MS Windows clients.

Very light backup engine

Continuous interval-based replication works in the background with insignificant influence on production. There is an option to skip virtual machine snapshots in very heavy-load timeframes in VMware environments.

On-site (local) backups

On-site backups are kept at your place of business on the same server with additional internal drives, external drives or on other local VFusionOS-based servers. Such kind of backup is the most suitable for data protection when a company encounters ransomware attacks, hardware failure, or other disasters. Due to location, data restore is usually easier and faster than in case of an off-site backup. Therefore, it is a perfect solution for hot data which can be restored with minimized downtime or even instantly by switching to the backup copy.

Off-site (remote) backups

Off-site backups are backed up to a geographically different location. Such backup secures the data in case of e.g. theft, flood, fire, power outages, etc. In case of such disasters, the data can be restored to a new primary location or, in some solutions, the backup can take the primary server’s role and the data can be accessed instantly. The data transfer is secured by encryption. This kind of backup is also suitable for archiving purposes. It is also possible to set up several backup locations.

Retention Plan example

Now the data is secured with a retention plan consisting of short-, medium- and long-term rules. Any mistakes can easily be undone. The data is secured in case of data corruption or virus attacks because it can be restored to any state from the last hour, day or month.
Short-term ruleMedium-term ruleLong-term rule
Interval5 minutesInterval1 hourInterval1 day
Retention period1 hourRetention Period3 daysRetention Period1 month

Data Recovery

Data restore from a local backup server

With a local backup server, data is available in the same location and can be recovered with a minimum amount of downtime by temporarily using a backup server as the data server while the primary server is being restored.

Instant restoring from the same server

Crucial or “hot” data can be restored instantly from one of multiple snapshots through the Snapshot Rollback function. Also, users can access the snapshot data and manually restore all selected files.

Consistent Snapshots

A snapshot is a point-in-time copy of the source volume which can be kept on a local site. It can also be transferred to another location of a volume backup copy. VFusionOS enables creating an unlimited number of snapshots. Data from a snapshot can be instantly restored with a roll-back functionality or an additional volume (clone). In the On- & Off-site Data Protection feature, snapshots are asynchronously replicated to local and/or remote locations according to a retention plan that can be customized specifically to individual requirements and the disaster recovery plan. Since snapshots keep only the data that have changed between subsequent snapshots, only the changes are transferred to the destination location as well.

Data restore from off-site locations

It is possible to instantly switch to the backup server and use it temporarily as a primary location (depending on the system structure) and do the restore in the background. Restoring data from an off-site server may be more time-consuming, depending on the amount of data that needs to be recovered, as well as the connection throughput.

Retention Plans

Retention plans are included in the On- & Off-site Data Protection feature that control the automatic creation and deletion of snapshots both on the source and the destination. They consist of one or multiple rules which are defined by an interval and a retention period. The interval sets how often a snapshot should be taken, and the retention period how long each snapshot should be kept. Each value is described with one of the standard time units: seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months or years. Any number of rules can be set for a retention plan to adapt it to any backup strategy. Additionally, the plan can be the same for the source and the destination, but it can also be different for both locations. In the On- & Off-site Data Protection feature, snapshots are asynchronously replicated to local and/or remote locations according to a retention plan that can be customized specifically to individual requirements and the disaster recovery plan. Since snapshots keep only the data that have changed between subsequent snapshots, only the changes are transferred to the destination location as well.