XO Backups - Offline Storage Best Practices?

DustyArmstrong

Afternoon! I just have a quick query to see if what I'm doing is viable.

I currently have a delta backup running and storing to a remote NAS, all seems to be working fine. I have started copying off the entire backup folder to an external drive once a week in the event of some catastrophic problem. This includes:

xo-config-backups
xo-pool-metadata-backups
xo-vm-backups
[somestring].dek
xenserver - post drive fail.xbk
xenserver - post fixes.xbk
xenserver.xbk

Essentially I am wondering, should all else fail, if I restore this folder to its original location (or could I place it anywhere and point XO to it?) and then restore the XO configuration from it (if needed), will this be treated as a valid repository I can restore VMs from? Will it simply take that folder as it was for that point in time and allow me to restore, or will it have issues as it's a "different" repository to what it might expect? If I am restoring the config from within this offline repository though, I guess that config would be in line with the deltas also in there, therefore it would be fine?

I suppose I could run a second separate delta job once per week to an external drive that only gets plugged in when that job is due to run, and removed shortly after, should the above be inadvisable.

Thank you!

DustinB

@DustyArmstrong yes.

KPS

@DustyArmstrong said in XO Backups - Offline Storage Best Practices?:

I suppose I could run a second separate delta job once per week to an external drive that only gets plugged in when that job is due to run, and removed shortly after, should the above be inadvisable.

When you simply mount the "DR-volume" to your XOA, you can immediately assign the backups.

BUT:
If the backup is older than the latest snapshot of your backup-jobs, you have to make a "full-backup" on the next job run (as deltas are always since the last job-snapshot)

You can also use the "mirror-job" to fill the disk.

planedrop

I'd probably recommend backing things up to Backblaze B2 or something else S3 compatible as your additional backup along with the local backups. Unless that HDD is in a physical location separate from the servers themselves? Thinking natural disaster, etc...

DustyArmstrong

Thanks for the replies, that gives me a good idea on things - appreciate it.

Cloud isn't really an option for the environment but yes the drive is held separately in the event of a disaster.

planedrop

@DustyArmstrong Gotcha, any specific reason cloud isn't viable? Only reason I ask (despite being a heavily on-prem person) is many people think cloud isn't an option but turns out it would get the job done just fine.

I personally don't use cloud for much, but DR backups is something things like Backblaze and S3 are great for.

The other thing about disasters to think about isn't just local like building fire type disasters, but is that backup drive safe enough if a 9.0 magnitude earthquake hit your area and a 100 mile radius? If not then it's not good enough for a lot of businesses needs. Going with a distant offsite cloud provider changes that (or more than 1 datacenter when possible, such as Backblaze West and East DCs) and provides better disaster recovery reliability.

DustyArmstrong

@planedrop Not opposed to cloud of course, but it's a network with no internet!

planedrop

@DustyArmstrong Got it got it! Makes total sense.

I do think making sure you somehow are backing things up in a way that covers large natural disasters is important, not quite sure what the ideal solution here would be though.