InfoKist: a new solution of disaster recovery for SCNU

1.    Background

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?    South China Normal University (SCNU) was founded in 1933, one of the first batch of universities included in 211 Project. Considering the potential risk of losing data and business interruption caused by system downtime, SCNU has decided to apply the disaster recovery software developed by Scutech to replace the traditional and complex manual data backup to ensure data protection.

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2.    Problems and challenges

   We have concluded several existing problems of current SCNU system that need to be addressed to better meet its demands about data backup:

1)    No backup for key applications. Data could not be recovered to a certain checkpoint once a logical error occurs. We advise a unified storage and backup system and conduct periodical backup of all business and application data.

2)    All business systems currently are stored in the same place. A single glitch could potentially cause the entire system to break down. We advise a unified backup to secure application data to ensure data security even with glitches in network, storage, server or other areas.

3)    All business systems run in standalone mode, resulting in deficient protection for operating systems and applications. We advise dual-computer high availability mode and use special disaster recovery management software to monitor activities.

4)    The key business system is built in virtual environment while there is no protection for it. We advise a periodical backup for the virtual operating system.

5)    Manual backup is inefficient and unable to perform unified management. We advise deploying a professional backup system to perform unified management and monitoring of backup and recovery.

6)    Business data is stored in the machine room, which could be destroyed due to force majeure. We advise off-site backup and disaster recovery and backup all data to the machine room in Wushan Campus.

   Therefore, in the disaster recovery project for SCNU, key points would include: a data backup and storage system, disaster recovery plan for business system and virtual operating system.

3.   Solution characteristics:

1)    Supports backup and BMR of Linux and windows systems;

2)    Supports instant backup & recovery of non-structural files;

3)    Supports hot backup & recovery of databases like Oracle, SQL Server and MySQL. It conducts periodical and automatic full backup and incremental backup to ensure integrity and availability;

4)    Supports proxy-free backup of VMware virtualization platform. Also supports recovery to the original or another machine, mount recovery and file-level granularity recovery;

5)    Supports real-time and timely synchronization to realize high availability. RTO<30min;

6)    Supports off-site disaster recovery;

7)    Fully automatic backup instead of traditional manual backup to simplify backup work, improve efficiency and avoid misoperation.

8)    Supports resuming from broken download to reduce bandwidth occupation;

9)    A powerful software easy to use, deploy and maintain;

10) Efficient management and maintenance for the disaster recovery system via web interface;

11) Alerting and reporting function;

4.    Project design

   According to information security requirements of SCNU, this project will use InfoKist to provide a complete data protection solution. By deploying a proxy client on the server to be protected, it could protect the operating systems, databases and files. Backup for virtual machines does not need a proxy while high availability disaster recovery protection could be realized.

The project structure is as follows:

5.    Project advantages:

1)    Hardware-software integration. InfoKist contains a backup server, backup management software and a storage media. Users only need to plug in the cable and start using it after a simple deployment;

2)    It applies Raid protection mechanism. Once the disk fails, users only need to replace the disk without turning off the machine. No turning-off, no business interruption;

3)    Easy to operate and maintain. The control panel adopts B/S structure, allowing users to access it using any computer; it has real-time monitoring and management interface and backup could be finished without manual interference;

4)    All functions could be realized via web interface without manual interference;

5)    Custom backup strategy;

6)    InfoKist can conduct unified deployment, management and control for VMware virtualization platforms, operating systems, databases and application data connected to the same network;

7)    Hot backup for various databases;

8)    High availability disaster recovery for application systems to ensure continuous operation of key applications;

9)    Automatic disaster recovery drills to ensure availability of backup data.