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Which iSCSI enabled NAS would be better to backup of hyper-V VM or would you like to suggest some other backup solution?

On a single server I have four VM. All the VM are on RAID 1 with 6Gbps SAS drives with hardware RAID controller equipped with cache memory. Server capacity is 3 *900GB + 300GB
I am using native windows backup software & using portable USB 4TB HDD attached with USB 3.0. Backup is scheduled for night daily.
During the night no user is connected to the server.

As backup is taking too much of time now; I am considering to switch to NAS. Currently total daily backup size is 2TB (Full backup)

I am considering to use a NAS with RAID 0 to double up HDD R/W access speed. Would use two 1Gbps ethernet (Link aggregation)
I would map NAS using NAS iSCSI target feature with windows Hyper-V Windows 2016 iSCSI initiator feature & would schedule windows backup hoping it would reduce the backup time much.

First query: If the idea to use NAS is good enough considering the backup solution in a budget.
Second query: Which NAS should I choose:

NAS 1: Western Digital or Netgear?
http://naschart.com/compare/western-digital-my-cloud-pro-series-pr4100-pr4100-72,netgear-readynas-104-rn104-79
https://www.wdc.com/products/network-attached-storage.html
I belive I must use enterprise grade HDD: https://www.span.com/compare/WD4002FYYZ-vs-WD40EFRX/57219-41629

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Philip Elder

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Akash Bansal

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Thanks for sharing so wonderful articles.
I have already started fine tuning my existing installations based on the articles you have shared.
Later I would seek more info on a few points.

Still I can't decide which backup software & which backup hardware to use.
Most of the backup software either are too expensive or have least presence in our area. Looking for subscription based backup software & economical hardware.
https://www.veeam.com/vm-backup-recovery-replication-software.html
https://www.commvault.com/resources/commvault-hyperscale-appliance-technical-specifications
https://www.acronis.com/en-in/business/backup/

Should I backup from HyperV host or from inside the guest OS.
One VM is having exchange 2013
Second VM DC 2012 R2
Third VM is having an ERP based on Windows Server.
Fourth VM is MS SQL server

Currently windows server backup is transferring 2TB including all the VM & incremental of HOST Disk.
How much time/Data should I expect if I move to proposed backup solution?

Thanks for the guidance.

Philip Elder

Our rule of thumb is StorageCraft ShadowProtect for smaller deployments as it gets set up in-guest.

For higher density setups and higher density clusters we use Veeam. I suggest using them before all others.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

Thanks again :)

I have requested quote from shadow protect!

Which hardware would you recommend for the backup destination.

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Philip Elder

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Akash Bansal

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Only sql data is required to be backup at offsite. That is a few GB. It would be great if it could be pushed to azure.

Rest i believe backup to NAS would be more suitable.
Should we backup to a folder shared at NAS or iSCSI target at NAS?

Philip Elder

Sync the .BAK files up to Azure or use Azure Site Recovery for the VMs.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

.bak file from the sql machine?

Dont want to backup full vm ... dont have enough Internet bandwidth.

Philip Elder

Correct. Schedule a SQL .BAK run and sync that up.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

Thanks for the deep explanation of each thing & guiding the best practices & optimisation of my existing installations.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

A comparison between Shadow protect VS Altro VM backup

https://www.optrics.com/downloads/Altaro/AVB-vs-StorageCraft-ShadowProtect.pdf

Akash Bansal

ASKER

https://www.optrics.com/downloads/Altaro/AVB-vs-Veeam.pdf
ALtro Vs Veeam

Akash Bansal

ASKER

Another backup software in a budget:
https://www.unitrends.com/editions
http://novabackup.novastor.com/data-backup-products/

Philip Elder

We don't change what works. :)

Veeam and ShadowProtect.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

Thats right! Its a rule of thumb!

As i have a tight budget and Altro fits the budget... Can we consider it over shadow protect?

Comparison is also given in previous comment.

Philip Elder

I think ShadowProtect and Veeam are worth it. Both offer subscription models for a low monthly payment.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

Veeam and shadow protect are very costly
1 US dollar is about 70 INR and we are a very small business.

Akash Bansal

ASKER

I have a single populated socket basic server running 4VM.