Discussion of Data Recovery for VMware systems and other virtual environments

1. Recovering Your Virtual Data April 29, 2009 David LogueSr. Data Recovery Engineer

2. Learning Objectives Identify common data loss scenarios in virtual environments Challenges with recovering virtual data Recommendations when virtual data loss occurs Design recommendations for a virtual environment with data loss prevention in mind

3. BSOD or PSODDo They Give You Chills?

5. RAID

6. Disk

7. Software failures

8. File System

9. Data Corruption

10. Database Corruption

11. VMware Metadata Corruption

12. Human error

13. Deleted

14. Overwritten

16. Common Data Loss ScenariosFailure Types Source: Over 100 Kroll Ontrack Virtual Data Recovery Jobs Over the Past 12 Months

17. Learning Objectives Common data loss scenarios in virtual environments Challenges with recovering virtual data Recommendations when virtual data loss occurs Design recommendations for a virtualenvironment with data lossprevention in mind

19. Snapshots, logs and swap files add complexity

20. Virtual file system fragmentation

21. Size of the recovery

22. Lack of a good backup that has been tested

24. The array hosted 4 MS Windows 2003 Server virtual machines running MS SQL 2005 which contained their patient medical records

25. The RAID controller failed

26. Hospital replaced the RAID controller and rebooted

28. If that failed, restore from backup

30. Kroll Ontrack’s recommendations:

31. Image the drives before starting the restore/rebuild process

32. If the restore or rebuild fails:

33. Start a Remote Data Recovery or

35. The customer forced the drives online and determined:

36. The RAID configuration was damaged and

37. One of the drives was out of date (degraded)

38. Forcing a rebuild with a degraded would cause additional damage

39. Backups did not include the SQL data

44. Software RAID manager used to replace RAID controllers that are no longer presenting the LUNs correctly. Supports all the types of RAID configurations.

46. Virtual device presented by the RAID manager. It is seen by the tools as if it was the original device.

47. Software RAID manager used to replace RAID controllers that are no longer presenting the LUNs correctly. Supports all the types of RAID configurations.

50. Case Study – Hospital in CrisisInside the RAID Proprietary NTFS and SQL recovery tools were then used to recover critical databases Once the array was presented, individual virtual machines were recovered from the VMFS volume

52. VMFS recovery tools to repair damage to the file system and copy out the VMDK files

53. NTFS recovery tools to repair the NT file system and copy out the SQL files

54. MS SQL recovery tools to extract the tables into a new databaseKroll Ontrack was able to get a full recovery of the critical SQL data

55. Learning Objectives Common data loss scenarios in virtual environments Challenges with recovering virtual data Recommendations when virtual data loss occurs Design recommendations for a virtualenvironment with data lossprevention in mind

56. Recommendations When Data Loss Occurs Don’t panic and don’t update your resume When troubleshooting, do not write any data to the storage array or change storage configurations. Don’t format the volume that has missing data Use the support system offered by the software provider Restore data to an alternate location and contact a data recovery company with extensive virtual data recovery experience including the ability to perform remote recoveries

58. DR gets back most recent files vs most recent backup

59. In some cases, DR is faster than restoring from the last backup

61. Design Recommendations Implement naming conventions for hosts, guests, physical servers and virtual file system volume Control who has access to the environment Document the backup and recovery plan and include the contact information of your preferred data recovery vendor in the plan Test your backups on a regular basis Use the tools to manage your virtual environment; don’t take shortcuts Be careful how you use snapshots and do your housekeeping Monitor the data stores, logs and swaps

62. Learning ObjectivesSummary Common data loss scenarios in virtual environments Challenges with recovering virtual data Recommendations when virtual data loss occurs Design recommendations for a virtualenvironment with data lossprevention in mind

63. Conclusion Thank you! Dave Logue Sr. Remote Data Recovery Engineer Kroll Ontrack, a Marsh & McLennan Company dlogue@krollontrack.com

64. © 2008 Kroll Ontrack Inc.| www.krollontrack.com