In this article, we will discuss in-depth process of how BDRSuite uses its unique and effective approach called “virtual full images”, to overcome challenges that come with forward/reverse incremental processes.
About BDRSuite:
“BDRSuite is a comprehensive backup and disaster recovery software designed to protect data across Data Centers/Private Cloud (VMware, Hyper-V, Windows, Linux, Applications & Databases), Public Cloud (AWS), SaaS (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), and Endpoints (Windows, Mac)”.
VembuHive: A File System with a Unique Approach to Data Storage
BDRSuite’s proprietary VembuHive file system is a key component, which is an application-level file system that is designed to work on top of the existing file systems. This file system allows BDRSuite to store backup data in a highly efficient and organized manner.
One of the key features of the VembuHive file system is that it stores backup data in small, easily manageable chunks. By default, each chunk is 100 MB in size, but this can be configured to be larger or smaller depending on your needs.
BDRSuite stores backup data in small chunks for both full and incremental backups. This allows BDRSuite to easily access the data blocks it needs and quickly restore without having to deal with large, cumbersome files.
The metadata for each data block is stored in a PostgreSQL database, where it is organized and easily accessible. This includes the chunk name, seek position, block checksum, block size, and other relevant metadata. By storing this information in a database, BDRSuite can quickly and easily restore and manage backup data, making the process faster and more efficient.
BDRSuite’s effective approach to overcome the challenges of Forward/Reverse Incremental
Consolidation methods such as forward incremental, reverse incremental, and forever forward incremental are commonly used by backup software for creating backup chains. In this approach, the available full and incremental backups are then merged to create the latest full backup. However, if you need to restore data from any other specific point in time, you may need to wait for a merge to take place to create a full backup or restore all available incremental backup points. This can be time-consuming and may not always be the most efficient method. The right consolidation method should help reduce merge time, save storage space, and enable faster recovery.
BDRSuite offers a solution to these challenges with its “VembuHIVE” file system, which exposes every incremental backup as a virtual full backup. This means that restoring from any point in time does not require the merging of changes to a previous full backup. Instead, a full backup recovery point is available for every schedule during which an incremental backup was performed. These backup versions can be instantly restored without any tedious merge processes.
Let’s look into this process in detail:
BDRSuite virtually creates the full bootable virtual images (VHD, VHDX, VMDK, and RAW) for every incremental backup without actually merging the data.
You will be able to instantly boot/permanently recover the backed up VMs and Windows physical machines into VMware, Hyper-V, and KVM without merging the backup data every time. Even for a full download of the latest data, the data blocks of the latest data alone are read and restored. Each Full and subsequent Incremental backups are always available for restore as Full backups, even though no Full backups are really created in the backup storage.
Also, these images are created virtually. So it will not utilize any space on the storage repository. These bootable full virtual files can be accessed from the ‘BDRSuite Virtual Drive’ folder created on the BDRSuite backup server machine.
As already mentioned above, backup data is stored in BDRSuite’s proprietary small chunk file format that helps you to have ready-to-boot full virtual images (VHD, VHDX, VMDK, and RAW) for every incremental backup schedule without actually merging the backup data.
Example: If you configure backup for VMware VMs and run the incremental backup everyday. For the first time, BDRSuite will backup the full VM data and store it in the storage repository after compressing and encrypting it. During the subsequent incremental backups, only the modified blocks will be backed up and it will be stored in the storage repository after compressing and encrypting it.
With other backup software, in this case, there will be 1 full backup and 30 incremental backups after a month. So, when you need to restore the backup data, all these 31 files have to be merged, and then they will be decrypted and uncompressed to recover the VM data to the target host. This merge process itself takes more time and overall the recovery of the VM takes more time.
So, to speed up the recovery process, usually, you would like to use the reverse incremental feature.
Drawbacks in the Reverse Incremental process:
The reverse incremental feature with other backup software actually creates a full backup for the latest recovery point by merging the full, and all incremental data. This merge process repeats after every incremental backup schedule. This action requires more storage space(actually double the size of the backup space) and it is IO intensive. So, this will affect the life of the storage disk drastically.
Though this legacy reverse incremental method helps you to reduce the recovery time, it creates more complexity in managing the backup data and damages the storage hardware and increases the TCO. So, practically enabling this feature is more expensive with other backup vendors.
BDRSuite’s approach to store the backup data does not require any additional storage space for the merge process, and also it does not require a large IO operation during retention/merging.
Conclusion
In summary, BDRSuite’s “VembuHIVE” file system offers unique benefits for storing and managing backup data and a better approach to reverse/forward incremental backups by reducing merge time, saving storage space, and enabling faster recovery.
BDRSuite simplifies the backup process by eliminating the need to select a specific consolidation method. All you have to do is choose the type of backup they want to run (e.g. full, incremental, synthetic) and BDRSuite will automatically create virtual full backups for all restore points. This allows for quick recovery from any point in time without the need for merge time.
Interested in checking out BDRSuite? Try our 30-day free trial now or Request a demo
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