Backup and Recovery Guidelines

      Following is a summary of the guidance which can be distributed to a larger IT community. Server backups are performed for business continuity and system/disaster recovery purposes.  

       Specific file recoveries from server backups are possible when adhering to the following criteria:  The server backups must be overwritten every 30 days or less for email servers and 90 days or less for all other servers. Note: For most enterprise Hub, the personal drive and share all drive tape backups are only retained for 60 days or less. (If your site uses Networker, VERITAS or other backup tools to perform backups, this means the savesets must be marked as expired every 30 days or less for email servers and 90 days or less for all other servers.)

Guidance on Specific File Recovery Request
Each request for specific file/folder recovery should be evaluated using the following guidance:  

1. If the request is associated with a system outage, then recovery would likely be necessary. Business continuity and system/disaster recovery procedures should be followed. 
2. Any file recovery request for information past the retention timeframes, requires the approval of the IT Manager.
3. Before restoring from server backup, verify that the information cannot be located online:
     a. Support personnel should check the requestor’s recycle bin and temp folders.
     b. Support personnel should check that the information has not been moved elsewhere on the server by searching several folder levels above the requested recovery location on the server. This will prevent the recovery of duplicate information. 
4. Verify ownership of recovery information:
     a. If the person is requesting personal file recovery, validate that the requestor’s ID matches the ownership of the personal file being recovered.  If the requestor is not the owner of the data, approval from IT Manager is required.
     b. If the requested information comes from a shared area (e.g. share all), the support person should secure approval from the requestor’s supervisor by email to ensure the request is valid.

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Benefits of VMware

Introduction 
     Virtual servers provide benefits in several fields: higher availability, faster deployment, lower cost, lower energy use, and simpler upgrades. 

High availability
     VMware's VMotion technology enables the live migration of running virtual machines. Virtual machines do not need to be shut down for the vast majority of physical server maintenance events or virtual-environment patching. The VMware infrastructure will detect physical server failures and automatically restart VMs on another host.

Dynamic load balancing
     The VMware infrastructure automatically distributes the load across a cluster of physical servers to ensure the maximum performance of all running virtual machines.

Hardware flexibility
     Changing the resources available to a virtual machine is possible through a simple configuration change. Storage, processor, and memory resources can be matched to actual resource usage throughout the lifetime of the hosted application.

Reduced power consumption - 95% savings 
     With virtualization, a single physical server can host tens of virtual machines; this reduces the power consumed per system. 

     Each typical physical server consumes 200-300 Watts each. In contrast, the VM machines host 30 virtual servers for a total of 400 Watts, meaning each virtual server instance uses about 14 watts apiece. That's approximately a 95% reduction in energy use per server. 

Fast provisioning
     Procuring a physical machine can take days or weeks. In contrast, a virtual machine can be provisioned in one business day. 

Lower overall cost - 75% savings 
Server consolidation reduces the cost of servers, makes more efficient use of data center space, and reduces energy consumption; all of these factors reduce the total cost of ownership. Over a three-year lifecycle, a virtual machine costs approximately 75% less to operate than a physical server.

Typical workloads cost less than $500/year to host on the VMware infrastructure.

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HP Power Calculator Program

      For anyone who are using or planning to use HP server, this help for calculate PDU before connect to the UPS. HP ProLiant Servers - Online HP Power Calculators The HP Online Power Calculator has been replaced by the HP Power Advisor for HP ProLiant G6 servers and beyond. Use the HP Power Calculator for HP ProLiant G5 and earlier server models. 

       The HP Power Advisor is a tool provided by Hewlett-Packard to assist in the estimation of power consumption and proper selection of components including power supplies at a system, rack, and multi-rack level. A variety of additional features are also provided including a condensed bill of materials, a cost of owner ship calculator, and a power report. 

Details
       The HP Power Calculator utility reduces the research and guess-work for determining power requirements of systems based on ProLiant servers. Each calculator provides precise data that planners can use to accurately predict power and cooling requirements for single systems and, consequently, for racks of systems

       HP develops a unique Power Calculator for a specific ProLiant server using data collected from server tests. Each test starts with a system fully-configured with the maximum number of processors, memory, hard drives, expansion cards, and power supplies. Proprietary software is used to exercise the processors and all peripherals while voltage and current measurements are taken. Tests are repeated for all levels of processor support at all speeds, with different memory amounts and hard drive sizes. Revised or updated servers are retested during development cycles to ensure calculator integrity.
 NOTE:  HP Power Calculator is intended to be a conservative estimator of power. No two software programs will consume exactly the same amount of power. Even programs that report the same CPU utilization will have different power consumption characteristics, based on the exact mix and sequence of instructions being executed. The programs used as the measurement reference for the HP Power Calculator were intended to consume as much or more power than actual user applications. 

Downloads

Please download and read the "HHP Power Advisor utility: a tool for estimating power requirements for HP ProLiant server systems".

   Click here to download the HP Power Advisor utility White Paper .

HP ProLiant G6 Servers 

With the release of the new ProLiant G6 Server family, HP has also launched the new HP Power Advisor. This tool will replace the Power Calculators for G6 servers and beyond. You can find the tool along with more information at the following URL.

   Click here to access the "HP ProLiant Energy Efficient Solutions" web page .

Reference: HP Power Calculator Program | powercalcs | DL385G5

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NIC Teaming Preparation Items

Preparation Items
NOTE: This is a critical preparation work in order for the NIC Teaming to be successful. DO NOT proceed to any NIC Teaming if any of the below 3 pre-requisites are satisfied.

1. Ensure that Local Admin Account password is obtained and verified on each server. It is a contingency plan against failure to logon to domain due to NIC configuration error.	_____
2. Capture all server current IP configurations before the change.	_____
3. Ensure that the Secondary NIC to be teamed is switch-enabled and functional. Things to check: network cable need to be plugged in, switch port need to be activated and NIC interface need to be enabled.	_____

Adding and configuring NICs in a team
      Before a NIC is teamed, verify the following: The NICs must be DHCP enabled and the DNS server address must be left blank.
NOTE: The teaming utility becomes unstable if static IP addresses, subnets, and DNS addresses are set before teaming.

1.Duplex and speed settings must be set to use the default values (Auto)	_____
2.Open the HP Network Teaming utility. Highlight the NICs to team. Click Team.	_____
3.The Team Properties dialog box appears. Select one of the following methods: · If you will be using Fault Tolerant NIC teaming, select Fault Tolerant. Under Redundancy Control, select Smart Switch.	_____
4.Click OK to accept the team properties.	_____
5.Click OK in the HP Network Teaming and Configuration Properties dialog box to apply the changes.	_____
6.Click Yes when prompted to apply all configuration changes. Wait while the adapters are configured. This process could take several seconds.	_____
7.Click OK. An HP Load Balancing Team icon is now displayed in the HP Network Teaming and Configuration dialog box	_____
8.Click Yes to reboot now.	_____

Renaming the teamed connection
       The assigned name for the new NIC team connection is “Local Area Connection X,” where X represents the next available connection number generated by the system. HP recommends changing this name to a more meaningful name, such as “NIC Team.” To change the name of the connection:

1.From the desktop, right-click the My Network Places icon, and then click Properties.	_____
2.Move the cursor over each connection icon to view the pop up box of the icon’s name. Locate HP Network Teaming Virtual Miniport.	_____
3.Right-click the connection icon for HP Network Teaming Virtual Miniport, and then click Rename. Enter a name that is more descriptive than “Local Area Connection X,” such as “NIC Team.” For SQL server – to be maintained as PUBLIC For WFE – to be named as PUBLIC	_____

Configuring the TCP/IP protocol on the new team
      After teaming the NICs, a new virtual network adapter for the team is automatically created. However, by default, the new adapter is set to DHCP. To manually configure the IP address, perform the following steps. To enter the TCP/IP address information for the team:

1.From the desktop, go to the Network and Dial up Connections window, and then click Properties. Right-click the NIC Team icon, and then select Properties.	_____
2. Use the arrows and the scroll bar on the right of the screen to scroll through the Components list.	_____
3. Click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties. NOTE: If a NIC is teamed, do not modify the TCP/IP settings for the individual NIC ports.	_____
4.Repopulate the following IP address information on the General tab for: IP address Subnet mask Default gateway Preferred DNS server Alternate DNS server	_____
5.Click Advanced.	_____
6.Click the DNS tab and uncheck the Register this connection’s addresses in DNS checkbox.	_____
7.Click the WINS tab and type the primary and secondary WINS server addresses in order of use.	_____
8.Close the windows and Exit.	_____
9.If you receive this warning message, Multiple default gateways are intended to provide redundancy to a single network …Do you want to save this configuration?, then click Yes.	_____
10.Click OK. The Ethernet Team should be working.	_____

Checking the status of the NIC team
      This is the post NIC Teaming implementation check items.

1.To check the status of the Ethernet Team, open the HP Network Teaming utility. The Configuration Properties window is displayed, showing the teamed NICs.	_____
2.To verify that the NIC Teaming is functioning as expected, plug out one of the cable physically. The network connectivity should be un-interrupted.	_____

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Benefits of Server Virtualization

       Server individualization is the concept of treating a physical server as multiple logical servers. How does that help? Let’s have a look.

       Virtual servers reduce your costs. Virtualization causes you to buy less hardware thereby saving you money. Also the operating costs are reduced with virtualization.

       Virtualization makes the servers stable and reduces downtimes considerably thereby making servers and the websites hosted on them available at all times. It ensures high availability and delivers prompt disaster recovery thereby offering you business continuity.

       Virtualization of servers lets you utilize the resources to the fullest. With automation and better utilization of available resources, virtualization increases the efficiency of the server. 

       In virtualization, a physical server is partitioned into multiple logicals and these logicals are independent of one another. As they don’t interfere with others, they promise increased security. This is the reason virtual private servers are often used as sandboxes or honeypots. 

       Another benefit of server virtualization is that it helps save space in your data centers as the number of physical servers is much less than the number of servers that are being used. 

      If we had to list them, what are the top benefits of server virtualization? Here's devided by categories: 

Financial benefits of server virtualization

• Reduction of HW maintenance costs 
• Reduction of LAN/SAN costs
• Reduction of floor spaces costs
• Reduction of power consumption costs

Intangible benefits of server virtualization

• Increased flexibility
• Increased availability
• Increased uptime
• Green IT
• Improved test processes
• Virtual labs
• Allow us to move to the cloud

       Have you experienced virtual servers yet? How has the experience been? Share us when and how you have used virtual servers.

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