The Power of Bare Metal Backup

All professionals recognize the importance of a good backup.  But sometimes we forget how important server image backups are. A good Bare Metal Backup can save a week of frustration trying to rebuild an old server that finally has failed.

Most of the time, when we toss around the word backup, we are referring to Data Backups.  A Data Backup is a backup of files and content created by users of the computer. It’s different from the programs and Operating System components that were installed from CD/DVD, and typically are static.  User Files by comparison changes each day.

As computer professionals, we all obsess over Data Backups. We are all afraid we might neglect to backup something a user created that turns out to be critical to their organization.  Maybe it was a legal brief part of an ongoing case, or maybe it’s a spreadsheet the describes a business proposal, or maybe it’s a database file with the list of customers who owe money to the organization.

But why do we only focus on Data?  Because we are all lulled into believing if a server fails all we’d need is the Data, and one of the many Operating System disks found around the office to put a server back together.  Maybe an hour or two, and we’d be back in business, right? 

The truth is, rebuilding a server, especially an older server, can take days to get everything back after server failure.  It’s easy to forget how many steps there are, and how long each step could take. Operating system, service packs & hot fixes alone could take 4 hours.  Then tracking down obsolete device drivers & application disks could take days of frustrating search combined with maddening trial and error.

Bare Metal Backup to the Rescue

Here’s how it works. You take a server offline, and make an image of the server’s file system.  Afterwards, you store the image on permanent media and transfer the backup offsite.

Now when a server crashes, you have a way to skip over all those tedious steps.  Recovering from a server crash means you first recover the server image.  Then you focus on recovering the data from last night’s Data Backup.  The combination of Bare Metal Backup + Data Backup means you can have a server back on it’s feet within a single day.

Bare Metal Backup is No Replacement for Data Backup

Bare Metal Backups should never be considered a replacement for a good nightly Data Backup plan.  First of all, Bare Metal Backups usually require taking a server offline. In most organizations this is not practicable for daily operations (not to mention it would mean hanging around long after everyone else goes home).

Second, Bare Metal Backups don’t lend themselves easily to recovering a single file.  The nature of Bare Metal Backups typically requires a complete server recovery be done even if you only want to recover a single file. 

And Third, Bare Metal Backups are large. They include a backup of everything, both Data and Programs.  If you create one daily, you’d be generating and storing a lot of information that only changes infrequently.

Of course the next question is; how often should Bare Metal Backups be done?

Backup Schedule

The best advice for scheduled Bare Metal Backups is simple anytime you update or add new software to the server.  In most organizations, server software changes infrequently. Most changes are the result of hotfixes, service packs  and security updates.  So we recommend anytime you update your server, you take the time to perform a Bare Metal backup.

If the server is really old, it may no longer be supported and even hotfixes, service packs and security updates have ceased, in which case we recommend semi-yearly updates.

In most organizations, the Backup Schedule will look something like this:

· Every Night – Data Backup

· Twice a Year – Bare Metal Backup

A good backup is your best defense against server failure.