VDI Data Protection - Part 3: An Operational Backup Approach for Horizon 7
Mon, 12 Dec 2022 21:26:48 -0000
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In Part 1 of this blog series we discussed how disaster recovery and operational backup are two significant aspects of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) data protection. In this blog, we will discuss the operational backup aspects of VMware Horizon data protection. For details on disaster recovery, see Part 2.
Loss of VDI environment availability or data has the potential to degrade a user’s ability to perform daily operational tasks. So, it is important for organizations to have an optimal plan to back up and recover VDI data. A robust data protection plan should meet the availability, Recovery Time Objective (RTO), and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) targets defined in Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
For a VMware Horizon virtual desktop environment, three key component layers require protection:
- The desktop layer, that is, the user’s desktop (which is often made available to multiple users using an appropriate provisioning technology)
- The management layer (which performs the provisioning, brokering, policy management, and related management functions)
- The user data layer (stored in user profile shares, home folders, and so on)
The backup and recovery requirements of each component layer depend on the type of the desktop pools and provisioning method used in the Horizon 7 environment. For example, a persistent (stateful) desktop pool can be created with full clones or full virtual machines, which requires a full backup of the virtual machines. A persistent pool can also be created with Horizon instant clones or linked clones with App Volumes (App Stacks and User Writable Volumes) to store the user-installed apps and user-related data. In this scenario, the gold image of the desktop and the persistent data related to App Volumes need protection.
For a non-persistent (stateless) desktop pool, only the gold image of the desktop needs to be protected. In the case of non-persistent desktops, you should consider protecting the user data that is stored in user profile shares and home folders, based on the user environment.
Figure 1: Horizon 7 Operational Backup Approach
Dell EMC offers comprehensive backup and recovery solutions that include products like Integrated Data Protection Appliances (IDPA), Avamar, Data Domain, and Data Protection Suite. For the data protection of a Horizon 7 environment, you can choose from this broad range of Dell EMC data protection products to match your user environment and existing data protection regime. For further information, visit the Dell EMC Data Protection web page.
The Dell EMC Ready Solutions for VDI team has published an operations guide that outlines how Avamar Virtual Edition (AVE) and Data Domain Virtual Edition (DD VE) can be used to facilitate backup and recovery of a Horizon 7, non-persistent desktop pool provisioned by instant clone technology. AVE and DD VE are the software-defined versions of the industry-leading Dell EMC data protection products Avamar and Data Domain. Avamar facilitates fast and efficient backup and recovery for a Horizon environment. Variable-length data deduplication, a key feature of Avamar data protection software, reduces network traffic significantly and provides better storage efficiency. Data Domain provides backup as well as archival capabilities. Data Domain’s tight integration with Avamar delivers added performance and scalability advantages for large Horizon 7 environments. Let’s see some of the key points discussed in the operation guide for backup and recovery of Horizon 7 desktop, management, and user layers.
The Horizon 7 configuration details are in the management layer stored in a View LDAP repository as part of the connection server configurations details. To schedule backups of this database, select the connection server instance from the Horizon console to generate a configuration backup file in a file share. You can then use Avamar VE to back up and restore this configuration backup file. If you are using linked clones, you also need to back up the Composer database.
As discussed earlier in this blog, the backup requirements of the desktop layer depend on the desktop pools and provisioning method. In the case of Horizon instant clones, only the gold image of the respective desktop pools need to be backed up. We recommend taking a clone of the original gold image (containing snapshots) and use that copied cloned image for the backup cycles.
The user data layer contains user-profile shares and other user-related files that are backed up by Avamar software. This layer needs to be protected using a standard data protection approach that is appropriate for user data in any environment.
For a more detailed description of the process to protect each of the layers described above, refer to the operations guide published by the Dell EMC Ready Solutions for VDI team.
The backup and recovery approach for Horizon virtual desktop environments is different from the approach followed for physical desktops and other virtual machines. For developing a successful operational backup strategy for Horizon, the key thing to be aware of is that all three component layers (desktop, management, user data) must be considered. The successful recovery of each of these interdependent components is essential to restore and deliver a fully functional user desktop. To make sure that your backup and recovery plan is effective from a user and business perspective, we recommend that you perform a backup and recovery test for all three layers simultaneously.
In the next part, we will conclude the blog series with some discussion on multi-cloud and hybrid cloud strategies for Horizon 7. So, stay tuned for more!
Thanks for Reading,
Anand Johnson - On Twitter @anandjohns