Twice every day, a full replica of the primary MEDITECH volumes is created on an external SAN volume providing a means of data recovery in the event of failure on the primary SAN. While large, these copies are not overly expensive as they are retained on RAID5 SATA volumes.
HT Backup then manages multiple copies for several days, providing a number of reversion points to recover complete systems rapidly without any need to restore from tape or retrieve data from off-site locations. Once every 24 hours, BridgeHead’s HT Backup solution backs up the most recent disk-based replica to tape.
The Solution
While researching potential options for meeting its data protection and disaster recovery requirements, CHRISTUS became aware that BridgeHead Software had partnered with MEDITECH to create a high-performance, highly scalable system for automating the routine creation of point-in-time snapshots and full replicas of MEDITECH HIS data on a Storage Area Network (SAN).
Mark Middleton and his team realized that with BridgeHead’s HT Backup software and its Integrated Serverless Backup (ISB) and Integrated Disaster Recovery (IDR) options for MEDITECH, it would be possible to automate the safe creation of point-in-time images and to frequently spin off snapshots of CHRISTUS’ data for reversion to a safe state in a matter of minutes. The BridgeHead system would then allow full replicas to be made on a less frequent basis from these snapshots, and it would be possible to cascade daily disk and tape backups off those data copies.
CHRISTUS made the decision to implement the BridgeHead HT Backup and ISB/IDR as part of its data protection strategy. And the new solution was rolled out across the CHRISTUS network over two years. The BridgeHead software makes use of a combination of the mirroring, snapshotting and replications options available for use in conjunction with DMX arrays. HT Backup schedules multiple routine, block-level snapshotting, replication, and backup jobs to capture point-in-time copies of the entire MEDITECH data environment across all 99 systems and copies them to suitable storage at an alternate location. This keeps the MEDITECH application available in the event of failure.
MEDITECH supports ISB/IDR by working with DMX BCVs to ensure dual RAID10 copies of its data for each of the 99 systems. HT Backup interfaces with MEDITECH to enable the application to fully quiesce its activities every few hours so that a clean point-in-time copy of data changes can be preserved through managed snapshots on the array. These multi- generational copies provide a rapid reversion point consistent over the entire application environment to combat either system failure or corruption events.
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These copies are rotated off site and retained for long term data retention based on pre-set policies as well as being archived for regulatory compliance. CHRISTUS also uses HT Backup to automate and manage daily WAN-based replication using EMC OpenReplicate as the replication utility to a disaster recovery site located in Atlanta - over 900 miles away from its San Antonio primary data center.
The Result
Describing the BridgeHead solution Middleton said: “HT Backup not only manages and automates all the various levels of copying data, but its enterprise media manager also allocates and manages all secondary storage targets including snapshot volumes, full replica volumes across the network, and tape.
“The entire application moves massive amounts of data daily without impacting the primary application environment, allowing users to continue working with no visible interruption or slow down in performance during backup procedures. At the same time, we can rest assured that if there is a major failure that requires bringing our operations up remotely, the recovery process will be fast and dependable because the data was preserved in a consistent state.”
Over the last five years, CHRISTUS’ IT department has successfully centralized IT operations management and support, consolidated resources and assets, and standardized on state- of-the-art infrastructure, platforms and applications, and best administrative and IT practices. This success is a tribute to CHRISTUS. Yet, as Middleton pointed out: “We could not have achieved our goals without the help of BridgeHead Software.
“BridgeHead’s technology manages all the disk and tape storage media, dynamically allocating volumes and managing the sophisticated archive retention cycles we have set up. This ensures that we are meeting our recovery point and time objectives and data availability commitments in the event of operational failure, disaster, or corruption of the mission-critical MEDITECH HIS database.
“And any time a system fails, we can see the full range of recovery options from snapshots to replicas to backups (on- and off-site) on one screen through the BridgeHead Media Manager.”
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