Can I restore backup copies made from data deduplication for disaster recovery?
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You can rely on backup copies made from data deduplication, but it is vital to protect your dedupe indexes and to restore everything in the right order. When performing a standard restore, all data is found in a linear fashion on your tapes. When data deduplication is involved, the non-unique data is referenced by pointers and the indexing database locates the necessary data. Therefore, to ensure that all data is protected from a disaster at your primary site, the backup and deduplication databases must be recovered first. Even if you had the ability to replicate these databases, their protection is critical.
Regardless of whether your backup data is deduplicated or not, a carefully constructed backup cycle needs to be maintained. You will not necessarily need to take a full weekly backup, but retention policies need to be set so that there is always a copy from which to recover. Similarly, if your deduplicated backup images are stored remotely, all non-expired tapes must remain off-site.
This was first published in November 2009
