NAKIVO Helps International School Recover in Minutes from Server Failure
Business Challenge
Adventist International Mission School (AIMS) is a private Seventh-Day Adventist co- school for boys and girls from preschool ages through grade 12. The school is located in Muak Lek District, Saraburi Province, Thailand. AIMS is one of Thailand’s best international schools. The school provides quality education, encourages creativity and innovation and values traditional methods of teaching. The school is accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC).
The school’s IT infrastructure consists of five ESXi hosts and 12 VMware virtual machines. Virtual machines act as a file server, a Microsoft Active Directory server, a library server, a web server, accounting servers, a WIFI controller, a gateway server, among other things. All those servers are critical to the school’s day-to-day operations. Backup is important for AIMS, as the school values its data and applications to the same extent as the school cherishes its mission and work. As failures may come from the malfunctioning servers, broken drives or even theft, recovery becomes a critical component. The school’s aim is to recover all its critical data in a minimum amount of time, if and when any failure occurs. Ensuring reliable backup and fast recovery is a must for AIMS so that teachers and staff always have access to their files or to the internet.
In the past, AIMS used several backup solutions to protect its virtual environment. One of those backup software solutions provided the school with both VM backup and VM recovery functionality. However, the time to back up and recover was always slow. Recovering from a server failure consumed a significant amount of time and sometimes such recoveries were not even successfully completed. Another backup software was a console-based solution and was not user-friendly for the IT team. That is why AIMS decided to look for a more agile VM backup solution, which could offer ease-of-use as well as reliable functionality at an affordable price.
Solution
AIMS selected NAKIVO Backup & Replication as its new data protection solution that would support its IT infrastructure and integrate well with its existing hardware. AIMS carried out online research before making its final decision, which included going through online reviews from other satisfied customers and asking other IT specialists in schools. Since NAKIVO Backup & Replication was installed and configured on AIMS’s existing Synology NAS device, the school did not have to purchase any additional hardware or systems.
“The installation process was super easy for us and we did not even ask support to help us. The web interface is extremely user-friendly and fulfills every possible purpose needed, in order to operate the software. Integration with Synology NAS is a much-welcomed advantage, as Synology NAS handles the storage while NAKIVO Backup & Replication handles the backup, all under one roof,” says Edan Boy Atun Pedragosa, IT Manager at AIMS.
Today, NAKIVO Backup & Replication allows AIMS to store and back up VMs to its onsite Synology NAS server, copy VM backups offsite and recover VMs directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups. Backups are now performed more regularly with the NAKIVO Backup & Replication scheduling functionality, allowing for critical data and applications to remain consistent and secure.
“What we enjoy about NAKIVO Backup & Replication is that the software allows us to schedule our backups, complete those backups in minutes – sometimes even seconds – and recover VMs from backups to a different host efficiently. We schedule backups from anywhere between every 30 minutes and daily and weekly, depending on the importance of a particular virtual machine. With VMware Changed Block Technology (CBT), after the initial full backup, all backups take seconds to a few minutes to complete,” says Edan.
The instant VM recovery functionality is the biggest advantage of NAKIVO Backup & Replication for AIMS. Previously, a server failure could mean days of rebuilding the server that could not be always performed successfully. Now, with instant VM recovery, entire VMware VMs can be recovered within minutes. “We had a situation where the drive on one of our ESXi hosts died. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, we are able to recover from such a failure in minutes and we maintained the integrity of the critical data for our students, teachers and staff,” says Edan.
Results
NAKIVO Backup & Replication installed on a Synology NAS allows AIMS to protect its critical data and applications reliably and integrate seamlessly with the school’s existing Synology NAS server. While VM backup was slow in the past, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication not only is the process automated, but also fast and efficient. Instant recovery of VMs from a server failure is now possible, while previously the recovery process could take days or might not have been successful.
“NAKIVO Backup & Replication helped us ensure availability of our data with the help of VM backup and recovery. We also saved nearly 50% of our budget by switching from our previous solution to NAKIVO Backup & Replication. We also enjoy the addition of the online chat functionality, where we can communicate with support whenever we have any questions,” says Edan.
About Adventist International Mission School (AIMS)
Adventist International Mission School (AIMS) is a Seventh-day Adventist private school registered under Seventh-day Adventist Foundation and operated by the Adventist International Mission School Board of Directors under the auspices of Southeast Asia Union Mission. AIMS is a school for students from preschool to grade 12 and serves as a laboratory school for the Asia-Pacific International University Education Department. The school welcomes all applicants who are willing to study under a conservative social framework of the school, regardless of their religious beliefs. For more information, please visit www.aims.ac.th.