CASE STUDY: TRYING SOMETHING NEW

GREENFIELD SAVINGS BANK AND STORAGECRAFT

| 2012 StorageCraft. All rights reserved.

WHEN THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS

Earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, fires, and floods. The devastation of such natural disasters made 2011 a challenging year for many IT and network administrators throughout the world, who fought the elements to keep their systems running and available to the millions of users who depend on these systems. But for Anita Gingras, Network Administrator for Greenfield Savings Bank (GSB) in Massachusetts, U.S., 2011 was a reminder of another major cause of server crashes: user error. After an incorrect password was entered, the domain administrator account for our Exchange server locked up in the middle of a transaction, which caused corruption in the database. Then, free space ran out, and everything stopped, so users had no access to their emails, calendars, nothing.

emails, itd fail. So we decided to look for another solution, and our vendor recommended that we try StorageCraft ShadowProtect. ShadowProtect is best-in-class backup and disaster recovery software, with the ability to restore any Windows server, regardless of different hardware. While the competing system recovery and backup and disaster recovery products used by GSB previously touted many of the same backup features, ShadowProtect focuses on fast and reliable recovery. Gingras continued: When the disaster happened, we happened to be in the second week of evaluating ShadowProtect, and had taken backup images of our Exchange server, but no one was trained yet on how to use it. So I immediately called StorageCraft to figure out what we could do to get the server back up and running. Smiling, she added, Brett was the lucky guy who got my case. Brett Twiggs, StorageCraft Senior Sales Engineer at the time, explained what happened: Since GSB was evaluating ShadowProtect and didnt have a maintenance agreement with us yet, I supported them on their issues as part of our pre-sales engagement.

ANITA GINGRAS
Network Administrator for Greenfield Savings Bank

Our RTO for the Exchange server is 48 hours, and we recovered in under that time, with no data loss, so I was happy.

LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION THAT WORKS

Prior to this disaster, GSB had a mainstream system recovery product to back up their servers, but Anita had been dissatisfied with its recovery function, particularly with its granular restore capabilities for Exchange. Wed get backups that look fine, but when we tried to restore a server, an Exchange mailbox or individual

| 2012 StorageCraft. All rights reserved.

RACING AGAINST THE CLOCK

Anitas first priority was to restore Exchange database access to GSB users. At 100 GB in size and a limited throughput to the server, it would take approximately fourteen hours to restore just the Exchange database. Moreover, Microsoft Support recommended a bare metal restore (BMR) of the Exchange server, which would add more time to the recovery process. Working remotely from Utah by phone, Twiggs made several suggestions to take advantage of fast recovery options in ShadowProtect. A BMR of the physical Exchange server could mean users wouldnt have access for up to several days, which would be disastrous for the bank. So to speed things up, we decided to use VirtualBoot. The VirtualBoot feature of ShadowProtect lets you quickly access a servers data by booting a ShadowProtect backup image as a virtual machine. After locating spare hardware to host a virtualized Exchange server, Anitas team of network and IT administrators started the VirtualBoot quick recovery function. They soon realized, however, that because of the

amount of data stored on the mail relay appliance, there was not enough free space on the C: drive to complete the process. According to Twiggs, We moved the temporary VM directory to a different drive with more free space. This allowed us to spin up a complete virtual Exchange server on the spare hardware. Once the hardware was in place and the temporary directory was moved, the VirtualBoot process of creating a temporary VM took about eight minutes. Using the various tools included in ShadowProtect, including Hardware Independent Restore, which allows recovery to different physical or virtual hardware, the backup image of the physical Exchange server was restored on the spare hardware, thereby recovering the Exchange server and giving access to GSB users in under two hours. That was just what Gingras needed. The virtualization process was quite time-intensive. But our RTO [Recovery Time Objective] for the Exchange server is 48 hours, and we recovered in under that time, with no data loss, so I was happy. But we werent donewe still had to rebuild the original Exchange server.

BRETT TWIGGS
Senior Sales Engineer at StorageCraft

Once the hardware was in place, the VirtualBoot process of creating a temporary VM took about eight minutes.

| 2012 StorageCraft. All rights reserved.

SAVING THE DAY

With access to Exchange restored on the virtual server, and with backups continuing as usual, Anitas team had time to rebuild the physical Exchange server on new drives with plenty of free space. With Bretts guidance, Anita used the HeadStart Restore (HSR) feature in the complementary StorageCraft ShadowControl ImageManager to begin restoring backup images to the original Exchange server while the new virtual production server was still running. ShadowControl ImageManager, which includes HSR, is an optional program that drastically reduces recovery times and management of backup images. According to Twiggs, HSR also allows you to break up the volume restore process into multiple stages, which is useful with large volumes that would normally take days to restore. According to Gingras, the switch over from the virtual server to the new physical server went seamlessly. Using the ShadowProtect tools, we moved the entire Exchange database

from the temporary virtual system to the new physical chassis without any of the banks users noticing the change. It went very smoothly.

GREENFIELD SAVINGS BANK

With the same location, the same name, and the same mission, Greenfield Savings Bank has been a cornerstone of Franklin County, Massachusetts, and its community life since 1869. The past 143 years have seen profound transformation and advancement in the banking industry. But Greenfield Savings Banks long standing commitment to provide superior customer service, offer solid financial products, and work diligently to enhance the communities they serve has remained steady and reliable. Whether theyre opening new offices, expanding their product line, or adding convenient services, their commitment to their customer is at the heart of everything they do. Customers will be on a first name basis with the Greenfield team, and wont have to wade through a maze of digital prompts to get information. Greenfield Savings Bank

is there to provide the answers you need, from online banking assistance to setting up an IRA to opening a new account. Greenfield Savings Bank is also a philanthropic leader in Franklin County. Their longstanding philosophyto build strong communities, one account at a timehas been the heart and soul of their business since they opened our doors. Their commitment to the region can be seen in abundant financial giving, supportive outreach, and active volunteerism. Even as Greenfield Savings Bank works to help strengthen the community, theyre proud of the growth that has taken place in their own organization. They are the number one lender in Franklin County and offer the only in-house Trust and Investment Department. Its this strong heritage that they carry into tomorrow, ensuring a successful future for us all. www.greenfieldsavings.com

LESSONS LEARNED
The Exchange server crash incident helped improve business continuity procedures at GSB. Now promoted to Senior Network Administrator, Gingras reflects on some of the lessons learned. We pay more attention to the free space requirements of our systems. And we take full advantage of the tools and features available in ShadowProtect. Twiggs summarized the experience like this: Taking backups is important but worthless if you cant recover quickly and reliably when the unexpected happens.

| 2012 StorageCraft. All rights reserved.

ABOUT STORAGECRAFT

At StorageCraft, the goal of complete business continuity drives everything we do. Our flagship, StorageCraft ShadowProtect, is a full-featured, best-in-class BDR solution that is both fast and reliable. Imagine a backup solution that takes full, differential, and incremental images of your disks, including not only your data, but your OS and applications too. Perform complete, bare-metal restores every time. Our Hardware Independent Restore technology restores to any machine. Access files at a specific point in time and recover data on a granular level. Boot your ShadowProtect images as virtual machines (VMs) with VirtualBoot. Manage multiple instances of ShadowProtect across multiple environments.

the most of your backup images. It includes the following features: HeadStart Restore leverages your ShadowProtect images before a disaster by prestaging them as a VM, so recovery can happen in mere minutes. ShadowStreamTM is an alternative file transfer technology that offers speeds up to 5 times faster than FTP and does not require separate hardware. intelligentFTPTM transforms traditional FTP into a BDR-friendly transfer solution by offering automatic network replication with greater control over what, how, and when you replicate. ShadowControl ImageManager also offers other powerful business continuity features such as consolidation, verification, retention, and notification. We also offer ShadowProtect Granular Recovery for Exchange to give you complete, granular access to images of your Exchange servers.

CONTACT US
StorageCraft Technology Corporation 11850 South Election Road, Suite 100 Draper, Utah 84020 USA Phone: 801.545.4700 Fax: 801.545.4705 www.storagecraft.com contactus@storagecraft.com

MAKING THE MOST OF BACKUP

We also have a growing array of tools that unlock the full potential of your ShadowProtect images. StorageCraft ShadowControlTM ImageManager is a fullfeatured companion to ShadowProtect that lets you make

Copyright 2012 StorageCraft Technology Corporation. All rights reserved. This publication is for informational purposes only. STORAGECRAFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, IN THIS PUBLICATION. The StorageCraft, ShadowProtect, and HeadStart Restore names and logos are registered trademarks and the ShadowControl, ShadowStream, and intelligentFTP names and logos are trademarks of StorageCraft Technology Corporation. All other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.

| 2012 StorageCraft. All rights reserved.