NAKIVO on a QNAP NAS Improves VM Backup, Recovery, and Reporting for an Oil and Gas Company

Business Challenge

Parex Resources Inc. (“Parex”) is actively engaged in crude oil exploration, development, and production in Colombia. Through foreign subsidiaries, the company holds interests in onshore exploration and production blocks totaling approximately 1.6 million gross acres. Parex is committed to sustainably grow reserves, production, and cash flow.

Parex’s IT infrastructure is distributed via two sites, where each site has two physical servers and approximately 35 to 40 VMware VMs. Nearly all of the production servers are virtualized, including three SQL servers per site, an Oracle database, and file servers. Parex stores historical files that can go back to months or even years, thus protecting this information is critical, as the organization’s users require constant access to files. Therefore, Parex depends on a VM backup solution to provide them with not only reliable VM backup, but also quick VM and file recovery. The ultimate goal for the organization is to be available 24/7 and achieve near-instant VM and file recovery.

Approximately two years ago, Parex performed backup to tape, but the process was too time-consuming. Thereafter, Parex depended on another backup product for data availability, however, increasing storage space was slowly becoming a problem. “We decided to look for another VM backup solution to provide us with better flexibility and faster VM backups. Moreover, we wanted to achieve near-instant VM recovery because the recovery usually took nearly 10 minutes with the previous product and days with the backup to tape approach. We wanted ease-of-use, a simple user interface, great functionality, and fast VM backup and recovery speed,” says Alejandro Trevino, Senior Information Technology Administrator at Parex Resources Inc.

Solution

Parex’s IT team decided to select NAKIVO Backup & Replication, a fast, easy-to-use, and affordable VM backup solution designed specifically for VMware environments. NAKIVO Backup & Replication now provides Parex with VM backup, instant VM recovery, instant file recovery, and global data deduplication functionality. Alejandro first encountered NAKIVO Backup & Replication as an application that was available on the QNAP App-Center and Alejandro became curious about the product. He first tested the software thoroughly and then reviewed online testimonials, before deciding to select the product.

“Currently, we have two QNAP NAS servers, one in our Canadian site, another in our Columbian site. We installed NAKIVO Backup & Replication on our QNAP NAS servers and now the data gets backed up through the local servers. Overall, NAKIVO Backup & Replication in an extremely easy software to set up. Of course, I read some technical documentation and contacted support several times, however, mostly out of curiosity and desire to learn, rather than having difficulty with understanding the software and its user interface. Support is great, as I always received answers to my questions extremely fast and the guys were always on top of my support tickets,” explains Alejandro.

With the previous backup product, Parex started to notice limited storage space, while with NAKIVO Backup & Replication installed on a QNAP NAS, storage space ultimately gets saved with global data deduplication, compression, and skip swap files and partitions. “With NAKIVO and QNAP, we managed to saved 100% of our data because as we start running out of storage space, we can always just put in another hard disk. Basically, right now, we can probably run 20 years of backups. Not only that, but because of NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s space saving features, we can schedule more backup jobs and keep backups for longer periods of time in the backup repository. Such combination of hardware and software brought us amazing results, not to mention that the price for both products was way better than that of the competition,” says Alejandro.

With NAKIVO Backup & Replication, Parex’s IT team can back up their VMware VMs faster than with their previous backup product, and especially faster than with the backup to tape. “With backup to tape, the whole backup usually took two to five days. With the previous backup product, backups were much faster, but because we were running out of storage space, we only could store our backups for 6 months. Now, with NAKIVO Backup & Replication, the forever-incremental backups take usually 20 minutes and we can keep backups for probably 20 years and that is a huge difference,” reports Alejandro.

Alejandro was also impressed with NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s instant VM recovery and instant file recovery. The functionality allows the IT team to recover any failed VMs directly from compressed and deduplicated VM backups. While with instant file recovery, files can be recovered in just seconds. “NAKIVO Backup & Replication provides much better recovery functionality. We perform regular tests, to ensure that everything works correctly. The results were excellent for both instant VM recovery and instant file recovery. Flash VM Boot recovers entire VMs in less than a minute now,” says Alejandro.

Parex’s IT team also rely on NAKIVO Backup & Replication for automated reporting of their VMware environment. Previously, Parex did not have complete visibility into their virtual infrastructure, while now, they can see how the virtual environment is functioning. “Every single day I receive a report and email notifications as soon as our backup jobs finish successfully. Previously, reports were hard to find and understand, while now, everything is perfectly visible in a single PDF,” says Alejandro.

Results

NAKIVO Backup & Replication installed on a QNAP NAS provides Parex Resources Inc. with fast VM backups that require less storage space. The forever-incremental backups finish in more or less 20 minutes, while with the backup to tape, backup usually took two to five days. Moreover, NAKIVO and QNAP allowed Parex to save their storage space, allowing the company to store backups for approximately 20 years. In addition, NAKIVO and QNAP licensing costs were less expensive than that of the other VM backup products available on the market. With NAKIVO Backup & Replication’s instant VM recovery and instant file recovery, Parex can recover entire VMs and files much faster than with their previous backup product, enabling the IT team to provide information to the company’s users much faster. Finally, automated reporting and email notifications provide visibility for the IT team and help them monitor activity and recognize problems early on. “NAKIVO Backup & Replication provided our organization with fast VM backup, VM recovery, saved our storage space, and offered us efficient reporting capabilities. By going with NAKIVO and QNAP, we definitely made the best decision,” says Alejandro.

About Parex Resources

Parex Resources Inc. is a Colombian focused, international oil and gas exploration and development company, headquartered in Calgary, Canada and publicly listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX:PXT). Since inception in 2009, Parex has achieved material reserves, production, and land growth. Parex holds interest in several blocks in the prolific Llanos Basin and the Magdalena Basins of Colombia. Parex is committed to developing energy resources in a manner that is economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable, as it builds a portfolio of drilling opportunities and advances its exploration and development program. For more information, please visit www.parexresources.com.