AWS FSx for DR and interaction with S3

Question

Hello, a customer has 30TB of Windows shares and would like to have a DR solution for it in AWS.

I thought first about using FSx for Windows and using DataSync to continuously import data from on-prem to FSx. However I would like to decrease the price of the solution: is it possible to have this kind of flow?

1. First import the data from on-prem to S3
2. Store the data in S3 when the DR is not activated
3. Make incremental backups regularly to S3 
4. Finally, import to FSx when the DR is activated ?

The customer is also using CommVault as a third-party tool.

Thank you in advance.

Accepted Answer

My understanding is that by decreasing costs you mean not running FSx as a hot standby, correct?
Unfortunately, Importing data to S3 (either through File Gateway or Datasync) will invalidate all NTFS metadata. And although you might be able to develop a programmatic way of restoring the data to FSx from S3, you will definitely lose  your NTFS permissions.
It is possible to preserve the metadata by archiving files into WinRAR but WinRAR might have limitations on archive size and will likely complicate the recovery process.

AWS FSx for DR and interaction with S3

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