Disk-to-Disk Backup So Much Data, So Little Time Timothy Antonowicz Senior Systems Engineer Bowdoin College Copyright 2007

Backups are insurance policies Difficulty justifying expenditures Utilization rates are growing faster than technology refresh rates

Bowdoin’s Storage Services –Home Directories –Department common space –Research and Course specific stores –Digital archives –Multimedia –Enterprise storage (mail, db, app, etc)

Storage Breakdown Tier-1: Enterprise –NetApp 3020c8 TB (+8 TB) –NetApp 820 (2)3 TB each (EOL) Tier-2: File Services –NetApp NearStor R20037 TB (+8 TB) Tier-3: Digital Assets –Apple XSan10 TB (+7 TB)

Backup Architecture, Legato Networker –Sun 220R, dual Gigabit –NDMP backups from filers –Standard client backups StorageTek L80 –SDLT 220/320 drives (8) –SCSI connect, U320 LVD –Backup rate at Mbps total

Problem Statement Backups were taking too long No flexibility in design Limited growth potential “We needed to make a change in our backup design that would allow us to grow in conjunction with our data needs.”

Disk-to-Disk Options VTL –FalconStor, Sepaton –Virtual “Jukebox” of drives and tapes on disk NAS devices –NetApp, NEC Hydrastor, ExaGrid –Stores backups in network file structure DataDomain –“Write Once, Increment Forever”

Deduplication Eliminates redundant writes to the backup infrastructure by stubbing identical files Offerings –VTL Add on appliances, post backup –NAS Native single instance available –DataDomain Native single instance built into device

Current Backup Infrastructure Legato Networker –Same Sun 220R, 4 Gig nics-Etherchannel –iSCSI connected to VTL –U320 LVD SCSI connect to Jukebox Jukeboxes –FalconStor VTL –QualStar TS-58132

FalconStor VTL Hardware –HP DL380, 4 Gb nics, SUSE Linux Connection –iSCSI to Networker server and storage Storage –Two NEXSAN 20 TB arrays Capacity –10 drives, 168 tapes

QualStar TS slots, expandable to 264 –Simple robotics –Ease of management S-AIT media and drives –500 GB raw capacity –Helical scan, rapid read/reposition U320 LVD SCSI connection –Onboard FC if needed

Current Methodology Incremental Backups –Primarily to VTL –Backup rates at Mbps Full Backups –Direct to tape –Backup rates at Mbps Cloning –Can be done via VTL or Legato

Future Considerations Deduplication –Falconstor, Legato, and/or NetApp Networker upgrade –Increase backplane and performance VTL upgrade –Increased VTL storage FC upgrade –Possible for bandwidth considerations

Questions Tim Antonowicz Senior Systems Engineer Bowdoin College