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HP D2D Backup Systems
Best practices for VTL, NAS and
Replication implementations
Table of contents
Abstract .............................................................................................................................................. 4
Related products .................................................................................................................................. 4
Validity .........................................................................
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Fibre Channel configuration............................................................. 19 Fibre Channel topologies ................................................................................................................ 19 Switched fabric .............................................................................................................................. 19 Direct Attach (Private Loop) .........................................................................................
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Seeding and why it is required ........................................................................................................ 55 Seeding methods in more detail ....................................................................................................... 57 Replication and other D2D operations .............................................................................................. 65 Replication Monitoring...............................................................
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Abstract The HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System products with Dynamic Data Deduplication are Virtual Tape library and NAS appliances designed to provide a cost-effective, consolidated backup solution for business data and fast restore of data in the event of loss. In order to get the best performance from a D2D Backup System there are some configuration best practices that can be applied. These are described in this document. Related products Information in this document relates to t
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Executive summary This document contains detailed information on best practices to get good performance from an HP D2D Backup System with HP StoreOnce Deduplication Technology. HP StoreOnce Technology is designed to increase the amount of historical backup data that can be stored without increasing the disk space needed. A backup product using deduplication combines efficient disk usage with the fast single file recovery of random access disk. As a quick reference these are the importan
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NAS best practices at a glance Configure multiple shares and separate data types into their own shares. Adhere to the suggested maximum number of concurrent operations per share/appliance. Choose disk backup file sizes in backup software to meet the maximum backup size. Disable software compression, deduplication and synthetic full backups. Do not pre-allocate disk space for backup files. Do not append to backup files 6
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HP StoreOnce Technology A basic understanding of the way that HP StoreOnce Technology works is necessary in order to understand factors that may impact performance of the overall system and to ensure optimal performance of your backup solution. HP StoreOnce Technology is an “inline” data deduplication process. It uses hash-based chunking technology, which analyzes incoming backup data in “chunks” that average up to 4K in size. The hashing algorithm generates a unique hash value that iden
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Appended backups need to “clone” the cartridge on the target side, so performance of appended tape replication will not be significantly faster than replicating the whole cartridge. If a lot of similar data exists on remote office D2D libraries, replicating these into a single target library will give a better deduplication ratio on the target D2D Backup System. Replication starts when the cartridge is unloaded or a NAS share file is closed after writing is complete, or when a replicatio
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hold-off to prevent impacting the performance of other operations. It is, however, important to note that the hold- off is not binary, (i.e. on or off) so, even if backup jobs are in process, some low level of housekeeping will still take place which may have a slight impact on backup performance. Housekeeping is an important process in order to maximise the deduplication efficiency of the appliance and, as such, it is important to ensure that it has enough time to complete. Running backup, r
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The following graph illustrates only the relationship between the number of active data streams and performance. It is not based on real data. Data compression and encryption backup application features Both software compression and encryption will randomize the source data and will, therefore, not result in a high deduplication ratio for these data sources. Consequently, performance will also suffer. The D2D appliance will compress the data at the end of deduplication processing an
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Network configuration All D2D appliances have two 1GBit Ethernet ports, the D2D4312 and D2D4324 appliances also have two 10GBit Ethernet ports. The Ethernet ports are used for data transfer to iSCSI VTL devices and CIFS/NFS shares and also for management access to the Web Management Interface. In order to deliver best performance when backing up data over the Ethernet ports it will be necessary to configure the D2D network ports, backup servers and network infrastructure to maximise avai
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Single Port mode 1Gbit ports: use this mode only if no other ports are available on the switch network or if the appliance is being used to transfer data over fibre channel ports only. On an HP D2D4312 or D2D4324 with 10Gbit ports it is possible that a single 10Gbit port will deliver good performance in most environments. Network configuration, single port mode 12
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Dual Port mode Use this mode if: Servers to be backed up are split across two physical networks which need independent access to the D2D appliance. In this case virtual libraries and shares will be available on both network ports; the host configuration defines which port is used. Separate data (“Network SAN”) and management LANs are being used, i.e. each server has a port for business network traffic and another for data backup. In this case one port on the D2D can be used solely for a
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High availability port mode (Port failover) In this mode, no special switch configuration is required other than to ensure that both Ethernet ports in the pair from the D2D appliance are connected to the same switch. This mode sets up “bonded” network ports, where both network ports are connected to the same physical switch and behave as one network port. This mode provides some level of load balancing across the ports but generally only provides port failover. High availability port mode
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10Gbit Ethernet ports on the 4312/4324 appliances 10Gbit Ethernet is provided as a viable alternative to the Fibre Channel interface for providing maximum VTL performance and also comparable NAS performance. When using 10Gbit Ethernet it is common to configure a “Network SAN”, which is a dedicated network for backup that is separate to the normal business data network; only backup data is transmitted over this network. Network configuration, HP D2D4312/4324 with 10Gbit ports When a s
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Broadly there are two possible configurations which allow both: Access to the Active Directory server for AD authentication and Separation of Corporate LAN and Network SAN traffic Option 1: HP D2D Backup System on Corporate SAN and Network SAN In this option, the D2D device has a port in the Corporate SAN which has access to the Active Directory Domain Controller. This link is then used to authenticate CIFS share access. The port(s) on the Network SAN are used to transfer the actual da
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Option 2: HP D2D Backup System on Network SAN only with Gateway In this option the D2D has connections only to the Network SAN, but there is a network router or Gateway server providing access to the Active Directory domain controller on the Corporate LAN. In order to ensure two-way communication between the Network SAN and Corporate LAN the subnet of the Network SAN should be a subnet of the Corporate LAN subnet. Once configured, authentication traffic for CIFS shares will be routed to the
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Backup server networking It is important to consider the whole network when considering backup performance, any server acting as a backup server should be configured where possible with multiple network ports that are teamed / bonded in order to provide a fast connection to the LAN. Client servers (those that back up via a backup server) may be connected with only a single port, if backups are to be aggregated through the backup server. Ensure that no sub-1Gbit network components are in the
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Fibre Channel configuration Fibre Channel topologies The D2D appliances support both switched fabric and direct attach (private loop) topologies. Direct Attach (point to point) topology is not supported. Switched fabric using NPIV (N Port ID Virtualisation) offers a number of advantages and is the preferred topology for D2D appliances. Switched fabric A switched fabric topology utilizes one or more fabric switches to provide a flexible configuration between several Fibre Channel hos
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Direct Attach (Private Loop) A direct attach (private loop) topology is implemented by connecting the D2D appliance ports directly to a Host Bus Adapter (HBA). In this configuration the Fibre Channel private loop protocol must be used. Fibre Channel, direct attach (private loop) topology HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System Virtual Library 1 Virtual Library 2 Virtual Library n (e.g. D2D Generic) (e.g. MSL 4048) (e.g. MSL 2024) Medium Tape Tape Medium Tape Tape Tape Tape Medium Tape Tape Chan
