Delivering Performance and Value through Multiple Deduplication Pools

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1 SOLUTION BRIEF: SYMANTEC NETBACKUP Delivering Performance and Value through Multiple Deduplication Pools Who should read this paper - Directors of IT and IT Managers - Backup Administrators and Architects

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3 Content Introduction History of Deduplication Traditional Deduplication Solution Modern Deduplication Solution Benefits of Multiple Deduplication Pools Reducing Operating Expenditures Improving Recovery Time Single Deduplication Pool Challenges Multiple Deduplication Pool Benefits Symantec NetBackup Product Family Summary

4 Introduction Deduplication (dedupe) has rapidly become a standard requirement for organizations of all sizes and across all industries to reduce backup storage costs. However, many organizations have fallen into the habit, or rut, of upgrading to bigger dedupe storage appliances every time they outgrow or refresh their current dedupe pool. Organizations took the approach of bigger was better for deduplication pools. Today, organizations need to re-examine their approach to deduplication pools. With advances in technology, increasing data growth, and dynamic business demands, many IT organizations are now implementing a more is better approach to deduplication pools. This solution brief examines the pros and cons of implementing multiple deduplication pools to address today s IT challenges. History of Deduplication Deduplication products have been around for more than 10 years and were created to improve restore times by keeping a local backup copy on disk inexpensively. While the early dedupe products were target appliances, the market has evolved to include integrated appliances. IDC defines Purpose-Built Backup Appliance (PBBA) into two (2) different types 1, target systems and integrated systems: Target systems: used in conjunction with third-party backup software and designed to integrate in heterogeneous environments. Integrated systems: tightly integrated with backup software are called PBBA integrated systems. The PBBA integrated systems can have master or media servers integrated into the system to orchestrate the backup and movement of data to other systems or removable media such as tape. (e.g. NetBackup 5200 and 5300 series appliances) Traditional Deduplication Solution In the past a single deduplication pool was an appropriate solution since dedupe pools were small due to technology limitations. With dedupe pools of only 10 s of TB in size, organizations naturally migrated to larger target storage appliances as vendors increased the size of supported dedupe pools. A traditional environment consisted of multiple media servers and a single target deduplication appliance, Figure 1. The multiple media servers were required to feed the data to the target appliance containing a single dedupe pool. This resulted in the backup and recovery solution containing multiple devices from multiple vendors; media servers for the data management and movement, and a target appliance for the dedupe storage pool. Figure 1- Traditional Single Deduplication Pool 1- IDC Market Analysis, Worldwide Purpose-Built Backup Appliances Forecast and 2011 Vendor Shares, #234489, Robert Amatruda, April

5 With this traditional approach, it did address challenges faced at that time: Minimized the administration and management time. With early target deduplication appliances, installing and configuring systems was time consuming, and often involved trial and error to tune the appliance for optimal performance. Backup and recovery performance was improved due to the benefit of utilizing disk versus tape technology. Now with the introduction of Integrated Appliances and deduplication pools supporting 100 s of TBs, IT organizations have a choice on how to implement their dedupe pools. While bigger is better has met traditional needs, more is better meets the challenges of today. Modern Deduplication Solution A modern deduplication approach with integrated backup appliances combines the media server with dedupe storage, Figure 2. Figure 2 - Modern Deduplication Solution The modern deduplication solution results in IT organizations having a similar number of devices to manage and support in their environment, with the added benefits of an integrated appliance approach from a single vendor: Reduced OpEx costs. Integrated appliances are optimized for performance and set-up time can be achieved in minutes. For example: "ESG Lab confirmed that deploying the NetBackup 5230 Appliance was quick and easy. The Lab took the appliance from box to backup-ready in less than 25 minutes. 2 Greater restore performance of multiple dedupe pools versus bottleneck of a single pool. Benefits of Multiple Deduplication Pools When comparing target versus integrated appliances, implementing an integrated appliance for backup and recovery can be a better solution for customers wanting to simplify IT tasks, increase productivity, and reduce operating and capital expenditure costs. According to IDC, Integrated PBBAs provide customers a comprehensive solution that includes the application software, allowing them to scale out their environment to add master or media servers easily. Additionally, the integrated PBBA solutions have a centralized management console, allowing for ease of management and implementation. Integrated PBBA solutions are highly tuned and provide customers a truly turnkey, simplified way to solve their backup and recovery challenges ESG Lab Review Symantec NetBackup 5230 Appliance. The Enterprise Strategy Group, Date: December Author: Vinny Choinski, Senior Lab Analyst, and Kerry Dolan, Lab Analyst. 3- IDC White Paper, The Evolution and Value of Purpose-Built Backup Appliances, #239730, Robert Amatruda, March

6 Reducing Operating Expenditures While it may seem counterintuitive, having multiple deduplication pools is efficient and can decrease operating expenditures. Many organizations manage dedupe pools by application. Each application has its own backup and recovery requirements, service levels, and is set-up in separate dedupe pools. For example, an Oracle database often has different data protection requirements than Microsoft Exchange and each are managed independently. This means each application has their own dedupe pool whether there is one large deduplication storage appliance or multiple deduplication storage appliances and pools. The efficiency of deduplicating in one large pool is often nominal as the data sets (Oracle and Exchange) have limited commonality. For operating expenditures there are five areas to examine when comparing these two approaches: Acquisition Ordering, approvals, scheduling, and delivery of hardware, software, storage, and networking components. Installation and Integration Installation, integration, testing, and performance tuning of the components and solution. Administration Using the management console(s) to perform recurring and multiple tasks. Patching and Firmware Updates Managing all the components for revision levels, firmware updates, and software patches. Support Troubleshooting and notifying the vendor(s) if an issue occurs. The activities are detailed in Table 1 - Comparison of Activities by Dedupe Pool Type below; Activity Frequency (based on 3 year time period) Target Appliance - Single Large Dedupe Pool Integrated Appliance - Multiple Dedupe Pools Acquisition Once initial setup Multiple, separate media servers and one large dedupe storage target Multiple integrated appliances Installation and Once initial setup Multiple, separate media servers and one large Multiple integrated appliances Integration dedupe storage target Administration Weekly Dedupe pool is managed by application Dedupe pool is managed by application Patching and Quarterly Separate patches and firmware updates for One patch and firmware update for Updates media servers and target storage all integrated appliances Support As needed Multiple vendors for media servers and target dedupe storage Single vendor for integrated appliances As demonstrated above, the Integrated Appliance with Multiple Dedupe Pools provides the on-going OpEx savings from more efficient Administration, Patching & Upgrades, and Support. 3

7 Improving Recovery Time The speed of recovery is governed by the target; the bigger the target, the greater the impact on restore times. With a single large massive deduplication pool all data must be read and rehydrated at the target, which typically creates a bottleneck, Figure 3. As an analogy, one on-ramp to a four (4) lane highway at a busy intersection can cause traffic problems - data recovery time is no different. Figure 3 - Traditional Single Deduplication Pool - Restore Process Single Deduplication Pool Challenges The challenge with a single deduplication pool solution is that recovery Service Level Agreements (SLAs) may not be met due to a bottleneck at the target deduplication appliance. Also, if performance does need to be improved, it will increase both capital and operating expenditures. Often additional media servers (hardware and software) as well as performance software are added to the environment to increase performance. Multiple Deduplication Pool Benefits Many organizations often implement multiple deduplication pools for greater backup and recovery performance, Figure 4. Figure 4 - Multiple Deduplication Pools - Restore Process Utilizing four (4) integrated backup appliances creates a one-to-one ratio of dedupe pools provides and offers more resources for reading the storage, effectively, providing four (4) entrance ramps to four (4) lanes. This delivers greater recovery performance for the organization. 4

8 The benefits of an integrated appliance approach with multiple deduplication storage pools are: Faster backup performance Faster deduplication Faster restore performance Greater resiliency Symantec NetBackup Product Family Symantec NetBackup is a market-leading backup and disaster recovery solution for critical customer IT resources. The NetBackup family includes both the NetBackup 5230 and 5330 appliances; integrated backup appliances delivering performance, scalability, and resiliency. Symantec recommends these steps in choosing the appropriate deduplication solution: 1. Evaluate the total solution. Factor in all of the costs of the deduplication solution in your evaluation, including; Operating Expenditures of target appliances and media servers versus integrated appliances. Refer to Table #1. Capital Expenditure of hardware and software for media servers and target appliances versus integrated appliances. 2. Determine your performance requirements, focusing on recovery performance and how each approach may meet your needs. Organizations looking to implement or upgrade an existing deduplication solution should evaluate how multiple deduplication pools with Symantec NetBackup integrated appliances deliver performance and value. Summary Deduplication is a valuable and proven technology to address data growth challenges and data protection needs. How deduplication is implemented can have a dramatic effect on the overall performance and cost to the organization. Multiple deduplication pools can deliver greater recovery performance and do it cost-effectively compared to a traditional single deduplication pool approach. 5

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10 About Symantec Symantec Corporation (NASDAQ: SYMC) is an information protection expert that helps people, businesses, and governments seeking the freedom to unlock the opportunities technology brings anytime, anywhere. Founded in April 1982, Symantec, a Fortune 500 company operating one of the largest global data intelligence networks, has provided leading security, backup, and availability solutions for where vital information is stored, accessed, and shared. The company's more than 20,000 employees reside in more than 50 countries. Ninety-nine percent of Fortune 500 companies are Symantec customers. In fiscal 2014, it recorded revenue of $6.7 billion. To learn more go to or connect with Symantec at: go.symantec.com/socialmedia. For specific country offices and contact numbers, please visit our website. Symantec World Headquarters 350 Ellis St. Mountain View, CA USA +1 (650) (800) Copyright 2015 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec, the Symantec Logo, and the Checkmark Logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Symantec Corporation or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. 1/