Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite. Getting Started Guide 1.0

Transcription

1 Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite 1.0

2 2014 Dell Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This guide contains proprietary information protected by copyright. The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement. This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser s personal use without the written permission of Dell Inc. The information in this document is provided in connection with Dell products. No license, express or implied, by estoppel or otherwise, to any intellectual property right is granted by this document or in connection with the sale of Dell products. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS AS SPECIFIED IN THE LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THIS PRODUCT, DELL ASSUMES NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER AND DISCLAIMS ANY EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY WARRANTY RELATING TO ITS PRODUCTS INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL DELL BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE, SPECIAL OR INCIDENTAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, BUSINESS INTERRUPTION OR LOSS OF INFORMATION) ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THIS DOCUMENT, EVEN IF DELL HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Dell makes no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this document and reserves the right to make changes to specifications and product descriptions at any time without notice. Dell does not make any commitment to update the information contained in this document. If you have any questions regarding your potential use of this material, contact: Dell Inc. Attn: LEGAL Dept 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo, CA Refer to our Web site (software.dell.com) for regional and international office information. Trademarks Dell, the Dell logo, AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger are trademarks of Dell Inc. Other trademarks and trade names may be used in this document to refer to either the entities claiming the marks and names or their products. Dell disclaims any proprietary interest in the marks and names of others. Legend CAUTION: A CAUTION icon indicates potential damage to hardware or loss of data if instructions are not followed. WARNING: A WARNING icon indicates a potential for property damage, personal injury, or death. IMPORTANT, NOTE, TIP, MOBILE, or VIDEO: An information icon indicates supporting information. Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite Updated August 2014 Version 1.0

3 Contents Understanding the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite... 5 Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite highlights... 5 AppAssure... 6 NetVault... 6 vranger... 6 Backend storage... 6 Product capabilities... 7 Active Block Mapping... 8 Agentless virtual machine backup... 8 Application aware backups... 9 Archive to cloud... 9 Archive to tape... 9 Auto virtual machine discovery... 9 Backup to tape... 9 Catalog Change Block Tracking Clustered application support Deduplication technology FIPS certification Granular Microsoft Exchange recovery Granular Microsoft SharePoint recovery Hyper-V Clustered Share Volume support (CSV) LAN-free backup Live Recovery Near continuous data protection Network Data Management Protocol Rapid DR Replication Standby virtual machines Universal Recovery Understanding licenses License capacity guidelines License examples Scenario A Scenario B Scenario C Getting the products System requirements

4 AppAssure NetVault vranger Use cases Use case 1: AppAssure and NetVault Features Use case 2: AppAssure and vranger Features Use case 3: NetVault and vranger Features Use case 4: AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault Features: Best practices Warnings Recommendations Guides and resources Use case table About Dell Contacting Dell Technical support resources

5 Understanding the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite 1 This chapter provides an overview of the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite by including the following sections: Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite highlights Backend storage The Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite) is a bundle of AppAssure Backup and Recovery (AppAssure), vranger, and NetVault (NetVault) software licensed by capacity (by the front-end terabyte). The Suite allows complete access to all of the benefits of Dell data protection and backup software in one convenient offering. With this bundle, you may choose to use one, two, or all three of the software products to custom build a solution that accommodates your needs. Dell offers the Suite to continue providing its customers with the solutions they need to better match backup to business need. The Suite helps customers reduce complexity, cost, and data loss without compromising protection. There are three key benefits of using the Suite: Save time. Have the data protection you need when you need it. The Suite lets you mix and match products to fit your recovery point objective (RPO) or recovery time objective (RTO) requirements. With the Suite, you get full access to the Dell Data Protection portfolio, priced by the front-end terabyte, so you can add capacity as your business grows. The flexibility of the Suite lets you classify the criticality of your data and applications and apply the product that best matches that classification. You can also protect across physical, virtual, and cloud environments. Reduce risk. Data is the new currency, and putting your data at risk puts your entire business at risk. Using multiple products to protect different data types can become complicated if they are incompatible and require multiple vendors for technical support. The Suite lets you avoid such complexity and potential cost to your business by providing products that complement each other and offer technical support from a single source. Reduce costs. You are likely over-paying or under-protecting for your current data protection. A onesize-fits-all solution is rarely practical for an entire environment of diverse data. With the Suite, you can purchase what you need now, and then add to your purchase as your business grows. You no longer need to under protect your environment to avoid excess costs. The Suite also lets you reduce storage costs because the Dell deduplication technology can reduce your storage footprint by up to 90 percent. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite highlights The Suite lets you combine the best features of AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault to create a solution that meets your needs. By combining all products into one suite, you can now match the capabilities of your backup software to your data: Vital data can be protected up to every five minutes; virtual data can be protected with or without an agent; Oracle, Sybase, DB2 and other database applications can be protected with the care they the need and deserve. The Suite gives you the flexibility and freedom to finally back up your environment according to the many types of data you have and according to your business requirements for that varied data. You can now select the best product or products in any combination to meet your multiple backup requirements from a single 5

6 solution even as your data protection requirements and data volumes continue to change and expand over time. Now that you have one suite that covers all of your backup needs, take a look at the products it includes. AppAssure AppAssure is an advanced data protection product that unifies backup, replication, and recovery in one software solution. Designed for virtual, physical, and cloud environments, AppAssure continually checks and updates your backups to ensure they will be ready when you need them. AppAssure uses the AppAssure Smart Agent to meet stringent RPO requirements, and it delivers the replication, Virtual Standby, and Live Recovery features that provide extremely fast recovery methods for meeting stringent RTOs. NetVault NetVault offers advanced, cross-platform data protection capabilities as well as ease-of-use, out-of-the-box deployment and pain-free scalability. NetVault lets you safeguard your data and applications in both physical and virtual environments from one intuitive user interface, and protect a massive number of servers that contain many petabytes of data. NetVault also features heterogeneous support, so you can safeguard data on a wide range of operating systems, applications, databases, processor architectures, and networked storage devices. Such cross-platform versatility makes it easy for you to tailor NetVault to match the ever-changing and growing landscape of your IT infrastructure. vranger vranger is a purpose-built backup, recovery, and replication solution designed for VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual environments of any size. The vranger architecture automatically distributes backup and replication workloads for best performance and reduced impact on your virtual machines, and its agentless architecture simplifies backup and replication management around the constant changes to virtual environments. An integrated catalog and search function makes finding and restoring individual files simple and fast. A unique set of features makes vranger ideal for any customers looking to provide protection for their VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V environments. Backend storage AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger all provide flexible options for data protection storage targets. This ensures that Dell Data Protection (DP) products can easily integrate into existing or new backup environments. Below is a table that outlines the storage types that are supported by Dell DP products. Table 1. Dell Software storage types Product Direct Attached Storage Network Attached Storage Storage Area Network Backup Appliance AppAssure Y Y Y N vranger Y Y Y DR Series appliance through Rapid DR EMC Data Domain through DD Boost NetVault Y Y Y DR Series appliance through Rapid DR EMC Data Domain through DD Boost 6

7 2 Product capabilities This chapter provides a detailed description of the products that comprise the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite) by including the following sections: Active Block Mapping Agentless virtual machine backup Application aware backups Archive to cloud Archive to tape Auto virtual machine discovery Backup to tape Catalog Change Block Tracking Clustered application support Deduplication technology FIPS certification Granular Microsoft Exchange recovery Granular Microsoft SharePoint recovery Hyper-V Clustered Share Volume support (CSV) LAN-free backup Live Recovery Near continuous data protection Network Data Management Protocol Rapid DR Replication Standby virtual machines Universal Recovery Each product in the Suite has features to contribute to your backup and data protection needs. The following table lists the most prominent features, applications, and capabilities that AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger have to offer. Table 2. Product features Feature AppAssure NetVault vranger Active Block Mapping (ABM)* X X Agentless backup X X Application aware backups Archive to cloud X Archive to tape** X Auto virtual machine discovery X X Backup to tape X Catalog X X Change Block Tracking (CBT) Clustered application support X X Deduplication technology FIPS certified X 7

8 Feature AppAssure NetVault vranger Granular Microsoft Exchange recovery X Granular Microsoft SharePoint Recovery X Hyper-V cluster shared volume support X X LAN-free backup X X Live Recovery X Near continuous data protection (CDP) X Network Data Management Protocol X Rapid DR X X Replication Standby virtual machines X X Universal Recovery X *Available beginning with NetVault 10. **AppAssure and vranger archived data can be archived to tape using NetVault. Active Block Mapping Active block mapping (ABM) technology is a feature aimed at optimizing image-based data protection by keeping inactive blocks out of managed images. ABM scans the disks and detects which blocks are actively used by the disk, rather than the inactive blocks that have been deleted by the Windows operating system. After the blocks are detected, only the active blocks will be included in the backup. ABM can be combined with Change Block Tracking (CBT) to read only active and changed blocks when making incremental and differential backups and is available for both vranger and NetVault. Agentless virtual machine backup NetVault and vranger can agentlessly protect VMware and Hyper-V virtual machines (VMs). When protecting VMware, vranger and NetVault have the ability to use VMware APIs, such as vstorage APIs for Data Protection (VADP), while providing vcenter integration. This allows for user-friendly and simultaneous application consistent backups of VMs. To aid in scalability, vranger supports lightweight virtual appliances that can be deployed at the host or cluster level. This distribution of the backup workload amongst multiple virtual appliances means shorter backup windows and scalability. When protecting Hyper-V virtual machines with NetVault or vranger, a simple agent on each Hyper-V server allows for protection of all the VMs that reside on that server and distributes the backup workload across hosts. Scaling a Hyper-V environment is as simple as installing the vranger Hyper-V client or NetVault agent and Hyper-V plugin on each Hyper-V server. vranger agents have the added ability of protecting Hyper-V 2012 and 2012 R2 clusters that use cluster shared volumes (CSVs). It is important to note that while AppAssure is not agentless, it can still be used to protect virtual machines. It is very common to use NetVault or vranger to protect a majority of virtual environments and to use AppAssure to protect machines that need special care, such as near continuous data protection, faster recovery times, or cluster application support. 8

9 Application aware backups All of the backup products in the Suite are application aware and produce application consistent snapshots with the use of agents or hypervisor APIs. Database applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, SharePoint, and other applications that are Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) aware are quiesced by AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault. This ensures that a consistent backup is taken and reduces the risk of having an unrecoverable backup. When protecting Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint, AppAssure verifies the integrity of these vital applications by performing attachability, checksum, and mountability checks on the databases. This determines whether the backups for these applications are 100-percent recoverable in the event of a disaster. Application consistent backups for non-vss aware applications such as Oracle, MySQL, DB2, PostgreSQL, Domino, Informix, Sybase, and Teradata are provided by NetVault. NetVault offers highly specialized plugins that are designed to integrate with the aforementioned applications to properly quiesce them as well as leverage any native tools that they may use, such as RMAN. Archive to cloud AppAssure supports archiving to Amazon S3, Azure, Rackspace, and OpenStack-powered cloud providers. AppAssure archives can be sent to these locations on a scheduled basis and are compressed, deduplicated, and optionally encrypted, saving space and maintaining security. To reduce the amount of time that it takes to archive to the cloud, AppAssure offers an incremental archive option that only archives new and changed data as well as the ability to schedule reoccurring archive jobs. Archive to tape NetVault provides native tape support allowing for backup-to-tape drives, libraries, and autoloaders. You can even automatically send backups to tape after backups reach a predetermined age. NetVault also can be used to write AppAssure archives and vranger backups to tape. In this scenario, the storage location of the AppAssure archive or vranger repository is presented to NetVault as a network share (CIFS), and then NetVault performs a file-level backup of the location. For more information see Dell vranger Sweep Repository to Tape Using Dell NetVault and Exporting Dell AppAssure Archives to Tape with Dell NetVault. Auto virtual machine discovery When protecting Hyper-V and VMware VMs agentlessly with NetVault or vranger, newly discovered VMs can be automatically protected. This ensures that new VMs added to your environment are always protected without any additional steps taken by administrators. Backup to tape NetVault supports disk-to-disk-to-tape (D2D2T) as well as disk-to-tape (D2T) backups for tape drives, libraries, and autoloaders. NetVault allows for backups of physical machines, virtual machines, and NAS devices to be written directly to tape or written to tape after residing on a disk for a predetermined amount of time. 9

10 Catalog NetVault and vranger allow for fast and easy restores using their backup catalog feature. Cataloging lets you search and browse backups using file names or wildcards. Change Block Tracking AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger use change block tracking (CBT) technology to improve the speed of backups. NetVault and vranger leverage VMware CBT technology and AppAssure leverages proprietary CBT technology. In all instances, CBT lets AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger quickly determine which blocks of data have changed since a previous backup, and then only backup those new blocks. This saves a significant amount of time in the backup job and lets administrators reduce backup windows. Clustered application support AppAssure and NetVault provide clustered application support through agents and specialized plug-ins. With AppAssure, server cluster protection is associated with the AppAssure Smart Agent installed on individual cluster nodes (that is, individual machines in the cluster) and the AppAssure Core, which protects those agents as if they were one composite machine. AppAssure supported clustered applications are Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server clusters. For a list of supported application versions and cluster configurations, please see the Dell AppAssure User Guide at NetVault supports Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft SQL Server clusters through the use of plugins. NetVault also supports other clustered applications, such as Red Hat Cluster Suite, Fujitsu Prime Cluster, and NEC CLUSETERPRO X. For a complete list of supported applications, visit the NetVault Compatibility Guide for Hardware and Software at Deduplication technology Deduplication is a way of backing up data that reduces the size of the backups and minimizes the amount of space necessary to store them. It saves and maintains only single occurrences of identical data and disregards any duplicate information. There is more than one way to achieve deduplication, as it can be enforced on the transmitting side or the receiving side of a repository. vranger, NetVault, and AppAssure each offer one of the following three methods for deduplicating data: NetVault SmartDisk DR Series appliance Deduplicating Volume Manager Both NetVault and vranger use NetVault SmartDisk (NVSD), a software deduplication solution included in the Suite. NSVD is a post deduplication (after backup has been written to target) solution that lets customers reduce storage requirements by up to 90 percent. To gain faster backup speeds in addition to reducing storage costs, consider the DR Series appliances. Compatible with NetVault and vranger, these appliances provide inline deduplication (deduplication occurs before data is written to target disk) with up to 15 times the storage savings and make agreat additions to the Suite. DR Series appliances can be paired with NetVault and can obtain backup speeds of up to 22 TB per hour when using the Rapid Data Access (RDA) plugin. vranger has the ability to save its backups to the DR Series appliances via Rapid DR as well, accelerating backup speeds and reducing storage requirements. For more information, see Solving Data Growth Issues Using Deduplication. 10

11 NOTE: The DR Series appliances are not included with the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite. Appliances are compatible with suite products and can be purchased separately. AppAssure uses Deduplicating Volume Manager (DVM), a native software inline deduplication technology. Changed blocks of data are transmitted to the AppAssure Core server using the AppAssure Smart Agent, after which it is processed by DVM. DVM then compresses, deduplicates, and optionally encrypts incoming data before committing it to the AppAssure repository. Incremental forever technology, changed block tracking, and deduplication work together to provide extremely fast and efficient backups. NOTE: Due to intense random input/output (I/O) operations, it is advised that a non-deduplicated disk subsystem is used for the AppAssure repository. For a list of recommended disk subsystems, please see Table 1. While AppAssure cannot use the DR Series appliances as backup targets, they can be used as targets for AppAssure data archiving, which provides additional space savings. FIPS certification AppAssure has earned the FIPS Level 1 validation from the U.S. Government National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). FIPS is a U.S. government security standard used to accredit cryptographic modules. This government-certified encryption is required by many government organizations (federal, state, and local), financial institutions, and healthcare or biotech firms. If your business is among these industries, AppAssure can meet your encryption requirements. For more information, see Validated FIPS and FIPS Cryptographic Modules. Granular Microsoft Exchange recovery AppAssure provides the ability to recover Microsoft Exchange 2007, 2010, and 2013 databases as well as granular mail items, such as messages and appointments, using AppAssure Mailbox Restore for Exchange (Mailbox Restore). Mailbox Restore features include Exchange datastore search, E-Discovery, differential restores, and Outlook message and Exchange item previews. With Mailbox Restore, you can search for any combination of criteria, such as names of mailboxes or folders, across one or multiple Exchange database (.edb) files. The Outlook-like user interface provides a preview pane, where you can view the message or item in full before performing a recovery. To find out more about Mailbox Restore and the items that it can recover, see the Mailbox Restore for Exchange User Guide at Granular Microsoft SharePoint recovery Granular recovery for Microsoft SharePoint is achieved through the use of AppAssure DocRetriever for SharePoint (DocRetriever), which is included in the Suite. DocRetriever lets you recover and restore SharePoint objects from the site-collection level down to the component level. DocRetriever enables you to browse all the documents and objects within a SharePoint farm, site, and site hierarchy directly (with intact permissions) from an AppAssure backup or other backup recovery source. (Supported recovery resources include a SharePoint content database, SharePoint farm, native SQL backup, native SharePoint backup, or native SharePoint differential backup.) You can then restore objects from the site collection in the backup you are browsing to their original locations in the production SharePoint server environment, to any other location within the live SharePoint server, or to a file system, without having to rebuild the entire production database or use a SharePoint recovery farm. When you recover SharePoint data, all permissions and metadata are preserved. Additionally, DocRetriever audits and logs all operations to easily identify the objects that were added or modified. DocRetriever also performs all restore operations through the supported SharePoint APIs for compliance. 11

12 Hyper-V Clustered Share Volume support (CSV) vranger is the only product in the Suite that provides full support for Hyper-V 2012 and 2012 R2 CSVs. Use vranger to protect any Hyper-V virtual machines that reside on a CSV volume. AppAssure supports CSV only for protected machines using the Windows 2008 R2 operating system and Hyper-V 2008 R2. LAN-free backup LAN-free backups offload backup traffic to a faster fiber-optic network, speeding up backups. The offloading of backups to a faster fiber-optic network also ensures that the production network remains unaffected by backup traffic. Live Recovery AppAssure Live Recovery is an instant recovery technology for VMs or physical servers and is an extremely fast way to recover your data with near-zero downtime. Data and applications on non-system volumes are instantly available and accessible during recovery. While a non-system volume is being restored, the volume metadata is presented to the operating system, making that data available on demand. For example, if the database volume of Microsoft Exchange is corrupt, Live Recovery can restore the volume, database, and Exchange services in minutes. AppAssure Live Recovery provides one of the fastest methods of recovering large quantities of data with minimal downtime, allowing users to immediately continue business operations. Consider using AppAssure and the Live Recovery feature on systems that have large amounts of data that need to be protected and recovered very quickly. Live Recovery can be used with any replicated backups, giving an additional layer of data security. Near continuous data protection AppAssure provides near continuous data protection (CDP) for machines that require multiple backups per day. The AppAssure Smart Agent, installed on Windows and Linux machines, uses only one-to-two percent of system resources to provide superior backup and recovery performance. The AppAssure Smart Agent is used in both physical and virtual environments, so if the environment is mixed, AppAssure may be a good fit. Using the Smart Agent, AppAssure is able to execute backup tasks as frequently as every five minutesif you have machines that have stringent RPOs, use AppAssure to schedule up to 288 backups per day to minimize gaps in data loss in the case of a failure. Network Data Management Protocol NetVault offers advanced data protection for information stored on NAS appliances, including those made by Dell, EMC, Hitachi, IBM, NetApp, and Sun. You can reduce traffic over the LAN and maximize performance by backing up data using Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP). NetVault supports many different storage topologies and configurations, allowing you to perform backups directly to a locally attached SCSI device, a SAN-attached device, a storage device elsewhere on the network, or to a disk or tape. 12

13 Rapid DR NetVault and vranger use Rapid Data Access (RDA) to integrate seamlessly with the Dell DR Series of deduplication appliances, enabling you to take full advantage of the appliances powerful deduplication, compression, and replication capabilities. With the RDA feature, you can reduce backup windows and improve restore times, use source-side deduplication to reduce network traffic, and efficiently send copies of your backup data offsite for disaster recovery. Replication All Suite products provide the ability to replicate data from one site to a secondary site. However, each Suite product offers slightly different replication methods. The capabilities of each product should be taken into account when deciding which one to use. Backup replication is offered by both AppAssure and NetVault. AppAssure offers a native replication capability that sends compressed, deduplicated, and optionally encrypted backups to one or many target core locations. These locations can be at a remote site, the cloud, or at a managed service provider s (MSP) datacenter. Replication can also be scheduled to occur at certain times, such as off-peak hours, to prevent saturation. After data has been replicated to the secondary location, a virtual standby VM can be created, if desired. NetVault provides replication through the use of NetVault SmartDisk, which is also included in the Suite or a DR Series appliance. NetVault SmartDisk provides post-process deduplication, compression, and optional encryption. Data stored in the NetVault SmartDisk can be replicated to other SmartDisk instances located at remote sites or in the cloud. Replication can be set to occur on set schedules to avoid peak business hours. vranger does not have the ability to replicate its backup data but it does have the ability to replicate entire VMware VMs. Virtual machines located at one site on a VMware host are snapshotted and then replicated to a secondary site where they are then turned into a VM on a secondary VMware host. This replication process can happen multiple times per day due to a differential replication process that sends only changed data. Standby virtual machines AppAssure and vranger both have the ability to create replica virtual machines of protected machines. These standby virtual machines can reside on supported hypervisors and are in a powered-off state, ready to go at any moment. The standby machine can be updated as frequently as every five minutes or as infrequently as every few days. Exporting your data to a standby virtual machine provides you with a block-level capture of the machine that is always up to date with the latest VMware snapshot or AppAssure backup. If the primary machine goes down, you simply power on the standby machine. AppAssure allows for the continuous exporting of Windows and Linux backup information to an ESXi, VMware Workstation, Hyper-V, or VirtualBox virtual machine (VM) to create a Virtual Standby machine. AppAssure also lets you perform a one-time export to a VM, which can serve as a backup or a form of data recovery. With vranger comes the ability to replicate VMware virtual machines between like hypervisors. With this, you can easily replicate VMware virtual machines from a primary site to a secondary site on a scheduled basis. You can then fail over to that replica in the event of a disaster with just a few clicks of a button. After the production environment has started, vranger then provides the ability to failback the replica into production so that no data is lost in recovering an old backup. Universal Recovery AppAssure uses its Universal Recovery technology to give you unlimited options for restoring your protected machines while accelerating cross-platform moves among virtual machines. You can use AppAssure to restore backups from physical to virtual (P2V), virtual to virtual (V2V), virtual to physical (V2P), physical to physical (P2P), virtual to cloud (V2C), physical to cloud (P2C), cloud to physical (C2P), or cloud to virtual (C2V). 13

14 3 Understanding licenses This chapter describes the licensing format used for the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite). It includes the following topics: License capacity guidelines License examples Getting the products The Suite bundles the latest versions of Dell AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault under simple pricing and licensing terms: front-end terabyte capacity with built in volume discounting. Licensing is cumulative, and as long as maintenance is maintained, a customer will never fall back to a higher-priced tier. There are seven pricing tiers with a maximum available discount of 55 percent. NOTE: Existing agent- or server-based licensing for AppAssure, NetVault, or vranger cannot be combined with the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite to reach a lower-priced tier. There is a specially priced upgrade path designed to transition from agent- or server-based licensing to a Suite license for existing AppAssure, NetVault, and vranger customers. The following table describes the seven licensing tiers available for the Suite. Table 3. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite licensing tiers Tier Capacity (per TB) Price (USD) $5, $3, $3, $3, $2, $2,500 7 >250 $2,250 License capacity guidelines A Suite capacity license for 1 TB entitles you to back-up only 1 TB of data using any of the software in the suite. A 1 TB license does not permit you to backup 1 TB of data with AppAssure, 1 TB of data with vranger, and 1 TB of data with NetVault. A Suite license does entitle you to use any product features of the Suite software to manage data after it is backed up. For example, you may initially back up the data with AppAssure but manage the data as it ages with NetVault to archive it to tape. To back up 1 TB with AppAssure, 1 TB with vranger, and 1 TB with NetVault you would need to purchase a 3 TB or more Suite capacity license. If you own a 1 TB Suite capacity license, you can easily upgrade to 3 TB by calling your Dell sales representative. 14

15 License examples The following scenarios provide examples of how Suite licenses can be applied to specific environmental situations. NOTE: All scenarios assume the customer is current on the necessary software maintenance. Scenario A Customer A purchases 4 TB of front-end protected data at one time. The environment consists of no previous Dell data protection products. Table 4. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite licensing Scenario A New TB Total TB License Tier Tier Price (per TB) Total Cost $5,000 $20,000 (4 x $5,000) Scenario B Customer A returns and purchases a license for an additional 8 TB. The customer now has a total of 12 TB of front-end protected data, which falls under the third licensing tier (11 TB 20 TB). Table 5. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite licensing Scenario B New TB Total TB License Tier Tier Price (per TB) Total Cost $3,450 $27,600 (8 x $3,450) Scenario C Customer A returns and purchases an additional 2 TB. This gives the customer a total of 14 TB of front-end protected data. As the discounting is cumulative, the customer remains at the Tier 3 pricing level (11 TB 20 TB). Table 6. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite licensing Scenario C New TB Total TB License Tier Tier Price (per TB) Total Cost $3,450 $6,900 (2 x $3,450) 15

16 Getting the products After you sign a quote for the Suite, the order is submitted and the Dell license generation team issues individual s for the products in the suite: one each for AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault; and one for each of the NetVault plugins. The s contain the product license numbers and links to support pages where you can download the software. For more information about installing the products, see the individual installation guides for each product at 16

17 4 System requirements This chapter discusses where to find the system requirements for each component of the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite). It includes the following topics: AppAssure NetVault vranger This section includes information about the system requirements for AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault. In addition to system requirements, there are links to sizing guidelines for AppAssure and NetVault. Please be sure to follow the guidelines carefully to ensure the best possible experience. AppAssure The AppAssure Core must be installed on a dedicated Windows 64-bit server (Windows Server 2012 and 2012 R2 are highly recommended). For each machine you want to protect with an AppAssure Core, install the AppAssure Smart Agent software version appropriate for the operating system installed on that machine. Depending on your license and your environment requirements, you may need to install multiple cores. For remote management of multiple cores, you may choose to also install the AppAssure Central Management Console. This, too, must be installed on a 64-bit Windows computer. To properly size an AppAssure Core please see the AppAssure Sizing guide for recommendations. This helps to ensure AppAssure can properly handle all tasks that it is required to execute. For more information about the system requirements for AppAssure, please see the product documentation at NetVault Install the NetVault server on a dedicated Windows or Linux server. For best performance, use a 64-bit operating system when possible. To properly size a NetVault server, please use the NetVault Server Sizing Guide. This guide provides the hardware guidelines necessary to build a NetVault server as well as a NetVault SmartDisk server. For a complete version of this list please visit the NetVault Compatibility Guide at vranger vranger should be installed on a dedicated Windows sever. This Windows server can be physical or virtual and should follow the minimum requirements guidelines listed in the vranger Installation and Upgrade Guide at To improve scalability of vranger in VMware environments consider adding multiple virtual appliances. Deploying multiple virtual appliances allows for the backups of virtual machines to be distributed across the appliances, improving backup performance. 17

18 5 Use cases This chapter describes use cases for the products included with the Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite). It includes the following topics: Use case 1: AppAssure and NetVault Use case 2: AppAssure and vranger Use case 3: NetVault and vranger Use case 4: AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault Understanding when and where to use AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault can be a challenging task for anyone who is new to the products. To help you make an informed decision as to which products to use, where to use them, and when to use them, see the decision tree below. With just a few simple questions, this tree can help determine which of the four use cases best suits your environment. While the decision tree cannot cover all aspects of your environment, it does cover the most common configurations. To use the tree, begin at the Start Here tile and follow the paths according to your business needs. Each branch of the tree recommends a Suite product for your solution. After you complete the tree, find the use case that applies all of the products that were recommended. For a table of use cases and available features, see Use case table. NOTE: The use cases that are presented in this chapter are just four of the most popular use cases. Other configurations are possible as well. Figure 1. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite decision tree 18

19 Use case 1: AppAssure and NetVault Use Case 1 is ideal for the medium-to-large sized environment that requires enterprise-level application support, scalability, and unparalleled system availability. In this use case, AppAssure is used to protect systems with the most aggressive RPOs and RTOs. These are systems that require backups multiple times per day up to every five minutes to prevent data loss. These systems, in the event of a failure, need to be recovered as quickly as possible. Every minute that these systems are down, your business can be losing customers, productivity, money, or all of the above. AppAssure addresses the needs of business-critical applications and systems such as Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server by providing near-cdp protection and using technology such as Live Recovery and Virtual Standby to quickly restore these applications. Additionally, AppAssure provides automatic application-specific backup validation testing for Microsoft applications. NetVault is the perfect complement to AppAssure, protecting the systems that do not require aggressive RPOs and RTOs. NetVault supports a wide range of different applications, operating systems, and processor architectures. It can scale to protect environments with thousands of clients and petabytes of data. Systems can be backed up to disk and tape as well as Dell DR Series and third-party deduplication appliances. For those who need advanced backup capabilities, backups can be done LAN free or through Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP). Database application-aware protection is provided through NetVault plugins for database applications such as SAP, Sybase, Oracle, PostgreSQL and DB2. These plugins ensure that these applications are protected with the care and thoroughness they need and deserve. Lastly, NetVault supports a large variety of clustered applications, ensuring that NetVault can protect nearly everything in your environment. Combining AppAssure and NetVault together in the same environment ensures that you have the right tools for the job. AppAssure can be used to protect the RPO and RTO constrained systems while NetVault can be used to protect the larger portion of the environment and scale to thousands of machines. The following diagram illustrates the benefits of using AppAssure with NetVault. Figure 2. Use case 1 AppAssure and NetVault 19

20 Features The products in this use case offer the following features: AppAssure NetVault Protects critical workloads with up to 288 snapshots per day Fast recovery times with Live Recovery and Virtual Standby Validates backups every night Granular restore of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint Supports for a large variety of operating systems Protects database applications such as Oracle, Informix, Sybase, MySQL, DB2, PostgreSQL, SAP and more Writes AppAssure archives to tape Agentless backup for virtual workloads DR Series appliance (separate from Suite) Protects massive amounts of data at backups speeds up to 22 TB per hour using RDA Use case 2: AppAssure and vranger Use Case 2 is ideal for any small-to-medium sized environment that requires the ability to protect mixed physical-virtual environments at scale while meeting the most stringent service level agreements (SLAs). In this use case, AppAssure is used to protect all physical Windows and Linux machines, VMs that require aggressive RPOs and RTOs, and machines that have Microsoft clustered applications. Protection intervals for RPO-constrained machines can be set to as little as every five minutes with AppAssure. Machines that require less aggressive RPO targets can be set to once or a few times per day with either AppAssure or vranger. AppAssure provides protected machines with changed block tracking (CBT), bare metal restore (BMR), Universal Recovery, replication, and high-availability features like Live Recovery and Virtual Standby. Additionally, vital applications like Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint, and SQL Server are given special care with automatic backup validation testing. vranger and AppAssure create the perfect marriage between agent-based and agentless backup technology, protecting physical, VMware, and Hyper-V machines with one solution. The combination allows for easy-tomanage and scalable virtual protection with vranger agentless technology and aggressive RPOs and RTOs with AppAssure. Some of the advantages vranger provides are: Use of vstorage APIs for Data Protection, VMware CBT, and active block mapping (ABM) Ability to tie into vcenter and Hyper-V, automatically detecting any changes to the virtual environment without administrator intervention Any VMs that have database applications that are Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) aware are quiesced to ensure application consistent backups Flexible storage options of writing to network shares, local disk, or Dell DR Series and third-party deduplication appliances. Global cataloging makes file level recovery easy with the ability to search multiple repositories as once Pairing AppAssure and vranger in the same environment provides scalable and comprehensive protection for mixed physical-virtual environments. If needed, NetVault can be added to the pair, writing AppAssure archives and the vranger repository to tape. 20

21 The following diagram illustrates the benefits of using AppAssure with vranger. Figure 3. Use case 2 AppAssure and vranger Features The products in this use case offer the following features: AppAssure Protects critical workloads with up to 288 snapshots per day Replication easily allows critical machines to be sent off site Fast recovery times with Live Recovery and Virtual Standby Validates backups every night P2V, V2V and P2P recovery of protected machines Granular restore of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint vranger Agentlessly protects Hyper-V and VMware VM s Easily scales to protect thousands of VM s Automatically protects newly added virtual machines Quick file level recovery for virtual machines using catalog search Speeds up backups using ABM and CBT NetVault Writes vranger and AppAssure backups to tape 21

22 Use case 3: NetVault and vranger Use Case 3 is ideal for the medium-to-large sized environment that requires scalable protection of mixed physical-virtual environments with enterprise functionality. In this use case, both NetVault and vranger work in tandem to provide you with flexible and easy-to-use protection. NetVault can be used as the primary protection for physical machines while vranger can be used to protect the majority of the virtual environment. NetVault can protect massive amounts of clients by supporting Windows, Linux, Mac OS, and UNIX, as well as Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. vranger uses virtual appliances (VA) to make protecting hundreds to thousands of VMs easy, simply by adding VAs where needed. For VMs that contain applications such as Oracle, Informix, SAP, or clusters, install a NetVault agent on these systems. Backups for both NetVault and vranger can be sent to a Dell DR Series deduplication appliance, leveraging Dell s Rapid Data Access (RDA) technology for super-fast backups and reduced network use, as well as third-party storage targets. For those who need advanced backup capabilities, backups can be performed LAN free with both NetVault and vranger. The use of NetVault and vranger together provides simple and scalable mixed physical-virtual protection. The following diagram illustrates the benefits of using NetVault with vranger. Figure 4. Use case 3 NetVault and vranger NOTE: vranger protects all virtual machines excluding those that may have a NetVault agent on them. 22

23 Features The products in this use case offer the following features: vranger NetVault Scalable and easy to use for protecting large amounts of virtual machines Automatically protects newly added virtual machines ABM and CBT improve backup times and reduce required backup space Virtual machine replication for fast and easy failover Combines with NetVault SmartDisk or DR series appliances for added savings Protects applications such as Exchange, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, and more Supports a broad range of operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and UNIX Protects physical machines Use for BMR and recovery to dissimilar hardware Ideal for complex tape and NDMP support Protects large amounts of data quickly and can be combined with NVSD or the DR series appliances for efficiency Use case 4: AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault Use Case 4 combines all of the products in the suite to create a highly scalable, flexible solution that can meet the needs of any medium-to-enterprise organization. In this scenario, base-layer protection is provided by NetVault. NetVault is installed on physical and virtual machines that have database applications such as SAP, Informix, Sybase, and PostgreSQL, and machines that have certain types of clustered applications. NetVault is also used to provide a robust operating system and tape support in addition to protecting large servers that have hundreds of terabytes or more of data. AppAssure provides protection for physical and virtual systems that require aggressive RPOs and RTOs, in addition to those with applications such as Microsoft Exchange, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Systems with these applications benefit from additional automatic application-specific backup validation. vranger and its virtual appliances provide highly scalable virtual machine backup. The virtual appliances let vranger easily handle thousands of virtual machines by simply adding more appliances to distribute the work load. Technology such as VMware Change Block Tracking (CBT) and Active Block Mapping let vranger quickly and efficiently process its backups. NetVault, AppAssure, and vranger work together to provide your environment with the type of protection you need when you want it. NetVault can be used to send AppAssure archives and vranger backups to tape for long-term archiving. If you are using a DR Series or third-party deduplication appliance, both NetVault and vranger can write to them, saving space and reducing backup windows. 23

24 The following diagram illustrates the benefits of using AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault together. Figure 5. Use case 4 AppAssure, vranger, and NetVault Features: The products in this use case offer the following features: AppAssure Protects critical workloads with up to 288 snapshots per day Replication easily allows critical machines to be sent off site Fast recovery times with Live Recovery and Virtual Standby Validates backups every night Granular restore of Microsoft Exchange and SharePoint P2V, V2V and P2P recovery of protected machines vranger Scales to protect thousands of VMs Automatically protects newly added virtual machines Quick file level recovery for virtual machines using catalog search Software deduplication with NetVault SmartDisk Speeds backups using ABM and change block tracking NetVault Writes vranger and AppAssure backups to tape Supports a larger variety of operating systems Protects Enterprise applications such as Oracle, Informix, DB2, SQL, Sybase and more Ideal for complex tape and NDMP support 24

25 6 Best practices This chapter includes information about factors you should consider when installing and using Dell Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite (the Suite) products, as well as helpful resources and references. Warnings Recommendations Guides and resources There are some key considerations that should be taken into account as you install the components of the Suite. This section provides you with some key warnings and recommendations that you should be aware of. As always, please refer to the individual product user guides before installing any of the software solutions in your environment. Warnings The following configurations are not recommended for using the Suite and could result in data loss if not heeded: Do not install different Suite products on the same server. The AppAssure Core, vranger server, and NetVault should each be installed on its own dedicated server. Do not install multiple Dell Data Protection agents on the same sever. A server should only be protected by one product at a time; an AppAssure Smart Agent, NetVault Client, or vranger. Do not attempt to back up the AppAssure server by installing another backup agent on the server or using agentless backup technology. To protect data on an AppAssure server, either replicate the data to another site or use the AppAssure archive feature. Do not attempt to use a deduplication appliance as a backup target for AppAssure. AppAssure data should be replicated or archived to a separate location. Do not install NetVault SmartDisk and NetVault or vranger on the same server. NetVault SmartDisk should be installed on its own dedicated server Recommendations The following recommendations are suggested to help you successfully configure and use the products included in the Suite: Install the AppAssure Smart Agent, vranger, and NetVault on physical or virtual machines. Install the AppAssure Core on a physical machine, rather than a virtual machine, for best performance. Follow the sizing guidelines and System Requirements when building AppAssure or NetVault servers. 25

26 Guides and resources The following links point to the documents necessary to install AppAssure 5, vranger, and NetVault: AppAssure 5.4 Guides AppAssure License Portal User Guide AppAssure Deployment Guide AppAssure User Guide AppAssure Mailbox Restore for Exchange User Guide AppAssure DocRetriever for SharePoint User Guide AppAssure current release download AppAssure Backup to tape with NetVault vranger 7 Guides vranger Installation and Upgrade Guide vranger User Guide vranger current release download vranger Backup to tape with NetVault NetVault 10 Guides NetVault Quick Start Guide NetVault Administration Guide Other NetVault Guides NetVault Compatibility Guide NetVault current release download 26

27 A Use case table The following table describes the benefits available with each sample Suite configuration found in Use cases. Table 7. Backup & Disaster Recovery Suite Use Cases Category Benefit Use Case 1 (AppAssure & NetVault) Backups Protection Replication Take up to 288 daily snapshots Provide agentless backup for virtual workloads not constrained by RPO Protect physical machines Protect virtual machines Protect Windows and Linux machines Protect applications, including SQL Server & Microsoft Exchange Protect Hyper-V and VMware virtual machines Protect VSS-aware applications Use Case 2 (AppAssure & vranger) Use Case 3 (NetVault & vranger) X X X X X X Support UNI X Protect enterprise applications, such as Oracle, Informix, PostgreSQL, Sybase, and clustered applications Support clusters Scale to protect thousands of virtual machines Offers near continuous data protection (CDP) Replicate physical and virtual machines to multiple sites X Use Case 4 (AppAssure, NetVault, & vranger) X 27

28 Recovery Storage Encryption Replicate VMware virtual machines with one-click failover Replicate virtual machines from one hypervisor to another like hypervisor Provide fast recovery times with Live Recovery and Virtual Standby features Validate backups with nightly integrity checks Restore and migrate data across formats (P2V, V2P, C2V, etc.) Perform bare metal restores to similar and dissimilar hardware Perform item-level recovery of Exchange and SharePoint databases Use a catalog to simplify file-level recovery Export to VMware, Hyper-V, and VirtualBox virtual machine Use ABM and CBT to improve backup times Store and archive data to Amazon S3, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, and OpenStack-powered clouds Use inline, block-level compression, and deduplication for a reduction ratio of up to 80:1 Use NetVault SmartDisk or DR-series appliance as a backup target Use SmartDisk to perform deduplication Provide software deduplication Use ABM and CBT to reduce required backup space Meet FIPS compliance requirements X X X X X 28

29 About Dell Dell listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they trust and value. For more information, visit Contacting Dell Technical Support: Online Support Product Questions and Sales: (800) Technical support resources Technical support is available to customers who have purchased Dell software with a valid maintenance contract and to customers who have trial versions. To access the Support Portal, go to The Support Portal provides self-help tools you can use to solve problems quickly and independently, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. In addition, the portal provides direct access to product support engineers through an online Service Request system. The site enables you to: Create, update, and manage Service Requests (cases) View Knowledge Base articles Obtain product notifications Download software. For trial software, go to Trial Downloads. View how-to videos Engage in community discussions Chat with a support engineer 29