NetBackup Appliances: Tackling Cost and Complexity Through Greater Usability

Transcription

1 WHITE PAPER: SYMANTEC NETBACKUP APPLIANCES NetBackup Appliances: Tackling Cost and Complexity Through Greater Usability Who should read this paper Directors of IT and IT Managers Backup Administrations and Architects

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3 Content Executive Summary Introduction NetBackup Appliance Benefits Five Areas of OpEx Savings Tackling Cost and Complexity Acquisition Installation and Integration Administration Patching and Upgrades Support Conclusion

4 Executive Summary A challenge for many organizations is performing lights-on activities when more strategic or revenue-generating projects are needed. Independent research from Enterprise Strategy Group indicates that IT organizations typically spend 64 percent of their budget on maintaining existing infrastructure, while only 36 percent is spent on new technologies that address operational challenges and provide competitive advantage. 1 Symantec realizes companies struggle to balance the day-to-day operations with strategic initiatives with limited staff and financial resources. With NetBackup and NetBackup Appliances, organizations are able to address this need. Within backup and recovery, Symantec NetBackup Appliances provide greater efficiency to free valuable staff time, reduce capital cost, and minimize risk. These operating and capital expenditure savings enable organizations to invest in their future. Learn how NetBackup Appliances are providing greater usability and support to reduce cost and complexity. Introduction IT organizations are at a crossroads. On one hand, IT organizations are tasked with managing and supporting the current environment; ensuring the day-to-day operation is efficient and cost-effective. In other words, keeping the lights on. On the other hand, organizations need to prepare and develop new technologies to support the business. What are the new initiatives and applications that will increase sales or offer the business a competitive advantage? IT must invest both staff and resources in these new endeavors and often without increasing their budget. This dilemma is not new, Most IT organizations have 70 percent or more of their time, money and mindshare locked into reliability, keeping things going, said Tina Nunno, vice president and distinguished analyst at Gartner. Yet demands for game changing IT capabilities are growing every year. IT leaders must transform their businesses, products, services, and value proposition to the external customer, and challenge traditional ways of thinking. 2 What is new is the pace of change. IT organizations have less time today than ever before, and will have even less time in the future. Organizations need to re-evaluate how they are keeping the lights on in order to free up the staff and funds to invest in the new. With up to 70 percent of resources tied up, it is natural to question if staff and resources can be reduced and invested elsewhere. demands for game changing IT capabilities are growing every year. IT leaders must transform their businesses, products, services, and value proposition to the external customer, and challenge traditional ways of thinking. Tina Nunno, Gartner Vice President and Distinguished Analyst One solution within IT has been the adoption of appliances. An appliance integrates multiple separate components into a single device to streamline its management, operation, and support. Within backup and recovery, purpose-built backup appliances (PBBAs) are growing three times faster than software-only based solutions. As highlighted by IDC, organizations are realizing the value of the appliance form factor. 3 Experienced IT professionals know how difficult it can be to deploy, manage, and support backup systems. Not only do backup servers and storage require their own care and feeding, but backups interact with nearly every server, storage, and network component in the data center IT Spending Intentions Survey, by Bill Lundell and John McKnight with Jennifer Gahm, Enterprise Strategy Group, January Gartner Says Now More Than Ever is the Time to Re-Imagine the Role of IT, October 17, IDC White Paper: The Evolution and Value of Purpose-Built Backup Appliances, Sponsored by Symantec, by Robert Amatruda, March 2013, #

5 NetBackup addresses these burdens and offers a fully integrated, turnkey appliance that combines NetBackup Software with a server and storage. Built on the strength of NetBackup Software, NetBackup enterprise-class appliances continue to lead the integrated PBBA market. 4 NetBackup Appliance Benefits Symantec NetBackup Appliances provide significant benefits over traditional build-your-own (BYO) media servers. Organizations are able to: Implement faster deployments Reduce risk, minimize planned and unplanned downtime Improve staff efficiencies and enhance service levels These benefits can be quantified and translated into financial savings in operating expenditures (OpEx) and/or capital expenditures (CapEx). Symantec provides an integrated and purpose-built backup and recovery appliance to address the financial challenges organizations face. Five Areas of OpEx Savings For many organizations, using an all-in-one NetBackup Appliance for backup and recovery is a better solution for simplifying IT tasks, increasing productivity, and providing significant cost savings. NetBackup Appliances deliver OpEx savings in five key areas: Acquisition Eliminate ordering, approvals, scheduling, and delivery of separate media server components, such as server, storage, OS, and backup software. Installation and integration Eliminate the hassle of installing, integrating, testing, and performance tuning. Administration Streamline administration with a single management console to control all functions of your media server. Patching and firmware updates Reduce compatibility issues of managing all media servers components separately for revision level, firmware, etc. Support Eliminate finger pointing among the different products and component OEMs of a build-your-own backup server, and automating many support functions with Symantec AutoSupport. Tackling Cost and Complexity Symantec has made tremendous investments in supporting the NetBackup Appliance customer experience in order to reduce cost and complexity. This focus is highlighted in NetBackup Software release 7.6 and NetBackup Appliance release 2.6. These releases provide greater usability and support for existing NetBackup environments, or organizations considering implementing a new NetBackup solution as an appliance. (Refer to Table 1.) Areas of OpEx Savings NetBackup Appliance 2.6 Feature Acquisition NetBackup TB configuration Installation and Integration Redesigned web console with initial configuration wizards Migration utility Administration New appliance home page 4- IDC Worldwide Quarterly Purpose Built Backup Appliance Tracker 2013 Q3, Publication Date: 12/19/

6 Areas of OpEx Savings NetBackup Appliance 2.6 Feature Single sign-in with AD/LDAP Language localization support Reporting enhancements Patching and Upgrades Automated factory reset User checkpoint and rollback Support Appliance Diagnostic Center Automatic health checks Symantec Help Center (SymHelp) Call Home and Symantec AutoSupport This paper examines how the NetBackup Appliance release 2.6 delivers greater usability and support to reduce cost and complexity. Acquisition Many organizations spend a significant amount of time in the acquisition phase. Often this time is hidden within the organization or it is not easily quantified. Acquisition involves the tasks of evaluating, creating the bill of materials, and ordering the components from multiple vendors. There are definite advantages with a NetBackup Appliance, as it reduces the number of vendors involved and significantly reduces the amount of time spent managing these acquisition tasks separately. Addressing Customers Remote Office/Branch Office (ROBO) Challenges Remote offices are a challenge for many organizations. These sites are often supported by non-it staff and have a wide assortment of backup and recovery technologies. Symantec addresses this challenge by offering both NetBackup 4 TB and 14 TB configurations, in addition to the larger 28, 40, and 76 TB configurations. All NetBackup Appliances are fully integrated with NetBackup Software, optimized for performance, and can be easily ordered through Symantec authorized partners. The 4 TB configuration is ideal for small remote offices, as it allows organizations to consolidate the number of point products. A separate media server, tape, and disk storage device are no longer required. The latest member of the NetBackup family is the NetBackup TB configuration, designed for larger remote offices and branch offices. It has all the same NetBackup features and 2U footprint, with greater capacity. 3

7 NetBackup Appliances can be administered remotely from the same NetBackup administration console. No longer does IT have to rely upon local, non-it staff for setting up and running backup jobs or performing restores. Corporate IT can manage remotely, replicate backup copies to the data center, and retain control of backups. Built on the strength of NetBackup 7.6 Software, the NetBackup 5230 Appliance, either 4 TB or 14 TB, has been designed to meet customers data protection needs in remote offices and branch offices. The appliance can be easily ordered, and it s fully integrated and optimized for performance. Installation and Integration NetBackup Appliances are easy to install into both new and existing NetBackup environments. A recent lab review by ESG noted, There were a total of eight steps in the wizard configuration process, after which an automatic build process launched to apply the settings the full deployment was conducted in less than 25 minutes. 5 This ease of installation is further expanded with several new features to assist in setting up the appliance: Redesigned web console with configuration wizards to streamline the integration process into an existing environment Migration utility for moving existing NetBackup policies to the appliance. This tool is a valuable time saver if refreshing existing NetBackup media servers with the NetBackup Appliance Installation and Integration are areas in which NetBackup Appliances provide the greatest upfront savings. Installation is the initial receipt of the system through physically racking the system with power and network connections; often referred to as rack and stack. Integration is the configuration, customization, and optimization of the appliance into the specific environment. Redesigned NetBackup Appliance Web Console The NetBackup Appliance Web Console has been redesigned to provide a more user-friendly experience. (Refer to Figure 1.) The interface includes more graphical representations for greater ease of use. The initial configuration wizard guides the administrator through the process of getting the appliance communicating within the network and getting the storage partitions configured for backups. The postconfiguration interface provides a new menu flow to easily locate anything from hardware monitoring to reviewing and changing appliance settings. 5- ESG Lab Review: Symantec NetBackup 5230 Appliance, by Vinny Choinski and Kerry Dolan, December

8 Figure 1: Web Console Migration Utility A new feature in NetBackup Appliance is the Migration Utility, a web console feature that seamlessly automates the transfer of backup workload(s) to a new NetBackup Appliance. This new feature saves valuable time and reduces risk as it automates several manual tasks. The Migration Utility provides users with the ability to choose what workloads to redirect, then performs non-disrupted seeding of the appliance, and optionally automates the policy conversion. The user has the flexibility to choose which backup policies to migrate, and the duration and the start time of the seeding window. The utility predicts how much can be accomplished in the window by assessing past performance. The utility handles the creation of the image work list for seeding and the policy conversion. All of this activity can be done while the system performs the standard daily backup and deduplication functions. Progress can be tracked in the Migration Utility pane. (Refer to Figure 2.) 5

9 Figure 2: Migration Utility Displaying Job Status In addition, the Migration Utility supports migrating from a third-party OST storage device to a new NetBackup 5230 Backup Appliance. Administration Administration is the area that provides the greatest time savings with a NetBackup Appliance over a traditional build-your-own media server. An appliance eliminates having to manage multiple components server, storage, OS, and backup software separately. Rather, the NetBackup Appliance provides a single user interface to manage all of the day-to-day tasks in a streamlined manner. Symantec is continuing to streamline the NetBackup and NetBackup Appliance administration through a new appliance home page, single user sign-in, language localization, and reporting enhancements. New Appliance Home Page When you log in to the NetBackup Appliance, it displays the Welcome to Symantec NetBackup home page. This page is displayed after you have configured the appliance as a media or master server. Symantec has created a new home page that provides a quick dashboard view of your appliance. (Refer to Figure 3.) It displays the status of the following components that determine the successful functioning of your appliance: Storage Displays the used storage space across the appliance. The information is dynamically updated to display the current storage utilization. Deduplication Summary Displays the current deduplication ratio pertaining to the current backup being performed. Hardware Displays an overall view of the hardware health, with quick drill-down to the hardware monitoring view for details. Notifications Displays the latest notifications for your appliance, like the connectivity status for the Call Home server. 6

10 Figure 3: Dashboard for NetBackup Media Server Appliance The NetBackup Appliance Web Console home page also displays an expandable footer with links to the documentation set, Technical Support, and Symantec Connect. This footer is displayed for all of the pages on the NetBackup Appliance Web Console. Single Sign-In with AD/LDAP NetBackup 5200 series appliances running on software version 2.6 or later can be administered with Microsoft Windows Active Directory (AD) or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) user accounts. This feature allows AD or LDAP users to perform day--to--day management operations of a NetBackup 5200 series appliance without using the default administrator account. With the AD/LDAP authentication feature, users can perform the following tasks: Configure the appliance to use AD/LDAP for authentication of appliance administrators Create dedicated groups of users using AD/LDAP and authorize these groups as appliance administrators Reuse the LDAP server configuration information across all NetBackup 5200 series appliances in the environment by exporting and importing templates Achieve better auditability of actions through Command Line Interface Shell (CLISH) Increase scalability of deployment through the management of user accounts and passwords from the central LDAP service AD/LDAP integration unveils a new dimension of management for NetBackup Appliances. It is now possible to integrate groups and users created in AD/LDAP to manage and access NetBackup Appliances. This feature ensures smooth integration of NetBackup Appliances with the existing AD/LDAP implementation, saving valuable administration time. 7

11 Language Localization Support A language drop-down list is now available on the Symantec NetBackup Appliance Web Console login page. Based on the language you select, the labels on the NetBackup Appliance Web Console are displayed in that language. English, Japanese, and Simplified Chinese web user interfaces are available. Having a localized language allows the user to more readily perform tasks and reduces the risk of translation errors. Reporting Enhancements NetBackup Appliances have expanded reporting capabilities to provide more detailed system information and notifications. The new reporting mechanism or dashboard provides the following information: Storage utilization statistics Deduplication ratios Hardware health status Notifications The dashboard displays critical information, or information for which urgent attention is required. For example, in Figure 3, the media appliance name and version, and the master appliance name, are displayed in the Connected to field. The storage statistics are displayed at the center of the UI. In this case, the appliance has 3000 GB of used space and 4640 GB of available space. It also displays the percentage of used and available storage at any point in time. The bar in the Storage box turns red and displays a warning message when the used space reaches the configured threshold value of 95 percent. There are three additional boxes below the Storage box: 1. Deduplication Summary: Deduplication Summary displays the exact deduplication ratio. For this appliance, the dedupe ratio is percent. 2. Hardware: The Hardware status indicator displays the overall hardware health. If all the hardware components are working well, it displays the message Hardware is healthy. In the case of a failure of any component, it indicates that there is problem with the hardware. 3. Notification: Currently there are notifications for both the components: Call Home notifications and Software update notifications. If Call Home is disabled, a failure message is displayed with the appropriate corrective action that needs to be taken. A click on the action link rectifies the Call Home settings. Whenever Symantec releases a new patch and uploads it to the Symantec Support website, the notification for a software update is reflected in the Notifications box. 8

12 Patching and Upgrades The fourth area of enhanced usability is Patching and Upgrades, as Symantec has provided significant automation to factory resets and added checkpoints. Automatic Factory Resets The NetBackup Appliance factory reset capability has been enhanced with the option of retaining storage configuration and backup data. In previous versions of NetBackup, the factory reset operation was based on resetting individual components until a factory state was reached. This manual process was error-prone and did not allow the rollback of patches. The new factory reset method streamlines the process, reducing the potential for errors and saving administration time. Patching and Upgrades: With any point solution, there are multiple components that will require firmware or software updates and patches. Compounding this is the fact that updates are not issued at the same time by the various OEMs or vendors, and verifying compatibility is often a management nightmare. User Checkpoint and Rollback In the latest NetBackup Appliance release, rollback protection for upgrades has been added. The benefit of appliance checkpoint and rollback is that it allows one user-directed checkpoint, as well as appliance-automated pre- and post-upgrade checkpoints, to revert to a previous configuration. The ability to roll back to a later state is defined by a checkpoint. All of these methods to restore the appliance to a previous point in time are available in a management area called Appliance Restore (Refer to Figure 4). Figure 4: Appliance Rollback Tab 9

13 The four types of checkpoints are: Pre-upgrade checkpoint: created before a software upgrade is installed. This type of checkpoint can be used as a rollback checkpoint in case a software upgrade fails. Post-upgrade checkpoint: created after an appliance has been upgraded to a new software version. User-directed checkpoint: a checkpoint that is created at any point in time using the application user interface or the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu. This checkpoint offers more flexibility when you roll back your appliance. Only one user-directed checkpoint may exist at any given time. If a new user-directed checkpoint is created, it overwrites the previous user-directed checkpoint if one exists. (Refer to Figure 5.) Factory checkpoint: created during a new installation of the NetBackup Appliance Software, as well as during an upgrade of an unconfigured appliance. Figure 5: User Directed Checkpoint Access The following are some of the scenarios that factory reset and checkpoints help to address: An administrator wants to reset a NetBackup Appliance for redeployment as a master or media server. A user has applied a patch to the NetBackup Appliance running version 2.6 and must recover to the previous configuration. A user wants to create point-in-time checkpoints of the appliance and be able to roll back to the checkpoint in case of OS corruption or configuration errors. A user wants to easily recover from an OS corruption without having to re-image the appliance. 10

14 Support The fifth area NetBackup Appliances address in operating expenditure (OpEx) savings is support. An integrated appliance provides organizations with a single partner to contact for any support questions or issues. This greatly streamlines call resolution over a build-yourown media server, when troubleshooting may involve multiple hardware and software vendors. Symantec has made several recent enhancements to improve troubleshooting, automate end-user support tasks, and provide quicker resolution to common support or how to questions. The focus on greater usability is evident through the Appliance Diagnostic Center and new Symantec Help Center. Appliance Diagnostic Center Appliance Diagnostic Center is a single window, wizard-based tool that helps in troubleshooting and resolving appliance issues more effectively. It contains new tools and wizards to troubleshoot problems and optimize the appliance, including: Test Call Home functionality Troubleshoot disk storage issues, tuning, and availability Collect all the log files for appliance configurations Perform a hardware health check of your environment Test and diagnose network-related issues These wizards can be accessed from the following icon in the NetBackup Appliance Web Console (Figure 6): Figure 6: Appliance Diagnostics Center 11

15 A separate wizard helps the administrator perform each task. Some wizards also guide the user through system optimization and tuning. The automated health checks and log collection enable faster case resolution through standardized data collection and proactive appliance health checks. These tools enable faster troubleshooting and support resolution, and they offer greater system optimization. Symantec Help Center (SymHelp) Symantec Help Center, or SymHelp, is a browser-based, help delivery system with advanced search, autosuggest, and filtering capabilities for NetBackup Appliance features. SymHelp offers additional advantages over traditional help systems: Allows search from a much larger NetBackup Appliance content set. SymHelp includes content from the NetBackup Appliance Administrator's Guide, the Troubleshooting Guide, and the Command Reference Guide. This means you can search all of the content from these guides from one SymHelp Search window. In addition to the appliance content, SymHelp lets you search content from the NetBackup Administrator's Guide. Call Home and Symantec AutoSupport Figure 7: Symantec Help Center, search for install Call Home and Symantec AutoSupport enables an electronic connection with the Symantec Operation Center (SOC) to provide responsive support to system issues. It actively monitors the appliance for serviceable events and notifies Symantec of any issues. System administrators can rest assured, knowing that Symantec is standing by to quickly resolve any issues. Call Home and Symantec AutoSupport saves administrators time by: 12

16 Actively monitoring all events and automatically reporting to Symantec any serviceable events that require support. This frees up time looking through event logs trying determine if action is required. Securely and automatically transmitting problem diagnostic data to reduce problem resolution time. This frees up time spent on the phone talking to support. Conclusion IT organizations struggle day in and day out to balance the needs of daily operations and future strategic initiatives. Symantec acknowledges the constraints IT is under with limited staff and financial resources and deciding where to make investments. With NetBackup Appliances, organizations are able to address cost and complexity concerns through greater usability and enhanced features. The time saved today on data protection allows organizations to invest in tomorrow s technology and business needs. 13

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19 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 2013, it recorded revenues of $6.9 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 2014 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. 4/