Reference Architecture EMC BACKUP-AS-A-SERVICE EMC AVAMAR, EMC DATA PROTECTION ADVISOR, AND EMC HOMEBASE Deliver backup services for cloud and traditional hosted environments Reduce storage space and increase backup speeds Provide portal-based backup management EMC Solutions Group January 2012
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Contents Reference architecture overview... 4 Document purpose... 4 Solution purpose... 4 The business challenge... 4 The technology solution... 5 Solution architecture... 6 Architecture diagram... 6 Hardware resources... 7 Software resources... 7 Key components... 8 Introduction... 8 EMC Avamar... 8 EMC Data Protection Advisor... 8 EMC HomeBase... 8 Portal and orchestration integration overview... 9 Introduction... 9 Leveraging portal and orchestration for BaaS... 9 EMC backup technology overview... 10 Introduction... 10 EMC Avamar... 10 EMC Data Protection Advisor... 10 EMC HomeBase... 11 Conclusion... 12 Summary... 12 Key findings... 12 About EMC Proven Solutions... 12 Take the next step... 13 References... 13 EMC documentation... 13 VMware documentation... 13 3
Reference architecture overview Document purpose Solution purpose This document describes the reference architecture of the (BaaS) solution based on EMC Avamar, EMC Data Protection Advisor, and EMC HomeBase. This reference architecture describes a carrier-class backup solution for virtual and physical servers, including the backup components and associated portal and orchestration integration. This solution can be used to provide backup services for: Backups at the application, file system, or virtual machine image level within a multitenant service provider cloud environment Bare-metal backup of physical servers within service provider data centers In addition, this solution can be used in the following environments that are not provided as-a-service: Backups at the application, file system, physical servers, or virtual machine image level within a traditional hosting environment Backups for application, file system, or virtual machine image level within a single or multi-organization enterprise For this reference architecture the service provider, or enterprise, components are colocated within one geographic data center environment. This reference architecture validates the integration of the solution s components and provides broad guidelines about how this type of solution can be built and integrated into the service provider s environment. This document is not a comprehensive guide to every aspect of this solution. For more detailed information, consult the EMC white paper,, a Detailed Review (March, 2012). The business challenge Service providers face the challenge of offering robust backup services to protect their customer s data for both consumers of cloud-based services and traditional hosting services, while deploying the backup solution in a scalable fashion. Similarly, the BaaS solution must integrate into existing orchestration and management infrastructures. Ideally, the integration of all the different systems must result in a single management interface for the customer s and service provider s administrators. Service providers can offer Backup-as-a-Service as an alternative to existing dedicated, stand-alone, disk- or tape-based backup offerings; while integrating customer service catalogs into an easy-to-deploy platform. EMC s BaaS solution provides service providers with the ability to offer backup services to all of their customers, regardless of whether they are consumers of cloudbased services or traditional hosting services. 4
The technology solution This EMC BaaS solution enables service providers to offer an integrated carrier-grade, scalable, multitenant backup services platform to their customers. EMC BaaS provides backup and restoration of all customer systems, on both physical and virtual machines, including: Application and server backups File system backups Virtual machine image-level backups Bare-metal backup of physical servers This solution incorporates the following components: EMC Avamar 6.0 EMC Data Protection Advisor 5.8 EMC HomeBase 6.5 5
Solution architecture Architecture diagram This solution describes the architecture implemented to provide backup, restore, and deduplication capabilities in a service provider environment. The architectural design was validated through functionality testing of various scenarios, including: Application consistent backup VM and file-level restore Bare-metal restore of physical server Reference portal and orchestration implementation Integration into a service provider s administrative portal Figure 1 depicts the overall physical architecture of the solution. Figure 1. Solution architecture 6
Hardware resources Table 1 lists the key hardware used in this solution. For more details on the components used to validate this solution, refer to the EMC white paper, EMC Backup-as-a-Service, a Detailed Review (March 2012). Table 1. Solution hardware Hardware Configuration Notes EMC Avamar Data Store 4 3.9 TB per node for a total of 15.6 TB Avamar 6.0 grid EMC VNX 5700 DAEs configured with: 145 300 GB 15k rpm SAS disks 35 1 TB 7.2k near-line SAS disks 15 200 GB Flash drives VNX shared storage providing block, file, FAST VP, and FAST Cache Servers Multiple quad-core blade and rack servers Servers for hosting applications, file systems, and virtual machines Switches Multiple Ethernet and SAN switches Ethernet and FC switches for infrastructure fabric and SAN Virtual desktops Multiple VMs (1 vcpu, 2 GB RAM, 40 GB VMDK, 1 NIC, Windows 7 typical) Client virtual desktops for this solution Software resources Table 2 lists the key software used in this solution. For more details on the components used to validate this solution, refer to the EMC white paper, EMC Backup-as-a-Service, a Detailed Review (March 2012) Table 2. Solution software Software Version Notes EMC Avamar 6.0 EMC Data Protection Advisor 5.8.1 EMC HomeBase 6.5.1 EMC VNX5700 Release 31 Operating environment for the block EMC VNX5700 Release 7.0 Operating environment for the file Virtualization and cloud VMware vsphere ESX 5.0 (with Microsoft SQL Server) VMware vcenter Server 5.0 VMware View Manager 5 VMware View Composer 2.5 VMware Tools 8.3.7 Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 Operating system for the server environment Microsoft Windows 7 64 bit RTM Operating system for the desktops Microsoft Office Office 2007 SP2 Used on the desktops 7
Key components Introduction EMC Avamar This section briefly describes the key components used in this solution, including: EMC Avamar EMC Data Protection Advisor EMC HomeBase EMC Avamar provides fast, efficient backup and recovery in a complete software and hardware solution. EMC Avamar features integrated data deduplication technology that supports fast, daily full backups for VMware environments, remote offices, enterprise applications, LAN/NAS servers, and desktops/laptops. The Avamar Data Store uses a grid architecture that lets you increase performance by adding additional storage nodes. Each additional node adds CPU, memory, I/O, and disk capacity for the entire grid with automatic load balancing and without compromising system performance. EMC Data Protection Advisor EMC HomeBase EMC Data Protection Advisor automates the collection of data from applications, hosts, and arrays to constantly monitor for issues that could lead to missed service level agreements (SLAs). Data Protection Advisor centrally monitors all major backup applications and industry-leading replication technologies in both physical and virtual environments. This single, unified solution monitors, analyzes, and reports across backup, replication, and NAS infrastructures to help you effectively manage your data protection environment. EMC HomeBase provides platform-independent server protection, migration, and recovery for physical and virtual environments. HomeBase automatically creates server configuration profiles based on your schedule and retention policies. During recovery, HomeBase applies the source server s profile to the new target hardware. HomeBase automatically accounts for hardware variances between the source and new target servers, allowing for bare-metal recovery. This process eliminates the timeconsuming and costly effort of having to reconfigure the systems and applications in the event of a hardware migration, failure, or disaster. HomeBase integrates with EMC Avamar to provide complete business resiliency. HomeBase provides the profiling and protection of server-system states, while Avamar provide the protection of user and application data. This combination provides a fast, comprehensive server recovery solution. 8
Portal and orchestration integration overview Introduction It is critical for service providers to integrate their BaaS solution into their existing service portal and orchestration infrastructures. Although integrating the various components can be challenging and time-consuming, this solution addresses those challenges using a reference implementation based on VMware vcenter Orchestrator and VMware vcloud Director. For more details on the reference implementation, refer to the EMC white paper,, a Detailed Review (March 2012). While this EMC BaaS solution was developed on VMware products, it can be leveraged for any service provider s orchestration and portal solution. Leveraging portal and orchestration for BaaS By integrating BaaS into their environment, a service provider can leverage BaaS in their portal and orchestration layers to provide: Self-service portal for end-user and administrative provisioning Service catalog of available compute services Rapid, precise, and automated service provisioning Multitenant monitoring, reporting, and billing integration capabilities. Additionally, if a service provider already has other portal and orchestration capabilities, such as those included in EMC s Compute-as-a-Service solution, they can integrate BaaS solution into that environment. This gives the service provider a single management interface for on-demand access and control of network bandwidth, servers, storage, backup and restore, and security while maximizing asset utilization. For more information on the EMC Compute-as-a-Service capabilities please refer to the EMC white paper EMC Compute-as-a-Service. 9
EMC backup technology overview Introduction EMC Avamar This describes the major EMC backup products and features used in this solution environment, including: EMC Avamar EMC Data Protection Advisor EMC HomeBase EMC Avamar s source-based deduplication begins at the client by detecting sub-file level data changes and backing up only unique data that is not already backed up to the grid. Only the unique data is transmitted over the network for backup, reducing backup time and network bandwidth requirements. A backup client is backed up in full once, and then only subsequent changes are backed up to the Avamar Data Store. Avamar can recover the client in its entirety from any backup, even though only incremental changes are saved from each backup. EMC Avamar also deduplicates data across all backup clients, a process that is known as global deduplication. During deduplication, Avamar identifies and stores unique chunks of data. As the process continues, other chunks are compared to the stored data and when a match is found, the redundant data chunk is replaced with a small pointer to the stored chunk. Because the same data chunks may occur many times, the amount of data to be stored or transferred is greatly reduced. In virtualized environments Avamar also increases deduplication efficiency and storage savings. Instead of moving weekly full and daily incremental backups through the VMware host s physical resources (NIC, CPU, memory, and so on), Avamar sends only the changed segments of data. For full virtual machine backups, Avamar can also deduplicate the data stored in virtual disks (VMware vmdk files), significantly reducing storage consumption and enabling replication of virtual disks across congested networks. EMC Data Protection Advisor EMC Data Protection Advisor (DPA) provides enhanced management, monitoring, and reporting on EMC Avamar (as well as on other systems and networks in the environment). To gather data from EMC Avamar, DPA connects directly to the Avamar database. DPA includes enhanced reporting capabilities for Avamar environments, including: Backup Job Report: This report shows backup path and error information to allow administrators to manage backups more effectively. Used Capacity Report: This report shows the total used capacity of the Avamar grid. Restore Job Report: This report lists information such as job ID, backup number, backup label, recorded data time, and the number of files and bytes scanned. Daily Compression Rate: This report shows compression data such as deduplication ratio, local compression factor, global compression factor, and overall data reduction. 10
EMC HomeBase EMC HomeBase provides bare-metal recovery (BMR) capability for servers, applications, and storage structures. HomeBase automates the server recovery process and eliminates the issues associated with legacy configuration recovery methodologies. The HomeBase profile-based technology breaks down the server stack elements so that enough configuration detail is captured to recover a server completely. HomeBase separates the server stack into three layers: The application layer, containing all applications and application-created data The root layer, containing information about all hardware drivers and executables The configuration layer, containing hardware and software settings related to performance and security. HomeBase further refines the configuration layer into functional and support elements. The functional elements include the performance and security settings associated with the applications. The support elements include the server configuration settings associated with the attached storage and network hardware infrastructure. HomeBase uses this structure to capture all of the information required to execute a complete system recovery, and creates a server profile containing only system-state related data. HomeBase s encryption and data deduplication technology results in small, secure server profiles. A Microsoft Windows/Intel server profile may use only 3 to 5 MB of storage; a UNIX server profile may use around 500 KB per profile. The small size of these server profiles makes it practical to capture the server configuration as often as needed without overwhelming storage resources. This also minimizes the bandwidth requirements if the server profiles must be replicated to a remote site. In addition, HomeBase typically creates a server profile in 3 to 5 minutes, compared to the 30 to 45 minutes required to create a traditional server image. 11
Conclusion Summary This solution provides service providers with an integrated carrier-grade, scalable, multitenant backup service which can backup and restore physical and virtual machines. As organizations increase their use of out-sourced data centers, their backup challenges can also grow. Service providers who already offer cloud-based services or traditional hosting services are ideally positioned to provide local BaaS for customers to round out their other as-a-service offerings. allows service providers to provide robust backup protection leveraging EMC Avamar and HomeBase technologies. EMC BaaS can also deduplicate data stored in virtual disks, significantly reducing storage consumption and enabling replication of virtual disks across data center locations. This solution provides a reference implementation for delivering backup services that leverage a service provider s existing orchestration and portal infrastructure. EMC BaaS leveraging EMC Data Protection Advisor technology provides the enhanced reporting capabilities that customers demand including backup job status, used capacity; restore job status, and daily compression rate reports. Key findings About EMC Proven Solutions We found the following key results during the testing of this solution: The EMC BaaS solution with EMC Avamar, EMC Data Protection Advisor, and EMC HomeBase supported per-customer backup services on a service provider multitenant cloud platform. The EMC BaaS solution with VMware vcloud Director and vcloud Orchestrator can integrate Avamar, Data Protection Advisor, and HomeBase with industryleading orchestration and portal solutions. The EMC BaaS solution successfully backed up and restored user data over LAN networks. The backup and restore support was all encompassing, including: files, applications, system backups, virtual machine image backups, and bare-metal backup of physical servers. EMC Proven Solutions help customers identify and overcome business challenges by reducing risk and time-to-value of their information infrastructure. EMC leverages its expertise and proven technologies with its strategic relationships with Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and VMware to deliver solutions that support our customers business and technical requirements. All solutions are rigorously tested and documented with reference architectures and best practices designed to reduce the total cost of ownership of the infrastructure and increase IT Efficiency. 12
Take the next step EMC offers a portfolio of consulting and professional services for service providers and their customers to assist in balancing workloads across service delivery models ranging from legacy physical architectures and virtualized infrastructures through on- and off-premise cloud architectures. The EMC Cloud Advisory Service with Cloud Optimizer helps customers develop a strategy for optimizing the placement of application workloads. By assessing three factors economics, trust and functionality organizations can maximize their cost savings and business agility gained through the use of private and public cloud resources. References EMC documentation VMware documentation The following documents, located on the EMC online support website, provide additional and relevant information. Access to these documents depends on your login credentials. If you do not have access to a document, contact your EMC representative: EMC Compute-as-a-Service EMC Symmetrix VMAX, EMC VNX Series, VMware vsphere, vcloud Director Understanding EMC Avamar with EMC Data Protection Advisor Applied Technology The following VMware documents, located on the VMware website, also provide useful information: Introduction to VMware View Manager VMware View Architecture Planning Guide VMware View Reference Architecture 13