Dawn renee Campbell

Another step in your NetVault: SmartDisk (NVSD) Deployment Strategy is choosing where you want to deploy your NVSD Instance(s). Whether the NVSD Instance will be enabled for deduplication will dictate the available deployment options.

NetVault: SmartDisk Non-deduplicated Instance Deployment Options

NVSD Instances which have deduplication disabled can be deployed on the NetVault: Backup (NVBU) Server, a NetVault: Backup Heterogeneous Client, or a dedicated server and can accept data streams from heterogeneous platforms. When multiple NVSD Instances are deployed, Storage Pools and processes are not shared across the multiple NVSD Instances. However, multiple NVSD Instances cannot be deployed on the same machine whether it is a NVBU Server, NVBU Client, or a dedicated NVSD Server.

Following are several deployment options that are possible when deploying NVSD Non-deduplicated Instances and should not be considered exhaustive. You can also check out the graphics at the bottom of this post, depicting the different deployment options.

NetVault: SmartDisk Non-deduplicated Instance Deployed on Single NetVault: Backup Server

In the simplest deployment, when only one (1) NVSD Non-deduplicated Instance is required for a NVBU Domain with a single NVBU Server, the NVSD Instance is deployed on the single NVBU Server utilizing file system paths accessible by the NVBU Server for the NVSD Storage Pools. The single NVBU Server’s Clients that target backups to NVSD will stream backup data on a user-defined port to the NVSD Instance where the backup is stored in the NetVault: SmartDisk Storage Pools.

NetVault: SmartDisk Non-Deduplicated Instance Deployed in Multiple NetVault: Backup Server Environment

In NVBU environments where only one (1) NVSD Instance is required for a NVBU Domain with multiple NVBU Servers, a single NVSD Instance can accept data streams from multiple NVBU Servers. In the example below where a single NVSD Instance is deployed for multiple NVBU Servers, the NVBU Clients from both NVBU Servers will stream backup data on a user-defined port to the NVSD Instance that is deployed on one of the NVBU Servers.

In NVBU environments where multiple NVSD Instances are required for a NVBU Domain with multiple NVBU Servers, one (1) NVSD Instance can be deployed on each of the NVBU Server, one (1) NVSD Instance can be deployed on the NVBU Server and one or more NVBU Clients. In the example below two (2) NVSD Instances are required and there are two (2) NVBU Servers, a single NVSD Instance will be deployed on each of the NVBU Servers. The NVBU Clients from both NVBU Servers can stream backup data on a user-defined port to either NVSD Instance that is deployed.

NetVault: SmartDisk Non-Deduplicated Instance Deployed on Dedicated Server

In NVBU environments where only one (1) NVSD Instance is required for a NVBU Domain with one or multiple NVBU Servers and it is desired to have the backups across all the NVSD Instances stored together, a single NVSD Instance can be deployed on a dedicated server which has no NetVault: Backup Server or Client software installed. In the example below data from all the NVBU Clients will stream backup data on a user-defined port to the single NVSD Instance that is deployed on the dedicated server.

NetVault: SmartDisk Deduplicated Instance Deployment Options

In NVBU environments where only one (1) NVSD Instance is required for a NVBU Domain with one or multiple NVBU Servers and it is desired to have the backups across all the NVSD Instances deduplicated together, a single NVSD Instance should be deployed on a dedicated server which has no NetVault: Backup Server or Client software installed. In the example below data from all the NVBU Clients will stream backup data on a user-defined port to the single NVSD Instance that is deployed on the dedicated server.

In NVBU environments where multiple NVSD Instances are required for a NVBU Domain it is possible to deploy each NVSD Instance on its own dedicated server. In the example below two (2) NVSD Instances are required and there are deployed on two (2) dedicated NVSD Servers. The NVBU Clients from both NVBU Servers can stream backup data on a user-defined port to either NVSD Instance that is deployed.

Dawn renee Campbell, Senior Product Manager for NetVault: SmartDisk & NetVault: Backup

After you have determined how much NetVault: SmartDisk (NVSD) capacity you need to license, the next step is calculating how much physical disk space you will need.

As we discovered in my Calculating NetVault: SmartDisk License Capacity blog, NVSD is licensed based on the Logical Capacity of the data that it can store. However, in Deduplicated NVSD Instances, Logical Capacity does not match Physical Capacity or physical disk space. This is because NVSD Deduplication Option packs up to 12 times more protected data into the same storage area for a 92% reduction in storage footprint.

Deduplicated NVSD Instances

A Deduplicated NVSD Instance can have a combination of both Deduplicated and Non-Deduplicated data. In this configuration, calculating the total Physical Capacity or physical disk space is comprised by calculating the Physical Capacity for the Deduplicated Backups followed by calculating the Physical Capacity for the Non-Deduplicated Backups and totaling the sums.

Deduplicated Backups

The Physical Capacity or physical disk space required for Deduplicated Backups in Deduplicated NVSD Instances is equal to the Size of Weekly Full Backups + Unique Data Size and is calculated using the following formula:

(Size of Weekly Full Backups) +

Size of Weekly Full Backups + ((Size of Weekly Full Backups * Weekly Change Rate)

* Weekly Full Backup Retention Period)

+ (Size of Daily Backups * (Number of Daily Backups between Weekly Full Backups

* Daily Backup Retention Period))

Non-Deduplicated Backups

The Physical Capacity or physical disk space required for Non-Deduplicated Backups in a Deduplicated NVSD Instance is calculated using the following formula:

(Size of Non-Deduplicated Weekly Full Backups * Weekly Full Backup Retention Rate)

+ (Size of Non-Deduplicated Daily Backups * (Number of Daily Backups between Full Backups * Daily Backup Retention Period in Weeks))

Total Required Disk Space = Deduplicated Backup Disk Space + Non-Deduplicated Backup Disk Space

The Total Required Disk Space is divided into the Staging Store and the Chunk Store. If different file systems or disk spindles are going to be utilized for the Staging Store and the Chunk Store, it is important to know how much of the Total Required Disk Space will be allocated to the Staging Store versus the Chunk Store. The calculations below can be used to make this determination.

Calculating Staging Store Size

The amount of time a Deduplicated Backup remains in the Staging Store is different than the amount of time a Non-Deduplicated Backup will remain in the Staging Store. Therefore, to determine the total disk space required for the Staging Store, the size required for both Deduplicated Backups and Non-Deduplicated Backups must be calculated and totaled.

Total Staging Store Disk Space = Deduplicated Backup Disk Space + Non-Deduplicated Backup Disk Space

Deduplicated Backups

During the NVSD Deduplicated Backup process, backups are initially streamed to the Staging Store where they remain until the deduplication process is completed. The Staging Store must be big enough to hold all the Deduplicated Backups while they are awaiting deduplication.

If the deduplication window overlaps the backup window, deduplication and backups will occur at the same time. Each backup will start deduplicating once the backup job is completed. Additionally, large backups will be broken into 400GB segments. Each segment will start to deduplicate once it is received even if the backup stream is still being streamed to the Staging Store. Therefore, the Staging Store only requires space to hold some portion of the total backup size. If the Staging Store runs out of space, backups will pause until space becomes available such as when a deduplication operation completes.

The maximum disk space required for the Staging Store is equal to the Size of the Weekly Full Backups.

Non-Deduplicated Backups

Backups that are not deduplicated are streamed into the Staging Store where they will remain until they are retired. Therefore, calculating the size of Staging Store for Non-Deduplicated Backups is identical to calculating the required physical disk space required for Non-Deduplicated Backups in a Deduplicated NVSD Instance.

(Size of Non-Deduplicated Weekly Full Backups * Weekly Full Backup Retention Rate)

+ (Size of Non-Deduplicated Daily Backups * (Number of Daily Backups between Full Backups * Daily Backup Retention Period in Weeks))

Calculating Chunk Store Size

The amount of physical disk space required for the Chunk Store is equal to the Unique Data Size. To calculate the Unique Data Size or the size of the Chunk Store, use the following formula:

Size of Weekly Full Backups + ((Size of Weekly Full Backups * Weekly Change Rate)

* Weekly Full Backup Retention Period)

+ (Size of Daily Backups * (Number of Daily Backups between Weekly Full Backups

* Daily Backup Retention Period))

Non-Deduplicated NVSD Instances

The Physical Capacity or physical disk space required for Non-Deduplicated NVSD Instances is equal to the Logical Capacity because deduplication has been disabled. The Non-Deduplicated NVSD Instance will consume the same amount of disk space for the Staging Store as Logical Capacity that is being licensed.

NVSD Sizing Calculator

Not only does the NetVault: SmartDisk Sizing Calculator let you simply calculate the NVSD Capacity you need to license, it will also tell you the estimated physical capacity. If you haven’t already obtained it, you can ask your BakBone Representative for the NVSD Sizing Calculator.

In my next NVSD blog, we will explore where to deploy your NVSD Instances.

Dawn renee Campbell

You have chosen which data you want to deduplicate with NetVault: SmartDisk (NVSD), and now you are tasked with calculating how much capacity to license.

NVSD is licensed based on the logical capacity (or total size) before deduplication of ALL backups that are stored in NVSD.

NVSD provides the ability to deploy multiple instances that can be targeted for backup from multiple NVBU Servers. When calculating the licensed capacity for NVSD, the capacity across all deployed NVSD instances must be included. For example, if two NVBU Servers are targeting backups to one or more NVSD instances, the capacity of the backups from both NVBU Servers must be included in the calculations.

Understand that NVSD licensed capacity is NOT based upon any of the following:

• Actual size of the storage pool, staging store, or chunk store
• Actual size of the backups after deduplication

Calculating NVSD capacity requires the collection of the following values for each NVBU Server that will target backups to NVSD. When inserting these values into the calculations, be sure to include the sum of the values across ALL the NVBU Servers that will target backups to NVSD. For example, if NVBU Server 1’s size of weekly backups is 40GB and NVBU Server 2’s is 60GB, use 100GB as the size of the weekly full backups.

If separate NVSD instances for non-deduplicated and deduplicated data will be used, perform the calculations below separately for the backups that will not be deduplicated versus the backups that will be deduplicated. This will enable you to know exactly how much NVSD non-deduplicated capacity needs to be licensed and how much capacity needs to be licensed for the NVSD deduplication option.

If a single NVSD instance will be used for both non-deduplicated and deduplicated data, include both the values for non-deduplicated and deduplicated data in the single calculation.

Size of Weekly Full Backups

Size of all the full backups that will be targeted to NVSD. For example, if  SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle and File System backups will be targeted for NVSD, calculate the total size of ALL the full backups for SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle and File System.

Weekly Full Backup Growth Rate

Average weekly growth rate of the full backups, which are included in the size of weekly full backup calculation. Weekly full backup growth rate is a critical factor in accurately determining NVSD sizing. For example, the average of all of the full backups is growing 10% each week. Another convenient method to calculate this is to base it on annual data growth.  For example, an annual growth rate of 100%, or an annual doubling of data, would represent a weekly growth rate of 1.333%.

Weekly Full Backup Retention Period in Weeks

Number of weeks that full backups will be retained in NVSD. Restores are faster when being performed from disk-based media than when being performed from tape-based media. Increasing the amount of protected data that is available on disk-based media increases the number of restore scenarios that can be performed from disk-based media.  Requiring tapes to be located, retrieved and loaded in order to perform a restore slows down the restore speed and increases downtime.

Additionally when performing deduplication, the longer the data is retained in NVSD, the better the deduplication ratios will be because more duplicate chunks are found, thereby enabling the ability to pack more data into the same storage footprint. This enables even more protected data to be available via disk-based media.

To obtain the most ideal deduplication ratios, we recommend a retention period of 12 weeks or more.

Size of Daily Backups

Size of all the daily backups that will be targeted to NVSD.  For example, if SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle and File System backups will be targeted for NVSD, calculate the total size of ALL the daily backups for SQL Server, Exchange, Oracle and File System.

Daily backups are interim backups between the weekly full backups. These are anticipated to be incremental or differential backups, and as such, will generally be much smaller than the weekly full backups.

Daily Backup Growth Rate

Average daily growth rate of the daily backups that are included in the size of daily backups.  For example, the average of all the daily backups is growing 1% each week.

Number of Daily Backups between Full Backups

Number of daily backups that are performed between full backups. For example, if full backups are performed on Sunday and daily backups are performed each day, Monday thru Saturday, the number of daily backups would be six.

Daily Backup Retention Period in Weeks

Number of weeks that daily backups will be retained in NVSD. Daily Backups provide the ability to perform fixed-point-in-time restores, thereby reducing the recovery time objective. Daily backups can be retained for the same period of time as full backups, which enables fixed-point-in-time restores for the entire weekly full backup retention period.  Fixed-point-in-time restores are typically performed using backups taken within the last four weeks. As such, it is possible to retain weekly full backups for one retention period and daily backups for a shorter retention period. This would allow you access to daily backups for a set period of time, such as four weeks, while providing you with access to full backups to a longer period of time, such as 12 weeks.

NVSD Sizing Calculator

With the NetVault: SmartDisk Sizing Calculator, you simply enter all the above values.  It will calculate not only the amount of NVSD capacity to license but also tell you the number of NVSD instances and the amount of memory for each NVSD instance. The NVSD Sizing Calculator can be obtained from your BakBone representative.

In my next NVSD blog, we will learn how to calculate how much physical capacity is required.

Dawn renee Campbell

You have selected the encryption algorithm you are going to use with the NetVault: Backup (NVBU) Encryption Plugin and have decided whether to encrypt your primary or secondary backups, but now you are not sure if you should encrypt all of your backups or use NVBU 8.5’s new job-level encryption feature.  

Prior to NVBU 8.5, your only option was to encrypt all the backups for the NVBU Server or a Heterogeneous Client where the NVBU Encryption Plugin is installed, but NVBU 8.5 gives you the ability to only enable encryption for specific jobs.  Understanding the benefits of both options will help you choose the best strategy for your environment.  

Encrypt all Backups  

The NVBU Server or Heterogeneous Client should only be configured to encrypt all its backups when  

• All the NVBU Plugins installed on the NVBU Server or Heterogeneous Client are compatible with the Encryption Plugin
• All backups from the NVBU Server or Heterogeneous Client require encryption
• Primary and secondary backups require encryption
• Backups will be targeted to NetVault: SmartDisk (NVSD) devices for deduplication

For a list of NVBU Plugins that are not compatible with the Encryption Plugin, refer to the NetVault: Backup Encryption Plugin Release Notes.  

Job-Level Encryption  

Job-level encryption for primary backups is beneficial when  

• Not all the NVBU Plugins installed on the NVBU Server or Heterogeneous Client are compatible with the NVBU Encryption Plugin
• Not all backups from the same NVBU Server or Heterogeneous Client require encryption
• Primary backups do not require encryption while secondary backups for offsite protection do require encryption
• Primary backups are targeted to NVSD devices for deduplication