Common Data Protection Deployments

SteelHead™ Deployment Guide : Data Protection Deployments : Common Data Protection Deployments

This section describes common data protection deployments. This section includes the following topics:

Remote Office, Branch Office Backups

The remote office, branch office (ROBO) data protection deployment is characterized by one or more small branch office locations, each of which backs up file data from one or more file servers, PCs, and laptops to a central data center. Common applications include Veritas NetBackup, EMC Legato, CommVault Simpana, Sun StorageTek, and backups performed over standard protocols like CIFS and FTP.

In these deployments, WAN links are relatively small, commonly ranging from 512 Kbps on the low end to 10 Mbps on the high end. Also distinct from data center-to-data center replication scenarios where dedicated SteelHeads are typically used exclusively for replication, ROBO backup procedures commonly use the same branch office SteelHeads that are used to accelerate other applications, like CIFS and MAPI. For both of these reasons, ROBO backups commonly require relatively larger levels of WAN bandwidth reduction.

In the Performance page (Figure 18‑2), enter the initial configuration of the peer SteelHeads as follows:

Set the Adaptive Streamlining mode to Default - Due to limited WAN bandwidth in these deployments, it is important to maximize WAN data reduction. The default setting uses disk-based SDR to provide maximum data reduction. File backup workloads typically result in sequential disk access, which works well for disk-based SDR.

Set the Compression Level to 6 - Start with aggressive compression to minimize WAN bandwidth.

Enable Multicore balancing - This option allows the SteelHead to use all CPU cores even when there are a small number of connections. Small connection counts can occur if backups are performed nightly, when little to no additional traffic is generated.

Network Attached Storage Replication

Network attached storage (NAS) data protection deployment sends primary file data over the WAN to online replicas. Common applications include NetApp SnapMirror, EMC VNX Replicator, and VNX Celerra Replicator.

For information about EMC qualification matrix for Riverbed Technology, see the Riverbed Knowledge Base article Deploying SteelHeads with EMC Storage, at https://supportkb.riverbed.com/support/index?page=content&id=s13363.

In NAS replication deployments, WAN links are typically large, ranging from T3 (45 Mbps) to OC-48 (2.5 GB). Often NAS replication solutions require dedicated links used exclusively by the NAS replication solution.

As a best practice for high-speed NAS replication solutions, use SteelHeads that are dedicated to only optimizing high-speed NAS replication workloads, and that do not optimize large amounts of general application or end-user traffic. This benefits you for the following reasons:

Increase both the level and predictability of performance delivered by SteelHeads, leading to consistent delivery of recovery point and time objectives (RPO/RTO).

With separate SteelHeads, the large data sets commonly associated with high-speed replication do not compete for SteelHead data store resources with other user-based traffic, and the reverse.

You can optimally tune separate SteelHeads for their respective workloads.

Disable any data compression applied on the storage device so that data enters the SteelHead in its raw form. Disabling data compression enables the SteelHead to perform additional bandwidth reduction using SDR.

In the Performance page (Figure 18‑2), enter the initial configuration of the peer SteelHeads as follows:

Set the Compression Level to 1 - Higher compression levels produce additional gains in WAN-side bandwidth reduction, but often at a large cost to the CPU resources, which ultimately throttles LAN-side throughput.

Enable Multicore Balancing - Often there are a small number of connections made between storage devices. This option enables the optimization services to balance their processing across all CPU cores.

Enable MX-TCP or HS-TCP - If there is a dedicated WAN-link for the NAS replication traffic or if you know how much bandwidth on a shared link can be allocated to the data transfer, create an MX-TCP class covering the data traffic. If not, enable HS-TCP. If HS-TCP is enabled, increase the router queue length to the BDP. Configure MX-TCP on the QoS Classification page.

Set the SteelHead WAN buffers to 2 x BDP. This option allows the SteelHeads to buffer enough data to continue accepting data from the LAN—even in cases of WAN packet loss.

In cases where WAN links exhibit high-packet loss, you might need to increase the SteelHead WAN buffers higher than 2 x the BDP for optimal throughput.

Storage Area Network Replication

Storage area network (SAN) data protection deployment includes SAN replication products such as EMC Symmetrix Remote Data Facility/Asynchronous (SRDF/A), IBM Global MirrorIBM Global Mirror, and Hitachi Universal Replicator, including full and incremental backups of databases like Oracle and Exchange.

For more information about SAN replications, the chapter on Storage Area Network Replication.