ExaGrid Supports Optimized Synthetic Backups with Symantec NetBackup

Backup administrators use a variety of methodologies and technologies when backing up data.  Combining traditional synthetic backups with appliances that are capable of optimizing them gives backup administrators a powerful weapon in their battle to keep ahead of ever-expanding data protection needs.

ExaGrid was recently named the first third-party deduplication appliance to be certified by Symantec for Optimized Synthetic Backups with NetBackup. Optimized Synthetics use metadata to create a roadmap for recovering a full backup without actually doing the data movement to rebuild the full. ExaGrid’s support for optimized synthetic backups was built under the Symantec OpenStorage API integration (OST). Let’s take a look at the benefits of this integrated solution.

Traditional Synthetic Backups

Synthetic backups have been around for a while. They “stitch together” a full backup with all its subsequent incremental backups to “synthesize” a full backup. However, this operation represents a lot of data movement and backup application and hardware bandwidth consumption.

Optimized Synthetic Backups

Optimized synthetic full backups take a different approach to the problem. They eliminate that bandwidth and server load penalty by synthesizing a new “full” from a previous (“real”) full and a series of previously-done differential incremental backups. Symantec OpenStorage technology enables ExaGrid’s disk backup with deduplication system to achieve the high level of integration with NetBackup needed to create optimized synthetic backups. The benefits to this approach are as follows:

• Reduced backup windows from elimination of full backups
• Reduced backup application load
• Improved RTOs and RPOs
• Reduced replication bandwidth

Optimized synthetic cumulative incremental backups allow a low-cost cumulative incremental backup to be synthesized from a series of previously-done differential incremental backups.  The optimization provided by the manipulation of metadata alone allows backup administrators to drastically reduce the frequency of those time and resource-costly full backups. Instead, they can perform many days of fast, resource-friendly differential incremental backups plus a fast, resource-friendly daily optimized synthetic full backup. This concept is illustrated below: 

As this figure illustrates, the optimized synthetic full is the accumulation of all the metadata from the Day 1 full backup plus Day 2-5 differential incremental backups (just the changes). 

The various pieces of protected data are tracked via metadata, and these are used to optimize the construction of the synthetic full (or the cumulative incremental).  No data is moved when constructing the synthetic full, since it is already safely stored on the advanced disk-based backup appliance. Only the references to the actual data are manipulated. Full recovery from that optimized synthetic full backup leverages the metadata references to bring back only the data required.


To learn more about ExaGrid's support for Optimized Synthetic Backups with NetBackup, download our free whitepaper "Exploiting Metadata to Optimize Synthetic Backups."

It’s that time of year when the lists come out, and the data storage industry is no different. Over at the Storage Switzerland blog, George Crump and Erick Slack, Senior Analysts for Storage Switzerland, have created a list of top data storage companies to watch in 2012.  We are very pleased that ExaGrid was named as one of the top data storage companies by these respected storage industry analysts.

According to Crump and Slack, “The purpose-built backup appliance (PBBA) market has certainly come into its own over the past few years. During that time ExaGrid has established itself as a leader, especially in the mid-range market where it focuses. ExaGrid uses a scale-out architecture to allow midrange customers to start small and grow their investment as needed instead of having to do a fork-lift upgrade.”

They continued, “In 2012 look for ExaGrid to continue maturing its product with tighter integration with software applications like those from Symantec and Veeam. They should also be able to take advantage of processor improvements and disk capacity improvements to be able to scale into the higher end of the PBBA market. Look for 2012 to end with only three serious PBBA vendors instead of the dozen that we have today. I expect ExaGrid to be one of those three.”

Thank you Storage Switzerland for the top data storage companies in 2012 nod! For more information about ExaGrid, please visit our Resource Center.

Growing Number of Companies with Broken Backups Choose ExaGrid Over Data Domain

ExaGrid vs. Data Domain deduplication… which one should you choose for your broken backups? Maybe I’m biased, but, ExaGrid is the only disk backup with deduplication solution purpose-built for backup that offers a GRID architecture that expands capacity seamlessly and increases performance exponentially as data grows. ExaGrid eliminates the scalability problems associated with competitive systems that use a fixed controller architecture which expands backup storage capacity--but not performance--by adding just disk shelves as data grows, until backup windows explode to an unacceptable level, then requiring a forklift upgrade.
 
Volkswagen Credit is a great example of a company that looked carefully at both ExaGrid and other competing solutions. They found that ExaGrid was a superior disk backup solution. After testing solutions from ExaGrid vs. Data Domain deduplication side-by-side, Volkswagen Credit selected ExaGrid based on its post-process deduplication, scalable GRID architecture, overall ease-of-use and superior price/performance.

Volkswagen Credit found as much as a 75 percent improvement in its backup speeds and restores which are described as “lightning fast.” As a result of this success, the company has installed ExaGrid appliances at five North American locations with plans to install ExaGrid at additional sites in the future.

Now that it's 2012, are you looking to eliminate broken backups and scalability problems like Volkswagen Credit? Click here for a comparison of ExaGrid vs. Data Domain deduplication and other disk backup appliances. 

Recently, ExaGrid was awarded Ready for IBM Tivoli Storage Manager certification. In order to achieve this IBM Tivoli certification, TSM testing teams have validated that ExaGrid’s EX Series backup appliances are seamlessly integrated and fully compatible to work with the Tivoli storage management software. 

The achievement of Ready for IBM Tivoli certification shows IBM customers looking for a disk backup solution in their TSM environment and that the ExaGrid system meets or exceeds IBM compatibility criteria. ExaGrid is now included in the IBM Global Solutions Directory and the Integrated Service Management Library (ISM).

Earlier this quarter, ExaGrid announced support for IBM TSM. The combination of the popular backup application and ExaGrid’s disk backup with deduplication offers additional reduction of up to 10:1 in the amount of backup data beyond that offered by IBM TSM’s incremental forever methodology. ExaGrid’s support for IBM TSM significantly reduces customer’s dependence on tape and also allows IT users to free up expensive disk previously used for backup that can be used for primary storage. In addition, IBM TSM customers will benefit from ExaGrid’s GRID scalability to maintain the fastest backup performance over time as data grows with no costly forklift upgrades.

According to Marc Crespi, VP of product management for ExaGrid, “We are excited to have achieved Ready for Tivoli certification from IBM. Our approach brings unique value to TSM users in enabling them to manage backups more efficiently, reclaim expensive disk for primary storage and cost-effectively scale to support data growth. With this certification, we look forward to bringing ExaGrid’s award-winning disk backup with deduplication capabilities to IBM Tivoli Storage Manager customers.”

Click here to read more about ExaGrid’s support of TSM and our IBM Tivoli certification.

If you would like to learn how you can achieve cost savings in disk backup with deduplication, download our complimentary white paper now.

Here at ExaGrid, we always strive to deliver excellent backup performance to all our customers, and that was confirmed recently by independent analyst Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) in a lab report presenting the results of their hands-on testing of the EX13000E from earlier this year.  Highlights of the backup performance report include the following:

• The first backup was running 16 minutes after starting the configuration.
• The EX13000E achieved a sustained aggregate backup rate of 2.95 TB/hour, using Symantec OST running over a 10 GB Ethernet connection. Based on their results from adding a second EX13000E, ESG Lab said they were confident backup performance scaled linearly to 29 TB/hour for ten EX13000E appliances in a single grid.
• The tests found a deduplication ratio of 24:1.
• Adding a new backup appliance to an existing grid was straightforward.  ESG wrote, “Automatic spillover and migration provides the flexibility needed to grow, maintain and tune a growing pool of virtualized capacity. Taken together with the space savings provided by deduplication, the scalability of a singly managed ExaGrid system reduces the cost and complexity of managing growing disk-based backup requirements.”

ESG closes the report by saying, “ESG Lab believes that organizations struggling with the cost, complexity and risk associated with tape backups would be wise to consider the bottom line savings that can be achieved with ExaGrid: faster backups, quicker and more reliable restores, lower risk, lower expenses (capital and operational), and last, but not least, a greener solution with optimized power and cooling.”

Download our free whitepaper “Sorting Through the Confusion of 5 Alternative Approaches” to learn more about how you can achieve your backup performance IT goals.

Backup Academy Course on Hyper-V Backup Best Practices

The day has come! This is my final installment on viewing Veeam’s Backup Academy online courses in a series of eight posts on VMware backup solutions. I am looking forward to taking the exam soon to become a Backup Academy Certified Expert. This eighth training course is about “Best Practices for Hyper-V Backups.”  It’s presented by Greg Shields, MVP and Senior Partner at Concentrated Technology.

One new area that I learned about from this Hyper-V backup best practices course was that choosing what you want to backup and where you locate your backup agent is very important.  The backup agent can be on the host in the primary partition, inside the individual VMs or at the storage layer. Or, you might also choose to have a cluster aware agent at the cluster services layer.  These choices (WHAT and WHERE) affect the granularity of Hyper-V backups and amount of backup/restore effort that these different perspectives can deliver in the end.

Click here to learn more about cost-effective disk backup solutions for VMware environments.

Have any questions or feedback for me regarding this Backup Academy training course on Hyper-V backup best practices? Please feel free to comment below.

What can you do when your existing backup system needs to be replaced because it’s too old to keep alive, has reached its maximum capacity, retention is shrinking or your backup windows are growing? In the past, you had no choice but to swap a new backup system for the old one, a “forklift upgrade.” Here’s what RFI Communications & Security Systems did instead so that they could avoid a forklift upgrade.

RFI is a systems integrator for security and fire/life safety solutions. They had been backing up to a Data Domain box, but when it was time to expand the backup system, the only choice was a forklift upgrade because the system wasn’t scalable. As Frank Jennings, Network Administrator at RFI explained, “Our only option was to buy a whole new box... with our retention dwindling, we decided the time was right to begin looking at other solutions.”

RFI purchased an ExaGrid system to work with their existing backup application, Symantec Backup Exec. According to Jennings, “Unlike the Data Domain system, the ExaGrid will give us the ability to easily scale the system up as our data grows¼ it was more cost effective as well.”

Click here to read the rest of RFI’s story on how they were faced with a forklift upgrade, implemented an ExaGrid system for scalability, future growth and faster backups and restores.

Backup Academy Course on VMware Backup Best Practices

As I continue along my viewing of Veeam’s Backup Academy online courses, this is my seventh course out of a series of eight on VMware backup solutions. Only one more training course left! I am looking forward to taking the exam before the end of 2011 to become a Backup Academy Certified Expert. This seventh training course is on “Best Practices for VMware Backups.”  It’s presented by vExpert and Veeam Software Strategy Specialist, Rick Vanover.

One new area that I learned about from this course on VMware backup best practices was a discussion of how virtualization makes backups better by separating the source (shared storage or DAS where the VMs live) and target (backup repository) within the virtual machine backup strategy. It’s best to place as many domains of failure between these two environments as possible. There’s not much protection against a failure in the virtual environment if the VMFS volume is on the same storage resource as the backups of the VMs. Sometimes additional storage isn’t an option, though. One approach to take if full physical separation is not possible is to separate VMware backups and primary storage within drive trays on modular storage, like in the example below.

Click here to learn more about cost-effective disk backup solutions for VMware environments.

Have any questions or feedback for me regarding this Backup Academy training course on VMware backup best practices? Please feel free to comment below.

Who is Considered an Info-Tech Disk Backup Solutions Champion?

Info-Tech is ranked as the leading research firm in the IT & Telecom Research, Reports and Services market. They recently evaluated six competitors in the disk backup solutions market, including Data Domain, Dell, FalconStor, HP, Quantum and ExaGrid. ExaGrid once again was rated as a disk backup solutions “Champion” in the “Leading Vendor” category in the latest version of their report on “Vendor Landscape: Disk Backup.” According to this report, champions are vendors that “…offer excellent value. They have a strong market presence and are usually the trend setters for the industry.”

According to the report, “ExaGrid is a champion in disk backup due to the combination of its architecture and business strategy. The youngest company in the landscape, ExaGrid has differentiated itself with a unique product offering that brings a scalable storage node clustering (or grid) approach to the backup tier.” Info-Tech also noted that, “ExaGrid has differentiated itself through easy non-disruptive scalability and cost-effective options.”

Click here to download a copy of the full Info-Tech Research Group’s disk backup solutions vendor landscape report.

Switzerland is lovely this time of year! Speaking of Switzerland, I have long been an avid reader of Storage Switzerland.  I especially find George Crump’s articles to be not only informative but written in an engaging manner.  The most recent example of this is his piece entitled, How to Judge Purpose Built Backup Appliance Performance. I could not agree more with the premise of this document and the points he makes.

I think his key point is that backup appliance performance needs to be viewed through an architectural lens, not just as numbers on a data sheet.  As each vendor rushes to get their best number out as a headline, we do a disservice to customers who are just trying to understand how well a system will perform in their actual environment.

At ExaGrid, because our architecture is unique in the marketplace, we often find ourselves subject to misleading comparisons from other vendors, who mostly share the same type of architecture.  As George rightfully points out:  “Vendors usually don’t take into account architectural differences between products that are integral to how backup appliance performance is delivered.   This makes getting to the point of an apples-to-apples comparison especially challenging with PBBA.”

Backup Appliance Performance Comparison

The key confusion points come from trying to compare monolithic controller-based architectures, like those of EMC, Quantum and HP to the second generation GRID-based architecture offered by ExaGrid.  In the controller-based architectures, overall performance is provided by the single controller in a stack.  Expansion occurs by adding a finite number of disk shelves to the controller.  Each disk shelf added brings only capacity (i.e. workload) but no additional resources to increase backup appliance performance.  The result is a growth in backup window as data grows and the eventual fork-lift upgrade when a controller hits its maximum capacity.

ExaGrid’s GRID architecture is very different.  Each node is a full storage server.  As such, it includes process, memory, network ports and capacity.  As expansion occurs, full nodes are added, maintaining linear performance and avoiding costly fork-lift upgrades. The diagram below illustrates these key differences.

So, how do these differences influence backup appliance performance comparisons?  Typically, the performance numbers for the controller architectures reflect the full capability of those controllers, regardless of price or how much capacity is initially involved. And, the performance number does not change as capacity is added to the system.  So, a controller that can do 4 TB/hour will still perform at 4 TB/hour even after its disk capacity is doubled.

However, ExaGrid typically quotes a per-node performance number in our data sheets along with our GRID configurations. GRID configuration performance is a multiple of the per node performance.  For example our EX13000E (node that would manage a 13 TB full backup) is capable of 2.4 TB/hour of ingest.  But, our EX130-GRID (which is 10 EX13000Es in a single functioning system) is capable of 24 TB/hour of ingest.  Meanwhile, the vendors with controller-based architectures will incorrectly claim that "ExaGrid’s fastest product" is 2.4 TB/hour.  Let’s do a specific example. 

Not to pick on EMC but let’s use a DD860 as a comparison point.  The top stated performance number (with Boost) for the 860 is 9.8 TB/hour.  The DD860 can handle around a 120 to 130 TB full backup.  In most instances, EMC would compare that to a single EX13000E from ExaGrid and say “Look, we are 4 times as fast as their 2.4 TB/hour.”  The missing part of the statement is that whereas the DD860 is built to handle up to 130 TB full backup, each EX13000E only manages up to a 13 TB full backup.  It handles 1/10th the data while bearing 1/4th the ingest rate!  A rightful comparison is between a DD860 and an EX130-GRID—both systems can handle a 130 TB full backup.  In this case, the EX130-GRID is capable of 24 TB/hour of ingest.  This is more than twice the backup appliance performance of the DD860. But only by factoring in the architectural differences can you get to an actual comparison.

The following table delivers a full set of example comparisons that should help folks sort this out.

For more information on backup appliance performance and architectural differences, check out our 5 Keys to Disk Backup Scalability whitepaper.