Dedupe Gets Smarter in New DXi7500 Release
While storage system vendors initially promoted the importance of deduplication to reduce disk capacities, more recent product releases show that their understanding of the value of deduplication is evolving to help address a broader set of data protection concerns that face IT departments in distributed environments. Yesterday's launch of version 1.1 of the Quantum DXi7500 provides a great example of this.
In this 1.1 release of the DXi7500, 1 TB SATA disk drives are now standard, increasing the DXi7500's capacity by 22% on a per shelf basis. However 1 TB drives also increase the risk of data loss should not one but two drives fail before the rebuild of a first failed drive completes. Quantum appropriately incorporates RAID 6 technology into this release of the DXi7500 to provide dual parity and protection against data loss in the event a second disk drive fails during a rebuild. Each shelf has 16 drives with two RAID 6 sets (6+2 and 5+2) plus a global hot spare that is available for use by either of the RAID 6 sets on that shelf.
But probably of more interest is how Quantum is improving its software in this release. Here are the software features that specifically caught our eyes:
But maybe what this release of the DXi7500 most aptly demonstrates is that for users to get the full value from deduplicating disk libraries is that they need to look beyond the feature of deduplication. Deduplicating backup data is now only a starting point. New features that focus on management--of multiple units, of replication, of tape creation, etc--and better integration with backup applications--including specialized apps like RMAN--are increasingly vital for deduplication to take its place in a multi-site, multi-tier data protection environment.
In this 1.1 release of the DXi7500, 1 TB SATA disk drives are now standard, increasing the DXi7500's capacity by 22% on a per shelf basis. However 1 TB drives also increase the risk of data loss should not one but two drives fail before the rebuild of a first failed drive completes. Quantum appropriately incorporates RAID 6 technology into this release of the DXi7500 to provide dual parity and protection against data loss in the event a second disk drive fails during a rebuild. Each shelf has 16 drives with two RAID 6 sets (6+2 and 5+2) plus a global hot spare that is available for use by either of the RAID 6 sets on that shelf.
But probably of more interest is how Quantum is improving its software in this release. Here are the software features that specifically caught our eyes:
- Replication at the cartridge/file/directory level. As systems, and backup jobs, increase in size, it can make sense to give people access to replicated data without having to wait for the entire backup and replication job to finish. In this release, Quantum provides granular control over the replication process so as individual virtual cartridges, files and directories are deduplicated at the source, they can be replicated and available for restore on the target. This allows restores of the backup data to occur at the secondary site even while the backup job continues at the primary.
- Advanced support for Symantec NetBackup OpenStorage API (OST). Quantum has signed on as a supporter of Symantec's OST program since Symantec announced it over 2 years ago but with 1.1, Quantum delivers products to bring that support to end users. The DXi7500 platform's OST option means that users of NetBackup can now directly track replicated backup data on DXi7500 systems in multiple locations. This specifically comes into play for organizations that are replicating backup data between DXi7500s in different locations so they can manage independent retention policies for the primary and secondard sites through their NetBackup Media Server.You can read more about Quantum's support of Symantec's NetBackup OpenStorage API in a recent blog on Symantec's website.
- Optimized RMAN support. At a high level, what makes this feature so interesting is that for those environments that protect Oracle database, it can improve data reduction ratios for Oracle backups by significant amounts, as much 3 - 4X are reported in early deployments. This is a feature that DCIG views as an important development and plans to do a deeper dive into in an upcoming blog.
- Expands support for application managed tape creation. Using the NDMP protocol, the DXi can automatically copy backup data from disk to tape for long-term storage and keep the backup application appraised of this secondary copy of tape. While Quantum has supported this feature in conjunction with Symantec NetBackup, Quantum has now extended support to EMC NetWorker which has recently added a direct NDMP path-to-tape option in the latest NetWorker release. The quick support for the new NetWorker feature suggests close cooperation between Quantum and EMC.
But maybe what this release of the DXi7500 most aptly demonstrates is that for users to get the full value from deduplicating disk libraries is that they need to look beyond the feature of deduplication. Deduplicating backup data is now only a starting point. New features that focus on management--of multiple units, of replication, of tape creation, etc--and better integration with backup applications--including specialized apps like RMAN--are increasingly vital for deduplication to take its place in a multi-site, multi-tier data protection environment.
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