Using the Spectra BlueScale Web Interface, we monitored the operational status, configured the IP address, and prepared disks for maintenance on the nTier v80. The nTier appliance supports the robotic emulation of a wide range of physical tape libraries and tape drive options. On the nTier v80, we configured three VTLs to support three distinct test scenarios: a virtual Spectra T50e to test automatic data caching, a virtual StorageTek L180 to test deduplication of backup images of typical Windows-based files, and a virtual Spectra T200 to test deduplication of VM backup images. To provide our virtual operating environment with a hierarchical storage infrastructure for backup, we set up a Spectra nTier v80 appliance and a T50e physical tape library provisioned with two LTO-4 drives with 4Gbps Fibre Channel connections. Each VM was configured as an application server running SQL Server and IIS. On the second server, we used VMware ESX 4.0 to host eight VMs running Windows Server 2003. On one server we installed VMware vSphere, VMware Consolidated Backup (VCB), and Symantec’s NetBackup (NBU) 3.5.4 software. To gain perspective on the ability of the Spectra nTier Deduplication appliance to simplify data protection processes, openBench Labs set up a data protection test scenario for a VMware vSphere4 environment using two Dell PowerEdge 1900 servers. By providing a consolidated hierarchy of resources, an nTier Deduplication appliance simplifies the use of automated policy–based management systems, helps lower labor costs for backup and disaster recovery operations, and eases the burden on IT to meet SLAs for increased backup reliability and enhanced data security. With its preconfigured RAID-6 Fibre Channel disk arrays, simplified thin provisioning of VTL cartridge storage, and automated configuration of data deduplication requirements, the Spectra Logic nTier Deduplication appliance simplifies IT management tasks and leaves only the task of resolving site-specific policy issues. This is particularly important as IT is increasingly under pressure to meet regulatory compliance mandates that define rigorous levels of data security. In so doing, IT garners all the advantages of a sophisticated D2D backup process scheme, while at the same time VLT and physical library synchronization maintains all of the traditional data security that off-site tape storage and hardware-based tape encryption provides. And IT administrators are able to upgrade an existing physical tape library virtually just by adjusting the configuration of the surrogate VTL. In this way, the nTier appliance is able to access a physical tape library and expose a surrogate VTL to all data protection applications running at a site. Through storage virtualization software, an nTier Deduplication appliance has the ability to be both a target and an initiator on a SAN, which allows a VTL on the appliance to assume the cartridge inventory of a physical library by synchronizing both the barcodes and the tape headers of cartridges in the physical library. Using an nTier appliance, storage administrators are able to leverage post-process data deduplication in cost containment strategies that can be applied in complex virtual server environments. Spectra Logic’s nTier appliances provide scalable data protection processes for physical and virtual clients that address many IT needs for optimized backup processes. That interest has been tempered, however, by the equally pressing need to optimize the utilization of storage resources. In particular, attention has been focused on the ease and simplification of recovery processes. The growing complexity of IT environments and the new focus on defining and meeting service level agreements (SLAs) for the support of critical business processing has accelerated interest in disk-to-disk (D2D) backup.
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