CommVault Simpana 9 - Virtual Server Lab Validation

January 2012

Russ Fellows

Evaluator Group

CommVault Simpana 9 Virtual Server -‐ Lab Validation

Evaluator Group Eval-Series™

Storage Software Test Analysis

January, 2012

Test Validation – CommVault Simpana 9 Evaluator Group – Evaluation Report

© 2012 Evaluator Group, Inc., - All information Copyrighted (303) 221-7867 • www.evaluatorgroup.com

Table of Contents Executive Summary ............................................................................................................................................................... 1 Data Protection Challenges ................................................................................................................................................... 2 Overview of Evaluation .......................................................................................................................................................... 2 Test Objectives ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Evaluation Findings ................................................................................................................................................................ 4

Virtual System Restore Options ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Virtual Server Backup Options ........................................................................................................................................... 4

VSA SnapProtect Backup and Restore ........................................................................................................................... 6 VMware VADP Data Protection ..................................................................................................................................... 7 VMware Discovery and Protection ................................................................................................................................ 7

Flexible Restoration Options .............................................................................................................................................. 9 Granular Restore ............................................................................................................................................................ 9 Live Browse Restore ..................................................................................................................................................... 10

Evaluation Summary ............................................................................................................................................................ 11 Appendix A -‐ Test Scenarios ................................................................................................................................................. 12

VSA Backups ................................................................................................................................................................. 12 SnapProtect Backups ................................................................................................................................................... 12

Appendix B -‐ Test Configurations ........................................................................................................................................ 14 Data Protection Software ............................................................................................................................................ 14 Hardware ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Server OS ..................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Hypervisor – Virtualization .......................................................................................................................................... 14 Test Application ........................................................................................................................................................... 14

Appendix C – Configuration Diagrams ................................................................................................................................. 15



January, 2012 Page 1 of 15



Executive Summary Evaluator Group assessed CommVault’s Simpana 9 software in December 2011. There were several areas of focus during the testing, which included qualitative factors, along with certain quantitative testing.

The test objectives were to 1) Validate new Simpana 9 software data protection and recovery scenarios for virtual environments, 2) Assess the capabilities of Simpana SnapProtect, 3) Test recovery options for backup admins, hypervisor admins and end users, and 4) Evaluate the restoration options, particularly for virtual servers.

The primary focus was to create data protection points for virtual systems, and restore data to those systems acting as a backup administrator, virtual server administrator and as an end user. Other activities related to this focus were also evaluated. The full features and capabilities of Simpana 9 were not evaluated, due to the numerous potential test and configuration scenarios required to test all of its features.

Virtual server testing included backing up data to multiple disk and tape targets, utilizing multiple methods including integration with storage system and hypervisor snapshot tools. Restoration of protected data was similarly tested using a variety of hypervisor, array and backup application tools.

Evaluator Group Comments: Evaluator Group found that CommVault Simpana 9 software provides a wide variety of data protection, restoration and data preservation options. Recently enhanced integration with virtual servers enables rapid creation of data protection points, without impacting production systems. These protection points may then be copied to additional media and retained as long as the business needs require.

Testing showed that CommVault was able to manage multiple data protection methods and schedule jobs with complete flexibility. The types of policies administrators can create are limited only by the number and types of storage tiers and device capabilities available. This flexibility allows administrators to precisely match retention and recovery metrics to business recovery point and recovery time objectives (RPO and RTO).

Simpana 9 was able to establish data protection policies to match business and regulatory requirements. With established policies in place, applying and activating data protection for newly added servers and storage was found to be logical and could be accomplished in a matter of minutes. Overall CommVault’s GUI was intuitive, with actions and activities well thought out, accompanied by use of context sensitive menu options throughout.

Finally, the number of data protection and restoration options for virtual servers available with Simpana 9 is substantial. CommVault can accommodate almost any situation encountered in enterprises, from small to large. Although more complex than entry level data protection, the interface is able to provide intuitive organization of capabilities, configurations and actions.






Data Protection Challenges Evaluator Group speaks with IT users from companies of all sizes across the world. The list of challenges continues to change; however, one item remains near the top of this list for all companies, data protection. Although new architectures, capabilities and applications present ongoing challenges for IT staff, the fact remains that a large portion of time and resources remain dedicated to protecting data. For many companies, data protection means copying data, often using an enterprise backup application. Increasingly, companies are leveraging disk-‐based protection features such as snapshots and replication to augment their data protection practices.

With the recent widespread adoption of server virtualization, traditional backup issues have been further complicated with another layer of software intelligence, adding to protection challenges. Early attempts to protect virtual systems often lead to server, network and storage contention. A consolidated backup approach per physical host was put forth as an alternative, which improved the situation only slightly. Most recently technologies such as change block tracking on a per virtual server instance have emerged, although contention and other issues still remain with these approaches.

To further complicate matters, storage system based protection tools have continued to improve and are now emerging as potential alternatives to traditional backup protection tools and technologies. These solutions present their own set of challenges, with a different set of benefits and problems.

Evaluator Group Comments: The promise of disk-‐based protection technologies such as snapshots, clones and replication has been to provide data protection with less impact to production systems, in far less time. The benefit of nearly instantaneous access to data for restoration is appealing, but managing these protection points heterogeneously for long periods of time has been difficult. These techniques limit retention mobility, longevity and require using a specific vendor’s products.

With these challenges in mind, Evaluator Group compared CommVault Simpana 9’s claims for virtual server data protection against the objectives of IT administrators. Specifically IT objectives for data protection are:

• Perform data protection rapidly, with little impact to production server, storage or networking • Enable retention of protection points on any media type, regardless of storage vendors disk or tape systems • Recover data rapidly, without requiring lengthy multi-‐tape recovery processes • Enhance protection and recovery options for virtualized OS environments over existing VADP methods • Permit protection and recovery of guest VM’s by hypervisor administrators • Provide a method for end-‐users to find and restore data that they own, without IT intervention

Overview of Evaluation CommVault requested Evaluator Group to validate their claims for Simpana 9 virtual server data protection capabilities and evaluate features within a series of typical use cases and scenarios. Testing of backup and restoration under several scenarios was performed, with the stated requirement of validating the features and overall usability of Simpana 9.

Evaluator Group used CommVault Simpana 9 software to backup and restore data, making indirect comparisons to other leading backup software based upon our experiences with those products. Direct, head-‐to-‐head testing was not






performed; however, Evaluator Group was able to characterize the comparative ease of using Simpana 9 while performing a variety of real-‐world uses.

Evaluator Group and CommVault technical personnel staffed the testing, with all activities under the direction of Evaluator Group. The testing was performed in both Evaluator Group’s labs and CommVault’s labs using CommVault supplied Simpana 9 software.

Test Objectives The objectives of testing were several fold. The primary consideration was to verify CommVault’s claims around advanced, flexible feature set for virtual server protection and recovery under various scenarios. A key focus area was the backup and restoration of data and applications in virtualized environments.

Testing was largely qualitative, that is measuring the relative effectiveness of the system under test. Quantitative testing, or measurements of backup performance and related activities was not a main focus of this validation effort. While deduplication was performed during testing, measuring dedupe ratio’s was not a primary objective.

Secondarily, the objective of Evaluator Group’s validation was to test Simpana 9 software’s capabilities to protect and recover virtual server data in several real-‐world scenarios. Situations included the backup and recovery of Exchange email servers, along with backup and protection of other common applications and file data all running with a virtual server context.

Virtual server data protection and recovery features were evaluated across multiple virtual platforms, including VMware, MS HyperV and Citrix XenServer. As the use of hypervisor’s and server virtualization grows, the importance of managing data protection within these environments becomes business critical.

Throughout testing, Evaluator Group focused on recovering data and the relative ease of the actions necessary for recovery. Backup applications are only as useful as the last restore job performed. Enterprise IT administrators understand that managing data protection creates IT jobs, but restoring data saves jobs.

The test environment was designed to emulate typical IT environments, utilizing multiple media servers along with dedicated SAN and IP networks for data movement. In several instances, high loads and multiple operations were tested in order to emulate real world use cases.

The objectives of the testing: • Validate new protection and recovery options available, notably SnapProtect • Run backup of virtual systems using SnapProtect with different hypervisors • Validate that SnapProtect enables fast protection creation with limited system impact • Explore recovery options, including granular file recovery and live browsing • Test recovery by alternative methods, including vCenter plug-‐in and end-‐user web browser

This report calls out areas of primary importance, including where the product functioned well, and notes any issues. For details on the test configuration, refer to Appendices B and C.






Evaluation Findings Data protection is a simple concept with a myriad of confusing and conflicting choices. While performing and monitoring backup operations is often a substantial portion of any IT staff’s duties, it is data restoration that provides opportunities to exceed businesses expectations. The number of data protection and restore options available with CommVault’s Simpana 9 software enables IT staff to match particular data protection and restoration choices to those optimized for each specific requirement.

Evaluator Group Comment: Evaluator Group has found that a growing majority of IT shops either have virtualization in place, or are planning to do so in the near future. Efficient protection of virtual systems continues to present challenges to IT operations. Simpana SnapProtect for VSA offers a protection method that provides the rapid protect and restore capabilities of disk snapshots, combined with the long-‐term retention and compliance features of backup sets for physical and virtual servers.

Protection and restoration of virtual systems has become an issue of primary concern for companies of nearly all sizes. Simpana 9 software’s VADP, VMware vCenter and MS System Center Manager integration provide multiple choices for data protection with virtual environments. The storage agnostic VSA feature enables better utilization of storage system snapshots as protection points.

Virtual System Restore Options Restoring virtual systems presents three options, with physical systems having two restore options:

• Container Restore – restores an entire “vmdk” or “vhd” thereby restoring an entire virtual machine • Restore a volume – restores a particular volume within a virtual machine • Individual files or folders – restores files within a virtual machine

Virtual Server Backup Options CommVault offers a number of data protection methods for virtualized environments. The Virtual Server Agent (VSA) supports VMware ESX, Microsoft Hyper-‐V and Citrix Xen Server. During evaluation, SnapProtect for VSA and VADP backups for virtual guests were used with several hypervisors.

For VMware and Microsoft Hyper-‐V, CommVault offers SnapProtect for Virtual Servers. SnapProtect is CommVault’s hardware snapshot protection and management capability. SnapProtect integrates with storage arrays to initiate, manage and backup storage snapshots.

For VMware, the VADP (VMware API for Data Protection) method is supported. VADP offers enhanced performance when protecting VMware guests, by enabling change block tracking for each guest. By utilizing this method, only changed data is backed up, which can significantly reduce the amount of data sent to backup servers. Traditional guest based backup methods are also supported for all hypervisors, along with VMware VCB for legacy ESX 3.x systems.

In VMware environments, VSA is implemented as physical server or as a VM guest running one on or more ESX hosts. In Hyper-‐V environments, the VSA function is implemented using Microsoft’s VSS feature.






CommVault’s Virtual Server Agent (VSA) data protection is able to utilize various underlying technologies in order to backup data most efficiently. Technologies utilized include:

• VADP (VMware API for Data Protection, with change block tracking) • VSA with SnapProtect with universal support across hypervisors for Windows or Linux guests

o Supported on VMware and Hyper-‐V o Support for both Windows or Linux guests on hypervisors

• VSS within MS Windows guests using CommVault agents • VSS for MS Applications (MS Exchange, SQL Server and SharePoint) using CommVault agents

All of the above listed SnapProtect for VSA methods tested, along with the VMware VADP data protection method.

A diagram of the concept for SnapProtect for Virtual Servers is shown below in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Simpana 9 -‐ SnapProtect for Virtual Servers






VSA SnapProtect Backup and Restore A new capability in Simpana 9 software is SnapProtect for Virtual Server Agent (VSA), which leverages the snapshot capabilities of storage systems.

Utilizing storage system snapshots as a point for data protection has been used for several years. However, the process typically requires custom scripting to quiesce systems, create snapshots, mount those snapshots and then perform backups from those snapshots. With Simpana software, VSA and SnapProtect, the manual and error-‐prone process of backing up snapshots can be eliminated, along with the custom scripts required.

When used with NetApp storage systems, Simpana SnapProtect for VSA provides an additional data protection capability to IT administrators. CommVault is able to index NetApp created snapshots to create a representation of each protection point as a CommVault backup set. Retention periods are not limited by capacity or other architectural limitations, nor are recovery capabilities tied to a specific storage system vendor. Each snapshot continues to utilize storage system resources, until they are moved to secondary or tertiary storage tiers for longer term retention.

Evaluator Group Comments: CommVault’s SnapProtect with VSA enabled creating data protection points without performing a traditional backup operation. Storage hardware based snapshots provided the protection points, while Simpana SnapProtect indexed the snapshot, enabling traditional protection and DR capabilities. This combination provides the speed and light-‐weight operation of storage system snapshots, with the retention and transportability of traditional backup. This is clearly a significant step in the evolution of data protection.

During testing, Evaluator Group performed several Simpana SnapProtect backup operations. From these protection points, we were able to restore VM specific data to both the original virtual server, or to other virtual guests.

The process utilized to backup virtual systems works as follows:

• Simpana 9 is configured to correlate specific guest VM’s with a backup policy running on the VSA agent • When the appropriate backup policy runs, the VSA is contacted • The operational impact for VM’s is:

o Each VM is quiesced to ensure a consistent state o Hypervisor based snapshot is initiated o Once hypervisor snapshot is created, SnapProtect in turn generates a storage hardware-‐based snapshot o The VM snapshots are released by the hypervisor, and normal operations resume

• After this process is completed the following operations proceed: o Snapshots are mounted on guest hypervisor (typically a proxy) by VSA agent o VSA agent then back ups and indexes backup copy o CommVault updates indexes to record all data protected o VSA un-‐mounts snapshots from the proxy hypervisor

The snapshots created with SnapProtect may be migrated to longer term storage tiers, such as tape or cloud as CommVault formatted protection points. This allows rapid data protection point creation, rapid restoration, along with long-‐term retention of these protection points on any storage tier.






VMware VADP Data Protection CommVault’s VADP method of virtual server data protection was evaluated during testing. This method of backup is specific to VMware vSphere hypervisors, which have a specific set of interfaces to enhance backup operations. The following observations were made using this backup method:

• Simpana 9 software’s VADP integration with vSphere 5 leveraged the CBT feature • Change Block Tracking within VADP and VMware reduced backup set sizes • Only changes from prior backup operations were captured using VADP

VMware Discovery and Protection Shown below in Figure 2 is an example of CommVault’s capability for defining, creating, managing and protecting virtual machines.

Figure 2: Simpana 9 -‐ Virtual Server Protection Configuration Recovery of data within a virtual machine is enabled for non-‐CommVault administrators through two options. For VMware administrators, recovery is available using a vCenter plugin. For end-‐users, recovery is available through a web console. Many IT organizations are looking for these types of self-‐service options in order to streamline operations and free storage teams to handle more strategic projects. By enabling admins and users with secure access to their own backup sets, storage and backup admins eliminate the need for supporting basic helpdesk tasks like a simple file restore.






End user Restore Non IT users, or “end-‐users” are able to restore data through CommVault when enabled by IT administrators. Users point their web browser to the URL of the CommVault webserver. Files can be recovered directly to the virtual machine or another computer using the web console.

Figure 3: Simpana 9 -‐ vCenter Plug-‐in

vCenter Plug-‐in Restore A virtual server agent (VSA) proxy must be installed to use this method of restoration. The VSA agent on the vCenter server communicates with Simpana CommCell server. Registering the vCenter plugin within CommCell in turn installs a plug-‐in into the vCenter server. The restoration steps are:

• Login to vCenter as an admin • Open the tab ‘Manage Virtual Machine’ • (If not using single sign-‐on, enter login, password and domain) • Browse the tree showing hierarchy of virtual systems • A “Restore” option is available for each VM being protected • Each within the VM find specific files or folders to be restored to original or alternate location

Recovering through the vCenter plugin is shown below in Figure 3.






Figure 4: Simpana 9 -‐ vCenter Plug-‐in

Flexible Restoration Options Granular Restore Restoration of individual files, folders and directories were all validated during testing. Additionally, restoration of individual users email is possible by restoring Exchange mailboxes with Simpana 9 software. Indexing, known as “offline mining” tools for Simpana 9 software, enables the ability to browse data structures and restore specific messages or documents. Supported applications include:

• MS Exchange • MS SharePoint • MS Active Directory • MS NTFS filesystems • Linux EXT3 filesystems






Live Browse Restore Hardware snapshot based protection through CommVault’s SnapProtect for VSA delivers the rapid, integrated protection copies of virtual server data. As indicated, generating a fully indexed copy of the HW snapshot requires a measure of processing through the off-‐host VSA proxy; this phase can take several times longer than the backup itself. When users do not have the time, or the processing power available to perform this full snapshot indexing, CommVault Simpana software delivers a “Live Browse” restore capability.

A “Live Browse” operation in CommVault Simpana allows a user to restore files or an entire virtual system’s volume directly from a storage hardware snapshot, without first requiring an indexing process. By comparison, alternative backup tools have limited integration with storage snapshots and no snapshot indexing capabilities. Administrators would be forced to mount a snapshot as a volume or filesystem, and then use host based tools to find the appropriate data to restore. If the data did not exist within the snapshots, they would then be forced to utilize the backup application to view first restore older data, and then search for the required data.

The CommVault VSA and SnapProtect features deliver a fully automated method for performing this type of restore.

Evaluator Group Comments: The “LiveBrowse” feature enables the ability to view snapshots as a fully indexed backup set, without the need to create indexes ahead of time. Creating indices only as needed reduces the time and resource requirement for creating and restoring data protection points. LiveBrowse can reduce the administrative burden on IT, while also reducing the time to data recovery for the affected user.

Evaluator Group was able to browse a data set that had just completed backing up. Several guest systems were backed up using VSA for both MS Windows and Linux guests. The actions performed were:

• Backup a guest using VSA • After completion, begin browsing the backup • While browsing, CommVault builds a temporary index set for each directory as it is selected • Any item could be selected for restore • Restorations were supported to the original guest, or to alternate locations

Evaluator Group verified that “LiveBrowse” restorations were possible immediately after completion of a backup operation. Indexing occurred simultaneously with directory browsing. Browsing was noted to be slower than with traditional browsing, although it was not a detriment to finding the desired data or file.






Evaluation Summary Evaluator Group found CommVault’s Simpana 9 software to be an extremely full-‐featured backup application with many options. The flexibility available in assigning storage tiers and policies is more flexible than other leading enterprise backup applications, based on EGI’s use of CommVault and competing products.

The consistent manner in which protection tiers are treated helps to reduce complexity and confusion when designing data protection policies. Data may be moved or copied between protection tiers based on a large number of criteria. However, as with all enterprise data protection applications it is important to understand the capabilities of Simpana 9 software, as well as the protection and retention goals of the organization before establishing protection tiers or polices.

Typically, users unfamiliar with CommVault would attend administration training classes prior to implementing retention policies and architectures. For complex scenarios involving SnapProtect for VSA, professional services assistance may assist with tailoring the initial setup and policy creation.

The SnapProtect for Virtual Server capability leverages features from multiple products across CommVault, hypervisors, operating systems and storage systems. It can utilize disk storage based snapshots, can integrate with VSS on Microsoft guests and Hyper-‐V to coordinate snapshots, and can utilize VMware’s VADP interface to backup only newly changed blocks. It is further able to integrate even more closely with NetApp systems to use FlexClones’ along with CommVault indexing to retain the NetApp snapshots on any media.

Due to the capabilities to optimize data protection in enterprise environments, new optimized protection procedures may be warranted when using Simpana SnapProtect for VSA. As with other enterprise data protection solutions, a learning curve may exist when initially implementing a new solution. Evaluator Group recommends using CommVault professional services and training when first creating these new policies and methodologies.

SnapProtect for VSA results in a highly integrated protection and recovery mechanism for virtualized server environments. All of these capabilities help to offload the backup process from production systems, providing rapid creation of protection points, which then can be used to rapidly recover data from disk based storage, while retaining data copies on long-‐term media for compliance.

Evaluator Group found that restorations may be enabled for multiple roles within an organization. These include Simpana administrators, VMware administrators (via vCenter plug-‐ins) and end users (via web browsers). Defining roles with these three criteria allow a wide degree of flexibility to enable self-‐service IT operations for companies.

o End users can restore data from systems with data they have permissions for o VMware and application admins can restore data they own o Backup admins can control protection policies, define ownership and perform higher backup and

restores at multiple levels (full VMs, volumes and files)




Test Validation Report – CommVault Simpana 9 Evaluator Group – Evaluation Report


Appendix A -‐ Test Scenarios See Appendices B and C for test configuration details.

VSA Backups Perform a VSA backup on VMware system:

• Configure system appropriately • Run a backup job of VMware datastores • Check job completion status in CommCell server

Perform a VSA backup on Hyper-‐V system:

• Configure system appropriately • Run a backup job of Hyper-‐V virtual disks • Check job completion status in CommCell server

SnapProtect Backups SnapProtect is an enhancement to disk based snapshots and VMware VADP backup methods. Snapshots may be listed, mounted, browsed and deleted.

Granular File and Volume Recovery This is an option that is set when a backup is created using SnapProtect or other snapshot backups

• In CommCell navigate to the client computer and choose “Browse Backup Data” • Choose the “Individual Files/folders” option within browsing options • The path to restore data may be chosen prior to restoration

Live Browse Restore Live browsing is an option when the “Enable Granular Recovery” option has not been set.

• In CommCell navigate to the client computer and choose “Browse Backup Data” • Choose the “Individual Files/folders” option within browsing options • After choosing the system, the results will be generated by indexing the snapshot • Choose files or folders to restore, and a location

VMware Datastore Restore using VMware Plugin Restoring virtual machines through vCenter may be performed by the vCenter admin

• Configure Simpana 9 vCenter plug-‐in for vCenter • Configure the Virtual Center in the CommCell Console • Perform a Backup • CommVault admin assign ownership of VM’s • vCenter admin opens vCenter, chooses VM and browses to file • Restore options include disk, volume or file






End User Web Console Restore After a virtual system has been backed up, an end user may accomplish file recovery:

• Open web console using provided URL in web browser • Enter username, password and domain information • Select virtual machine (previously granted permission for this system by admin) • Browse to location in file directory, and select “Restore” • Choose either local or remote system to restore data






Appendix B -‐ Test Configurations Data Protection Software

• CommVault Simpana9 SP4

Hardware • Industry standard x86 multi-‐core systems, with 16 GB RAM or more • NetApp FAS storage array (with both iSCSI and NFS presented storage) • Generic FC and iSCSI attached storage (used as additional disk target) • LTO-‐4 tape drives (used as long term retention target)

Server OS • Microsoft Windows 2008 R2 • Linux – RHEL 6 and compatible

Hypervisor – Virtualization • VMware vSphere 5 • Microsoft Hyper-‐V (2008 R2) • Citrix Xen

Test Application • MS Exchange server 2010 • MS SQL Server 2008 R2






Appendix C – Configuration Diagrams

Figure 5: CommVault Simpana 9 – Test Configuration

Documents

CommVault Simpana 9 - Virtual Server Lab Validation