Technical white paper

HP StoreEasy 1000, 3000, 5000 Storage: Enabling data backup and recovery

Table of contents

Introduction 2 Backup and Recovery Challenges for File Storage 2 Objectives of this Whitepaper 2

Creating Storage on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage 3 Creating a File Server 3 Creating and presenting an iSCSI Target Server 3 Creating a Scale-Out File Server 6

Using HP Data Protector software to protect data on HP StoreEasy Storage 7

Overview 7 Data Protector feature set 7 Installing the Data Protector client 9 Backing up & recovering data on HP StoreEasy Storage 15

Using Microsoft Data Protection Manager to protect data on HP StoreEasy Storage 18

Overview 18 Data Protection Manager feature set 18 Installing the Data Protection Manager client 19 Backing up and recovering data on HP StoreEasy Storage 21

Protecting HP StoreEasy Storage with any other backup utility 23

Summary 24

Appendix A – HP NAS Solution product family overview 26 HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage 26 HP StoreEasy 3000 Gateway Storage 26 HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage 26

Appendix B: Backing Up Shares with VSS Snapshots 28

For more information 29

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Introduction With the exponential growth of data, it is becoming more and more difficult to meet various backup and recovery SLAs. Traditional NAS backup and recovery capabilities such as Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP), while being limited in vendor agnostic feature-set, often fail to meet the ever shortening backup windows. This in turn causes disruptions in the IT environment and adversely affects productivity. Vendor specific capabilities are needed to address these deficiencies, which defeats the purpose of deploying an industry standard backup and recovery mechanism.

HP StoreEasy Storage changes and adapts to your fast-changing organizational storage needs by using an optimized and integrated combination of software capabilities, HP ProLiant rack-mount and blade servers, and industry-standard storage and network technologies. Together, these industry standard-based building blocks allow you to implement change faster, scale farther, and respond to data growth more effectively.

Regardless of the size of your organization, HP StoreEasy Storage enables you to control explosive file growth while reducing costs and simplifying data management. HP StoreEasy Storage covers a wide range of customer needs and IT environments.

With a Windows Storage Sever based platform, HP StoreEasy Storage enables highly efficient and flexible data protection capabilities that drive SLA based backup and recovery capabilities for unstructured data while providing the “ease of use” of a standard Windows Server management experience. This also removes any dependency on a specific vendor for data protection solution, thereby delivering a true vendor neutral solution.

Backup and Recovery Challenges for File Storage

Unstructured content is expected to constitute the vast majority of archived digital assets in the foreseeable future. Managing storage growth is a difficult task on the whole, but the distributed nature of unstructured file-based data adds to the challenge significantly and drives the need for improved file-serving solutions.

As the file storage data grows or customers move towards consolidating file storage from distributed environments, the biggest challenge is to backup the data in a timely and efficient manner to enable the appropriate recovery capabilities. Additionally, there are strict regulations that govern the retention and retrieval of data. Traditional backup technologies for file storage data, like NDMP, have outlived their applicability and vendor neutrality with this growth in data and the ever increasing requirements of uptime. Additionally, time to recover data plays a major role in the survival of an organization. The longer it takes to recover data, the higher is the impact on business.

All data in an organization does not have the same level of importance to business. It is essential that data protection is driven by the value of data rather than applying the same rules across the board. A generic approach not only leads to longer backup cycles and even longer recovery cycles.

The key to a successful approach to data protection is to implement a solution that scales to large data volumes, provides flexible feature-set for varying backup and recovery capabilities and doesn’t limit the same to any specific data protection vendor.

Objectives of this Whitepaper

This whitepaper provides an overview of the agent based data protection approach. It outlines the various backup and recovery features that allow the customer to drive and define data protection policies for their file storage data based data. Customer can use a mix of these features to implement backup and recovery policies that align with the value of data being backed up. It provides specific details on the following two data protection solutions:

1. HP Data Protector software 7.0

2. Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2012

The paper details the backup and recovery capabilities provided by the above listed data protection applications. It also provides specific installation steps for these solutions for an optimized experience on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage, which is a clustered appliance.

Additionally, this whitepaper also provides details on the generic interface that can be used for backup and recovery of HP StoreEasy Storage with any other data protection solution.

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Creating Storage on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage The standard process for configuring storage on HP StoreEasy Storage is to create a “Volume” (LUN). While this applies well to HP StoreEasy 1000 and 3000 Storage, it is not a best practice for HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage.

HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage is a clustered system. If the volumes are created on individual cluster nodes, each Volume is owned by one node at a time, and it cannot be accessed by the other nodes in the cluster. Furthermore it is not safe to define a backup specification that says “back up volume X on node Y,” because the volume may move to another node in a failover situation.

HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage and Windows Storage Server 2012 support several types of highly-available clustered storage:

1. File Server: this object creates a volume and associates it with a “virtual server.” The virtual server has its own hostname and IP address, and it redirects storage requests to the appropriate cluster node. File Servers can host shared files and directories.

2. iSCSI Target Server: this object creates a virtual storage object much like the File Server, and then associates it with an iSCSI Target. This provides highly-available iSCSI block storage.

3. Scale-Out File Server: this object creates a highly-available SMB share. It is currently intended only for use with Hyper-V VMs and SQL Server.

All of these storage objects are implemented as Windows file objects on the HP StoreEasy Storage. They can be backed up using the techniques described later in this paper.

Creating a File Server

1. On one HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage node, double-click the HP StoreEasy System Manager icon on the desktop. Answer Yes to the security question.

2. The System Manager displays. Expand HP StoreEasy Storage System Manager and select Manage Storage.

3. Click the Create a File Server link.

4. Step through the Create File Server wizard: name the Client Access point (the “virtual system” that clients will use to access the storage), choose one or more LUNs to associate with the File Server, specify the cluster node that initially owns the Volume, set up shared folders if desired, and Commit the operation.

Access storage on the File Server as you would with any shared volume. If your File Server is named FS1.local.lab and it contains a shared folder named Data, access the folder as \\FS1.local.lab\Data.

Creating and presenting an iSCSI Target Server

The best practice for serving block storage on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage is to use an “iSCSI Target Server” resource. This Windows Failover Clusters role implements a high-availability iSCSI Target container. An iSCSI Target Server associates a storage volume with a “virtual host” on the cluster. The virtual host has its own hostname and IP address, and it redirects storage requests to the appropriate Cluster Shared Volume.

To create an iSCSI Target Server:

1. Log onto one of the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage nodes.

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2. You need to associate a Cluster Disk (a clustered storage object) with the iSCSI Target server. If you do not have an available Cluster Disk, follow these steps:

a) Double-click the HP StoreEasy System Manager icon on the desktop. Answer Yes to the security question.

b) The System Manager displays. Expand HP StoreEasy Storage System Manager and select Manage Storage.

c) Click Create a volume and work through the wizard. This creates a LUN on the storage array, grants access to all cluster nodes in the 5000, creates a Cluster Disk to access the cluster-aware storage, and formats a file system onto the new Cluster Disk.

d) In Server Manager, open Tools -> Failover Cluster Manager. (Or if you prefer, you may access the Failover Cluster Manager functionality through the Failover Cluster Manager item in the HP StoreEasy System Manager navigation tree.)

e) Open clusterName -> Storage -> Disks and verify you have a Cluster Disk. If your Cluster Disk is not visible, right-click on Disks and select Add Disk. Select the check box next to your desired disk or disks and click OK.

3. Right-click on clusterName -> Roles and select Configure Role… Click Next to skip the first page.

4. Select iSCSI Target Server and click Next.

5. Provide a name for the iSCSI Target Server and click Next.

6. Check the box next to the Cluster Disk or disks you wish to present with the iSCSI Target Server and click Next.

7. Click Next and Finish. You should see your new iSCSI Target Server with associated Cluster Disks in the Disks listing.

Presenting storage with an iSCSI Target Next, use the iSCSI management tools in Server Manager to create an iSCSI Virtual Disk (VHD file), associate it with an iSCSI Target, and present it to your desired client.

1. Open Server Manager.

2. Select File and Storage Services -> iSCSI. Notice there are no iSCSI Virtual Disks listed yet. Pull down the Tasks menu and select New iSCSI Virtual Disk…

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3. In the Server section, select your desired iSCSI Target Server.

4. Under Storage location, the wizard displays the volumes that are associated with the iSCSI Target Server. Select the volume you want to hold the new iSCSI Virtual Disk (VHD file). Click Next.

5. Provide a name and an optional description for the iSCSI Virtual Disk. Notice that the path for the iSCSI Virtual Disk fills in below the Description. Click Next.

6. Specify the size of the iSCSI Virtual Disk and click Next.

7. In the Assign iSCSI target page, you can either associate the new iSCSI Virtual Disk with an existing iSCSI Target, or create a new target. Select New iSCSI target and click Next.

8. Provide a name and optional description for the iSCSI Target.

9. Now you will specify the remote iSCSI Initiator that is allowed to connect to this target. Click Add…

• If the remote system is running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012, the wizard can retrieve the iSCSI Initiator’s IQN for you. Under Query initiator computer for ID, provide the hostname or IP of the desired computer. Click OK. The iSCSI Target wizard queries the remote computer to find the IQN of its iSCSI Initiator, and stores it with the iSCSI Target.

• If the remote system is running an earlier version of Windows or a non-Windows OS, you must retrieve the iSCSI Initiator’s IQN manually. This process varies by OS. On Windows Server 2008, you would open the iSCSI Initiator, click the Configuration tab, and copy the Initiator Name. Return to Server Manager on your HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage. On the “Select a method to identify the initiator” page, select the radio button next to Enter a value for the selected type. Ensure the Type is IQN, and paste the IQN into the “Enter a value for the selected type” text field. Click OK.

10. Click Next after you have added all remote hosts that need to connect to this iSCSI Target.

11. Optionally provide CHAP (security) identification. Click Next.

12. Review the settings and click Create. The wizard creates the VHD on your volume, creates the iSCSI Target, and presents the iSCSI Target to your remote systems.

13. Click Close when the operation completes.

14. Notice the Server Manager now shows your iSCSI Target Server and your new iSCSI Virtual Disk. The iSCSI Targets section shows the new iSCSI Target.

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The iSCSI Target can now be accessed by the specified iSCSI Initiator. You can add more disks to the iSCSI Target by repeating this process and selecting an existing iSCSI Target in step 7 above.

Creating a Scale-Out File Server

This storage object creates a highly available SMB share for use by Hyper-V or Microsoft SQL Server. Please see the white paper “Hosting Hyper-V Virtual Machines on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage” for details.

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Using HP Data Protector software to protect data on HP StoreEasy Storage Overview

Data Protector is the enterprise backup and recovery solution from HP. HP Data Protector allows you to fully leverage your data asset investment, minimize backup and recovery windows, and optimize business application performance. A simple, yet powerful, snapshot integration allows you to utilize array-based snapshots to protect mission-critical data and free you from restrictive backup windows and down to the second recovery restores applications to the exact time required by your organization.

Data Protector uses a centralized Cell Manager to oversee and control all backup and recovery operations. Administrators install Data Protector Agents on systems containing important data. The Agent manages the local backup process and handles the communication with the Cell Manager. The Cell Manager instructs the Agent to back up a desired location, and the Agent responds by creating and backing up a VSS shadow copy and sending it to the Media Server for storage.

As HP StoreEasy Storage is based on Windows Storage Server 2012, Data Protector supports it like any other Windows based systems providing the same ease of install, use and flexible backup and recovery options.

Data Protector feature set

Data Protector provides a rich set of backup and recovery capabilities for HP StoreEasy Storage. These capabilities provide a robust, reliable, flexible and efficient ways of meeting backup and recovery challenges and SLAs.

Standard File System backup and Recovery 1. Backup:

This is the basic form of backup for filesystem data. It however provides an efficient mechanism for windows file backups. Backups can be for the full host or individual objects like directories and files. Data Protector supports both tape based target for standard backups and disk based targets for faster backups.

Apart from using disk based targets, backup efficiency can additionally be customized by changing the number of parallel streams to a single target media. This can be achieved by configuring the appropriate concurrency for the media in addition to backing up the filesystem data as different mount-points.

Data Protector provides additional capabilities that make backups highly efficient by significantly reducing the backup windows through faster incremental backups and reduction in backup data volume. Data Protector provides:

• Enhanced Faster incremental backups: This is achieved through a change-log provide implementation that eliminates the need for time intensive tree walks for incremental backups. The change log provider logs all changes since the last backup which makes backups for millions of files faster than regular backups.

• Object Copy backups: Data Protector provides a staged backup approach where the initial backup can be performed to a fast disk target. This backup copy can then be moved to a tape target in an automated way at a later point in time. This ensures a faster backup and recovery from disk while also providing the ‘safety’ of tape for longer retention.

• Forever Incremental Backups: Backup to disk targets enables the incremental forever capability in Data Protector. After the initial full backup, customers never have to perform a full backup again. All subsequent backups are incremental backups. To reduce recovery times, Data protector can create a full backup on the media without transferring any data from the server. Users can create:

o Synthetic Full backups: These are created on disk or tape targets. Data Protector takes that last full copy and merges it with all subsequent incremental backups.

o Virtual Full backups: These are created on disk target only. Data Protector creates pointers to all the changed files after the last full backup. This enables file level de-duplication out of the box at no additional cost.

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Figure 1: Standard File-system backup

2. Recovery

Data Protector provides recovery capabilities both from tape and disk target. Customers can simply select the object(s) to be restored from the UI. Data Protector locates the object on media (disk or tape target) and restores the object(s). If the object is available both on disk and tape, the faster disk interface is used for restores, thereby optimizing the restore process.

The recovery process can be used to recover full hosts, directories or even single files.

The above feature set can be used for protecting data on all the three HP StoreEasy Storage appliances, i.e. HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage, HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage and HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage.

Snapshot based backups Data Protector integrates with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to provide consistent point-in-time snapshots for file as well as application data. Data Protector acts as the requestor in the VSS framework and uses the various writers in VSS for taking snapshots of varying types of data-types including Files, Windows configuration and system state files, Exchange, SQL, SharePoint, Hyper-V etc.

Data Protector provides support for host based or software snapshots as well as transportable or hardware based snapshots:

• Software/Local Snapshots:

Software snapshots are supported on all the three HP StoreEasy Storage appliances, i.e. HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage, HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage and HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage.

Figure 2: Software/Local Snapshot

Backup: Data Protector agents installed on HP StoreEasy Storage appliances integrate with VSS to create snapshots of the File shares that can be used for full backups. These backups can be sent to disk and tape targets. Only full backups are supported.

Recovery: Recovery for software based snapshots can also be performed both from tape and disk targets. As in the case of regular filesystem restores, users can simply select the object(s) to be restores and Data Protector will identify the location of the object(s) and recover them in a transparent manner. While only full backups are supported, restores can recover full volumes or single files.

• Hardware/Transportable Snapshots

Data Protector integrates with Microsoft Volume Shadow Copy Service and the Hardware Providers for the various Storage Arrays like HP 3PAR, P4000 etc., to provide the transportable snapshot capability. Since HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage integrates with the Storage arrays, it extends the inherent array capabilities to file services. This enables HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage to leverage the transportable snapshots for file data.

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Figure 3: Hardware/Transportable Snapshot

Backup: The setup consists of a HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage connected to a storage array and another Windows based server acting as the backup server for the snapshots. Data Protector Agents installed on HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage integrate with VSS and the hardware providers for the array to create a consistent snapshot of file data hosted on the array. The resulting snapshot is mounted on the backup server and backed up to tape a disk target from the backup server. Such a snapshot is called a transportable snapshot.

This backup mechanism addresses the strict requirements of a high load and business critical file serving setups by: • Eliminating backup windows. The data can be always available as the ‘backup window’ is limited to the time

needed for snapshot creation by the array.

• Eliminating backup I/O load on the file server. HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage can be dedicated for file serving needs as the backup load is offloaded to the backup server.

• Enabling frequent snapshots to improve the Recovery Point Objective (RPO).

Recovery: Hardware snapshots provide for more flexible recovery options. Data is restored directly to the HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage making the recovery process more efficient. • Instant Recovery capability in Data Protector reduces the recovery time for large amounts of data including

millions of files from hours to minutes. The data is restored without any data transfer over the wire simply by moving the data efficiently inside the array. Depending on array this could mean switching disks manually or copying the block level delta. Independent of this DP manages the filesystem and host level access to the data. This enables customers to meet any Recovery Time Objective (RTO) they may have.

• The customer can mount the snapshot to extract a single file from the snapshot and copy it back to the original volume. As Data Protector supports maintaining multiple snapshots multiple versions could be kept on the snapshot allowing fast single file recovery from a large filesystem

If the data on array is not available, users still have another layer of protection with restore from disk or tape target.

Please refer to HP Data Protector software documentation for further details at http://www.hp.com/go/dataprotector

Installing the Data Protector client

Different sets of capabilities are enabled by the different agents in Data Protector. For leveraging the entire spectrum of features, the following agents need to be installed on the HP StoreEasy Storage:

1. HP StoreEasy 1000/5000 Storage:

a) Disk Agent – needed for file backup.

b) Media Agent – needed for communication with disk/tape target.

c) VSS-BAR Agent – needed for online snapshots of volumes.

2. HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage

a) Disk Agent – needed for file backup.

b) Media Agent – needed for communication with disk/tape target.

c) VSS-BAR Agent – needed for online transportable snapshots of volumes.

d) SMIS Agent – needed for Instant Recovery from snapshot backup.

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Installing Data Protector on HP StoreEasy 1000/3000 Storage HP StoreEasy 1000 and 3000 Storage systems are based on Windows Storage Server 2012. You can install the Data Protector client on them like you would on any Windows system. See the HP Data Protector 7.0 Installation and Licensing Guide.

Installing Data Protector on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage For the most part, installing the Data Protector backup agent on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage is no different from any other Windows system. The key difference is the requirement for the backup Agent on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage to be cluster-aware.

When installing the Agent on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage, you must follow these steps:

1. Prepare the server cluster for Data Protector installation, as described on p. 223 in the HP Data Protector 7.00 Installation and Licensing Guide.

2. Install the Data Protector client software locally on both storage blades. (p. 116, Installation and Licensing Guide)

3. Verify the installation. (p. 208, Installation and Licensing Guide) This procedure a few steps that are specific to clustered file servers.

Step-by-step installation instructions for HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage Preparing the cluster:

1. You will need to specify a domain user account during the client installation process. Assuming the Data Protector Cell Manager is already installed on a server in your network; add your chosen domain account to the INET service. Log on to the Cell Manager and open a command prompt window As Administrator. Enter these commands:

a) cd C:\Program Files\OmniBack\bin b) omniinetpasswd.exe -add domain\account

Enter the login password for domain\account

c) omniinetpasswd.exe -inst_srv_user domain\account

2. Log into both HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage server blades with a domain account in the Administrator group.

3. Ensure clustering functionality is installed and working properly on both cluster nodes. For example, you must be able to move groups from one node to another as many times as needed, without problems with shared disks.

4. On both cluster nodes, open Windows Firewall exceptions for File and Printer Sharing:

a) Select Start -> Administrative Tools -> Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

b) In the navigation pane, select Inbound Rules.

c) Scroll down until you see the File and Printer Sharing rules. Select all of them (click on the first rule, then shift-click on the last rule) and select Enable Rule in the Action pane on the right.

d) Click New Rule… in the Action pane.

e) Select Port and click Next.

f) Select TCP (default) and enter 5555 as the Specific local port.

g) Click Next, Next, Next, then enter a name such as “DP port 5555” and click Finish.

h) Close the Firewall tool.

5. Log off the non-active cluster node and perform the remaining steps on the active node only.

6. Start Failover Cluster Management, and verify that the witness disk in quorum resource is online. If the resource is offline, bring it online.

a) Select Start -> Administrative Tools -> Failover Cluster Manager.

b) Expand the cluster name in the left navigation pane, and then select Storage.

c) Verify that the witness disk is online:

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d) If it is not online, select the witness disk, then select Bring this resource online from the tasks pane on the right.

7. If the cluster will take the role of Data Protector Cell Manager, there are several additional steps. You will not normally do this for an HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage cluster. If you need to, refer to “Preparing a Microsoft server cluster running on Windows Server 2008 for Data Protector installation” in the Data Protector 7.00 Installation and Licensing Guide.

Installing the Data Protector client on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage:

You cannot install a cluster-aware client from the Cell Manager. You must perform these steps to install the client on both server nodes and connect them to the Cell Manager:

1. Log in on as the local Administrator (NOT as a domain Administrator) on the first cluster node.

2. Verify the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage node meets these requirements:

– Must have sufficient disk space for the Data Protector client software.

– Port number 5555 (default) must be free and open.

– Must have the Microsoft implementation of the TCP/IP protocol installed and running. The protocol must be able to resolve hostnames. The computer name and the hostname must be the same.

– If you intend to use the Java GUI Client, a supported version of Java runtime environment must be installed.

– Ensure that network access user rights are set under the Windows local security policy for the account performing the installation.

3. Decide which Data Protector Client components you want to install on your HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage. Refer to the Data Protector 7.00 Installation and Licensing Guide for a list.

4. In Windows Firewall, open port 5555. The Cell Manager must be able to contact the client on this port.

5. Insert the installation DVD-ROM, or otherwise mount the installer.

6. If the installer does not start automatically, CD to the x8664 directory and run setup.exe as Administrator.

7. Select Install Data Protector to start the Data Protector Setup Wizard.

8. Accept the license agreement.

9. In the Installation Type page, select Client.

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10. The Data Protector installation reports that a cluster was detected. Select Install client in cluster-aware mode.

11. Specify the hostname of your Cell Manager, your desired Destination Folders, and your Component Selection as in a normal client install.

12. Provide login credentials for the cluster-aware client service:

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13. Complete the client install using the same choices you would use for a non-clustered client. When the install completes, this notice displays. The warning indicates that the cluster was not imported into the Cell Manager. That will happen when you install the client on the second cluster node.

14. Click Next and Finish.

15. Log into the second cluster node as local Administrator and repeat the installation process in steps 1 – 13.

16. Installing the client on the second node should register the cluster with the Cell Manager. You should see a message like this:

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17. To verify the cluster was properly imported into Cell Manager, log into the Cell Manager server and run the Data Protector Manager.

18. Close the Next Step Wizard, and select Clients in the drop-down context list.

19. Click on MS Clusters and press F5 to refresh the list. Verify your HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage cluster has been imported:

20. Now that Data Protector Cell Manager knows about your cluster, you must import any File Server hosts you wish to back up. Right-click on your cluster and select Import Cluster Virtual Server… Provide the name of your File Server and click Finish. You must repeat this step for any File Server you wish to back up.

Verifying the installation:

This procedure is described on page 208 of Data Protector 7.00 Installation and Licensing Guide. That procedure refers to individual non-clustered client systems, but the same procedure applies for File Servers on clusters.

1. Open the Data Protector Manager on the Cell Manager.

2. Select Clients in the context pull-down.

3. Expand the Clients node.

4. Right-click on your File Server virtual server and select Check Installation…

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5. Approve the list of systems to check.

6. Click Finish. Check that the verification process succeeded without error.

Backing up & recovering data on HP StoreEasy Storage

Backing up data in Data Protector requires creation and scheduling of backup specifications. Please refer to Chapter 2 of the HP Data Protector 7.00 Concepts Guide (HP Passport account required) to understand the process of planning and specifying backups.

Here is an example of creating a simple backup specification:

1. Open Data Protector Cell Manager.

2. Select Backup from the context pull-down menu.

3. Right-click on Backups -> Backup Specifications -> Filesystem and select Add Backup.

4. Select the backup template you want to use. The template specifies the schedule and other options you want. For this simple example we’ll choose the Blank Filesystem Backup template. Click OK.

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5. Select the items (volumes, drives, folders) that you want to back up. In this example we have selected the D: drive on the NOT-F-E-CluFS1 File Server on our HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage. Click Next.

6. Specify the destination (tape library, D2D storage) where the backup should be stored. Here we have selected a File Library Device, meaning the backup will be stored on local storage on the Cell Manager. Click Next.

7. Specify any options for your backup and click Next.

8. Specify a schedule for your backups and click Next.

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9. Review the backup specification and click Next.

10. Save or run the backup specification.

To recover a backup:

1. Open Data Protector Cell Manager.

2. Select Restore from the context pull-down menu.

3. Select the backup and objects you want to restore, and click Restore.

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Using Microsoft Data Protection Manager to protect data on HP StoreEasy Storage Overview

Microsoft System Center 2012 – Data Protection Manager (DPM) uses a slightly different model than HP Data Protector, but the concepts are the same. You specify a client system that needs to be protected, and DPM syncs it with its backup copy on a specified schedule.

DPM supports HP StoreEasy 1000, 3000, and 5000 Storage the same as any standard Windows based devices. However, installation of DPM on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage need to be done in a cluster aware mode to optimize backup and recovery of data. Please refer to http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff399459.aspx for more details on this process.

Data Protection Manager feature set

Data Protection Manager delivers unified data protection for Windows servers and clients as a best-of-breed backup & recovery solution from Microsoft, for Windows environments. It provides efficient backup and recovery capabilities for file shares. These capabilities enable effective protection of data stored on HP StoreEasy Storage.

Figure 4: Replica creation for backup

Disk based protection

• Backup

The default data protection mechanism in DPM is disk based backup. DPM uses the VSS interface as the basis for the online snapshots of file data that are consistent and efficient. It performs a consistency check on the backup data to ensure that the data can be successfully restored.

It supports up to 512 online snapshots and with an efficient snapshot mechanism, enables snapshots in intervals as small as 15 minutes. This provides for a near continuous data protection of file data.

DPM also supports incremental snapshots where, it keeps a track of block level changes to the data and periodically synchronizes the backup copy with the changes. This can be scheduled to run automatically at defined intervals or run manually. This block level incremental capability ensures reduced data volume and fast backups.

For file shares, DPM uses the ‘File Data Synchronization” for keeping the replica consistent with the primary data. The protection agent uses a volume filter and the change journal to determine which files have changed on a volume or share on a server and then performs a checksum procedure for these files to synchronize only the changed blocks. During synchronization, these changes are transferred to the DPM server and then applied to the replica to synchronize the replica with the data source.

Figure 5: File Synchronization Process

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At regular intervals that you can configure, DPM creates a recovery point for the protection group member. A recovery point is a version of the data from which data can be recovered. You can have 64 recovery points for each file member of a protection group.

• Recovery

DPM provides fast recovery capability as the data to be recover resides of faster disk datastores rather than the slow tape based repositories. This enables data restores in minutes. The recovery points created during backup form the basis for the version based recovery. Users can select the recovery point they want to based on which DPM will identify the location of the data to be restored and recover the data to the specified recovery point.

Data restore can be done centrally or by individual users based on data criticality and ownership.

Additional features

• Tape protection

In addition to the disk based backup and recovery capabilities, DPM also provides an extension for tape based protection. The backups on the DPM server repository can be move to tapes without any impact on the protected server. This allows the customer to manage disk storage costs for backup while having access to data for older backup copies. The recovery of such data is transparent to the user.

• Offsite protection

DPM provides site based disaster recovery capability by moving the data to a DPM instance in a remote location. This is done using replication between the primary DPM instance and the remote site. In case the primary site goes down, backup copies at the remote site can be used for recovering data.

• Centralized Management

As DPM is a part of Microsoft System Center management suite, the DPM management pack for System Center enables a single pane of monitoring of DPM and the servers that it protects.

Installing the Data Protection Manager client

If there are no firewalls blocking the DPM console or client, you can install the DPM client software onto HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage from the DPM console. If a firewall is active, you must either open firewall exceptions for DPM, or install the DPM client software manually on each of the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage servers.

If the firewall is active when you install DPM, the DPM installer will open the firewall exceptions for you.

To open the firewall exceptions, you must open port 135 and make exceptions for the DPM service and protection agent.

1. Open Server Manager. Select Tools -> Windows Firewall with Advanced Security.

2. In the Overview area, verify that Windows Firewall is on for all profiles. If it is not, click the Windows Firewall Properties link and turn it on for all profiles.

3. In the navigation pane, click Inbound Rules.

4. In the Actions pane, click New Rule to open the New Inbound Rule Wizard.

5. On the Rule Type page, select Program and then click Next.

6. On the Program page, click Browse next to the This program path box. Select <system drive letter>:\Program Files\Microsoft DPM\DPM\bin\Msdpm.exe, click Open, and then click Next.

7. On the Action and Profile pages, leave the default settings, or modify the settings according to your organization’s guidelines, and then click Next.

8. On the Name page, enter a name for the rule and optionally a description, and then click Finish.

9. Repeat steps 4-8 for the executable Dpmra.exe.

10. In the Actions pane, click New Rule to open the New Inbound Rule Wizard.

11. On the Rule Type page, click Port, and then click Next.

12. On the Protocols and Ports page, verify that TCP and Specific local ports options are selected, in the Specific local ports box, type 135, and then click Next.

13. Complete the rule definition using the steps described in steps 7-8.

After opening firewall exceptions, or to install protection agents on clients outside a firewall:

1. In DPM Administrator Console, click Management, and then click the Agents link.

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2. Click Install on the tool ribbon. The Protection Agent Installation Wizard opens.

3. On the Select Agent Deployment Method page, click Install agents, and then click Next.

4. On the Select Computers page, select or enter both nodes of your HP StoreEasy 500 Storage, click Add, then click Next.

5. On the Enter Credentials page, type the user name and password for a domain account that is a member of the local Administrators group on all selected computers, and then click Next.

6. DPM detects that the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage is a failover cluster, and asks if you want to add any additional cluster nodes.

7. On the Choose Restart Method page, select No, I will restart the selected computers later. DPM will not restart cluster nodes.

8. Click Install on the Summary page.

If the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage nodes are behind a firewall, DPM cannot install the agents remotely. You must log into the nodes and install the agent manually, then “attach” the agents from the DPM management console.

To install protection agents on HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage units behind a firewall:

9. Ensure you have the DPM 2012 Administrator Console installed on an accessible server.

10. Log in to the first node on the HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage cluster.

11. Open an elevated (“Run as Administrator”) Command Prompt window.

12. Map a network drive to the DPM console system:

net use Z: \\<DPMServerName>\c$

You may use any available drive letter, but in this example we will use Z.

13. CD to the directory on the DPM system that contains the agent installers: cd C:\Program Files\Microsoft System Center DPM\DPM\ProtectionAgents\RA\

cd <build number>

14. On a 32-bit client computer, run:

i386\DpmAgentInstaller_x86.exe <DPMServerName>

On a 64-bit client computer, run:

amd64\DpmAgentInstaller_x64.exe <DPMServerName>

This installs the client, opens necessary firewall ports, and connects the cluster to the DPM server.

15. Repeat steps 2 – 6 on the second HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage node.

16. Now you must “attach” the new nodes to the DPM console. Log into the DPM Administrator Console on your DPM server.

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17. Click the Management tab, and then click the Agents link on the Management page.

18. Click Install. On the Protection Agent Installation Wizard, select Attach Agents. Click Next.

19. Enter or select your HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage nodes and click Add. Click Next when you have added all nodes.

20. On the Enter Credentials page, type the user name and password for a domain account that is a member of the local Administrators group on all selected computers. Click Next.

21. Click Install on the Summary page.

22. Return to the Management tab, Agents link. Verify that both cluster nodes are listed with an “OK” status. They look like ordinary servers, but the Cluster Name column shows the management name for any clusters.

Backing up and recovering data on HP StoreEasy Storage

As explained earlier, you should create your volumes as File Servers. This associates each volume with a “virtual server” that redirects network traffic to the appropriate cluster node.

After installing the clients on the cluster nodes, DPM should already see your File Servers.

1. Click on the Protection tab and click New in the Ribbon.

2. Click Next. Accept the Servers default and click Next.

3. On the Select Group Members page, you should see your cluster nodes and your cluster. Expand the cluster and you will see your File Server. Expand the File Server and you can select the volumes and shares you want to protect.

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4. Continue to set up the Protection Group and your protection schedules as you would with any backup target.

To recover a backup using Data Protection Manager:

1. Open Data Protection Manager and select the Recovery tab.

2. Browse to the object and protection point you wish to recover.

3. Click Recover… in the Actions pane.

4. Step through the Recovery wizard, specifying the location and other options.

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Protecting HP StoreEasy Storage with any other backup utility Since HP StoreEasy Storage is based on Windows Storage Server 2012, management products supporting Microsoft Windows Server 2012 will typically also support HP StoreEasy Storage appliances. The same is true for data protection applications. Since data protection applications are typically based on a client-server model with a central management server managing several clients for backup and recovery, it involves different components of the application working together. We recommend that you verify the support for these components (management server, file agent, backup media agent, etc.) with the provider of your data protection application.

There are two basic types of protection mechanisms that are supported:

1. Basic Windows file-system backup and recovery

This is the most basic backup and recovery mechanism. The backup applications uses the Windows file-system interfaces to read the files that need to be backed up or recovered and use the directory structure to perform a tree walk. One key aspect of this type of backup is the inability of the Windows OS to natively process open files in a consistent manner. To address this issue, data protection applications either use the open file support in Windows VSS or work with third party applications that provide consistent copies of open files.

Typically, any data protection application that supports Windows Server for such a backup and recovery process, also supports HP StoreEasy Storage. The only exception is the requirement to use clustered File Server volumes instead of ordinary volumes in HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage.

2. Snapshot based backup and recovery

Again, since HP StoreEasy Storage appliances are based on Windows Storage Server, they can leverage the snapshot capabilities provided by Microsoft VSS for backup and recovery. Any data protection application that supports VSS based snapshots as a backup and recovery mechanism also supports HP StoreEasy Storage. While VSS provides a framework for snapshot management, data protection applications can provide value-added capabilities through their native capabilities thereby providing both local and transportable snapshots.

Please refer to the resources provided by you data protection applications to get more details on the capabilities that are supported.

A brief description of Microsoft VSS is provided in Appendix B of this document.

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Summary As unstructured data volume is exploding, it is becoming more and more difficult to manage. At the same time the uptime requirements are going up and business cannot tolerate any downtime for backup. This combined with government guidelines of data management and compliance make it more critical than ever before to deploy a File Storage solution that is not only efficient and scalable for addressing file serving needs and consolidation, but also provides a platform for compliant data protection that meets the backup window and RTO/RPO SLA’s for the organization. The solution while being flexible and scalable also needs to be vendor neutral.

Traditionally, NDMP has been the model of choice for NAS backup and restore. It does address some of the requirements related to backup and recovery of larger file based data sets where the primary objective being a ‘vendor neutral’ approach to NAS backup. However, over the years, base NDMP technology has not been able to keep up with the increase in data volumes that need to be backed up. It has not only reached some limits in terms of data volume and number of files that can be backed up, but has also led to larger backup windows that lead to organizations not meeting their backup and restore window SLA’s. This has led to some of the NAS vendors to implement solutions specific to their products for larger datasets. This has defeated the original purpose of having a vendor neutral solution and has proven to be another challenge that customers need to tackle when upgrading/migrating to newer products/technologies.

HP StoreEasy 1000/3000/5000 Storage systems provide you with a platform which, apart from addressing your file serving needs right from Small business to Enterprise, also provides you with the framework for enabling efficient, flexible and scalable data protection for all your file serving needs. HP File Storage provides agent based data protection which uses the Snapshot capabilities native to the Windows Storage Server platform in addressing the data protection requirements. It provides flexible options which can be used for backing up and restoring data based on its value to business instead of a simple dump to tape of all the data on file-storage. Additionally, it scales right from a small amount of data to the large data sets typically seen in file-serving setups. As the technology is embedded in the Windows platform, additional value-adds provided by the data protection solutions (forever incremental backups, synthetic full backups, source based de-duplication, etc.) can be leveraged seamlessly without going through any additional complex configuration processes.

Below is a short comparison of some of the features between Agent based backup that is a part of HP StoreEasy Storage and traditional NDMP solution:

Agent Based data protection NDMP based data protection

Supported backup mechanism

Regular filesystem backup Snapshot backup

Software Snapshots Transportable snapshots

Filesystem ‘dump’ to media

Supported backup types Full File level incremental Block level incremental

Full File level incremental

Backup granularity

Full System Full Volume Directories Individual files

Full system Full Volume

Backup configuration flexibility

Include/exclude files/directories using standard windows interface

Need storage vendor specific tools to include/exclude files/directories

Backup Windows

No backup window needed with Transportable snapshots

For regular backups, flexible backup policies allow variable data volume backup.

Full volumes are backed up. Less control on backup window management.

De-duplication

Source based de-duplication as supported by data protection application.

Target based de-duplication on backup storage (disk).

Target based de-duplication on backup storage (disk).

Backup concurrency Highly flexible. Highly concurrent

backup with multiple backup streams to a single drive.

Limited flexibility. One backup object per drive.

Target device configuration Direct Attached FC attached ACSLS

Direct Attached FC attached

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LAN (i.e. StoreOnce Catalyst) iSCSI

Backup optimization Synthetic Full backups Virtual Full backups Forever Incremental backups

None

Media sharing with other backup types

Can have File-storage and other data on the same backup media

Separate backup media for NDMP backups

To summarize, the agent based backup capability on HP StoreEasy 1000/3000/5000 Storage provides you a flexible, efficient and scalable data protection capability that enables you to meet the different business driven data protection requirements for all deployment sizes.

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Appendix A – HP NAS Solution product family overview HP StoreEasy Storage leverages proven HP BladeSystem and ProLiant hardware for maximum efficiency and manageability. HP offers purpose-built file-serving appliances and NAS/SAN gateways to meet the needs of virtually any deployment, including:

• Simple storage for entry-level file consolidation: HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage

• Turnkey, active-active high availability for midsized environments: HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage

• A SAN gateway to use with existing disk arrays: HP StoreEasy 3000 Gateway Storage

HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage

HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage is the fast and easy way to add Windows Storage Server-powered unified shared storage to your small or medium environment. HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage offers you more for your money: it's a multi-protocol file server for Windows and UNIX/Linux, supporting file shares and iSCSI storage for applications and virtual environments. Built on industry standards, HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage is an economical and easy to manage solution for consolidating to centralized shared network storage. The operating system (Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard Edition) is pre-installed, so you'll be up and running in minutes.

HP StoreEasy 3000 Gateway Storage

HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage boost the value of your array or SAN by adding Windows-powered IP-based gateway services to it. You'll spend less time and effort on maintenance and deliver a better return-on-investment for your array/SAN when you consolidate to a single, unified storage pool that can serve files to your clients and blocks to your servers via multiple protocols (FC/iSCSI or SAS/iSCSI). As with HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage, the operating system (Windows Storage Server 2012 Standard Edition) is pre-installed, so you can install and use the system very quickly. Industry standards protect your investment by providing compatibility with your network and applications, and a Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) license is included to provide high availability and reduce downtime.

HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage

HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage is ideal for midsize companies with Windows-centric environments. It helps them control and file unstructured data cost-efficiently. This high availability solution includes a two-node Network Attached Storage (NAS) cluster with shared storage built on HP BladeSystem technology and integrated into a converged 3U chassis. This

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provides high availability and greater storage density in one platform, with easy expansion options using attached storage racks.

HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage uses Microsoft Windows Storage Server 2012Standard Edition and is designed to deliver a better file serving experience. Storage technologies such as file deduplication and iSCSI provide unique storage features for these converged file and block I/O network attached storage appliances. HP and Windows Storage Server 2012 management software provide simplified deployment and management.

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Appendix B: Backing Up Shares with VSS Snapshots When applications are actively writing to files, the files may be in an inconsistent state until the write operation completes. Windows Storage Server 2012 addresses this with Volume Shadow Services (VSS), which enables you to read a self-consistent copy of your shares even if they are actively being written. The Shadow Copy service creates fast volume copies which can then be backed up by your choice of backup utilities. This produces a near-instantaneous “backup window,” since the original volume is continuously available to all users. The backup utility can back up the shadow copy at any time.

This is the recommended best practice for backing up your shares and volumes. Use VSS to take a Snapshot of your volume, and then use your desired backup method to back up the Snapshot.

Normally your backup utility takes care of creating the Snapshot and backing up the data from that Snapshot. There are also several options if you need to create your own Snapshots:

• GUI: The Disk Management tool provides a few simple tools to create, delete, and manage Volume Shadow Copies.

• Interactive or scriptable command-line interface: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc772172.aspx

• Volume Shadow Copy API: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa384648%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

The Snapshot can be mounted either by Microsoft tools, by a local backup utility, or remotely mounted from a backup server. This provides both local and transportable snapshots based on the underlying storage capabilities.

Volume-based snapshots of shares can also be made available to users, allowing end users to recover point-in-time archives of their files without having to involve the IT administrator.

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For more information

To read more about HP StoreEasy 5000 Storage, go to http://www.hp.com/go/StoreEasy5000

To read more about HP StoreEasy 3000 Storage, go to http://www.hp.com/go/StoreEasy3000

To read more about HP StoreEasy 1000 Storage, go to http://www.hp.com/go/StoreEasy1000

To read more about HP Data Protector software, go to http://www.hp.com/go/dataprotector

To read more about Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager, go to http://www.microsoft.com/dpm

Get connected http://www.hp.com/go/getconnected

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© Copyright 2012 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Windows Storage Server 2012, Volume Shadow Copy Service, DPM, Data Protection Manager are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.

4AA4-4674ENW, Created November 2012