Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
VOX VERITAS®
DATA AVAILABILITY 101:Questions and Answers
with Availability Expert Evan Marcus
T H E V O I C E O F V E R I T A S
i s s u e / f o u r . t w o
VERITAS SANPOINT CONTROL™ V2.0 Realizing SAN Potential
with a Powerful Centralized Management Tool
THE VERITAS STORAGE MIGRATOR™
Product FamilyStorage Management for Intelligent Data Growth
EXCITE@HOME
Uses VERITAS TechnologyTo Improve ROI and
Increase Backup Performance
VERITAS DELIVERS
NEW QUALITY OF STORAGE SERVICE
for Storage Area Networks
DATA AVAILABILITY 101:Questions and Answers
with Availability Expert Evan Marcus
VERITAS SANPOINT CONTROL™ V2.0 Realizing SAN Potential
with a Powerful Centralized Management Tool
THE VERITAS STORAGE MIGRATOR™
Product FamilyStorage Management for Intelligent Data Growth
EXCITE@HOME
Uses VERITAS TechnologyTo Improve ROI and
Increase Backup Performance
VERITAS DELIVERS
NEW QUALITY OF STORAGE SERVICE
for Storage Area Networks
EditorChris Lemoine ([email protected])
Layout DesignDennis Ocasio ([email protected])Sarah Hardy ([email protected])VERITAS Marketing CommunicationsCreative Services400 International ParkwayHeathrow, Florida 32746
Cover Illustration/DesignSarah Hardy ([email protected])
Contributing illustrations by Creative Servicesdesigners James Poole and Sarah Hardy.
Comments or QuestionsSend e-mail to [email protected] forcomments or questions regarding VOXVERITAS, or to receive your free subscription.
VOX VERITAS magazine is published quarterly by
VERITAS Software Corporation, 1600 Plymouth
Street, Mountain View, CA 94043. No part of this
publication may be reprinted or otherwise
reproduced without permission from the editor.
VERITAS Software does not provide any warranty
as to the accuracy of any information provided
through VOX VERITAS magazine.
VERITAS Software shall not be liable for any
damages incurred as a result of reliance on any
information provided herein.
Copyright © 2001 VERITAS Software
Corporation. All Rights Reserved. VERITAS,
VERITAS SOFTWARE, the VERITAS logo,
Business Without Interruption, and VERITAS
The Data Availability Company are
trademarks or registered trademarks of
VERITAS Software Corporation in the USA
and/or other countries. Other product names
mentioned herein may be trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective
companies. Printed in USA. June 2001.
I S S U E / F O U R . T W O / W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M
Letter from the CEO
3 CEO CornerGary Bloom, VERITAS Software Chief Executive Officer and President
Availability Concepts
4 Data Availability 101Creating Data Availability in Your Business
Success Story
8 Success StoryExcite@Home Uses VERITAS Technology to Improve ROI and Increase Backup Performance
VOX VERITAS®
SANS
10 SANS and QoSSVERITAS Delivers New Quality of Storage Service for Storage Area Networks
12 VERITAS SANPoint Control™
Version 2.0
16 VERITAS SANPoint Control™
Technology Partners
Products and Applications
21 The Real Business Benefits ofServer-Free Backup
23 The VERITAS Storage Migrator™
Product Family:Storage Management for Intelligent Data Growth
25 Achieving High Availabilityof Applications and Data in a Microsoft Windows Environment
Contents
3
JUST RELEASED
VERITAS Backup Exec™ for MicrosoftWindows NT and Windows 2000 Version 8.6Enhances Market-Leading Data ProtectionSoftware
VERITAS just released version 8.6 of its leading data protectionsoftware for Windows environments, VERITAS Backup Exec™.Backup Exec 8.6 will be covered in more detail in the next issueof VOX. The product comes with a large number of newcapabilities and enhancements of existing functions.
New and enhanced features in Backup Exec 8.6include:
Intelligent Image Option – The Intelligent Image Option allowsfor shorter backup times and the reduction of host-server CPUcycles by creating a map of the file system, then producing asingle file of the volume’s image, eliminating the overhead offile-by-file backup.
Agent for Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server – Backup Execis the first solution to offer integrated online data protection forMicrosoft’s SharePoint Portal Server, the intranet knowledgebasemanagement application.
Agent for Lotus Domino – This Agent is now enhanced to usethe native backup APIs in Lotus Domino R5 for online, integratedrecovery of R5 messaging and databases. It protects both localand remote R4 and R5 databases.
Certified for Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter – OnlyVERITAS data protection solutions carry certification for thecomplete line of Microsoft operating systems. The AdvancedServer Edition of Backup Exec for Windows NT and Windows2000 will be able to install on and protect local or remoteWindows 2000 Datacenter Server deployments.
Backup to Disk – This allows you to execute faster backups andrestores by using disk hardware, including hard drives, NASappliances and RAID systems as storage media.
Specified Backup Network – This feature allows administratorsto isolate backup traffic to a sub-network through which to sendbackup traffic. Doing so will reduce the amount of traffic on theprimary LAN and lead to increased data transfer performance.
Web-based ExecView – This backup server monitoring tool isnow updated with a new architecture and Web-based graphicaluser interface. From any computer with a Web browser,administrators can log into the network and review the currentactivity of all Backup Exec servers.
Want more information? Take a look in the VERITAS Backup Execpages in the Products area of VERITAS.com.
TechVOX
27 A Closer Look at Enterprise Data ManagementWith VERITAS Storage Migrator™
for UNIX
30 Efficient Off-Host Processingin Clustered Systems with VERITAS FastResync
31 VERITAS NetBackup™ DataCenter v3.4 Passes Benchmark Testwith Over 700 Gigabyte-per-Hour Restore of the Oracle 8i Database
32 Ask the Doctor
33 New VOX VERITAS Readers’ Forum
Services
34 VERITAS Consulting Services:Turning Data Availability Potential into Reality
Activities
36 The VERITAS Early Adoption Program (EAP)
37 The Book on VERITAS:VERITAS Publishing
38 VERITAS Foundation News…
Events
39 Enabling High Availability (HA) Everywhere
40 5th Annual VERITAS Worldwide Users’ Conference
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M
CEO Corner
The arrival of the Internet has forever alteredthe role of data in business. The"connected" marketplace creates limitless
reach and opportunities – presenting the possibilityof soliciting new mass markets whilesimultaneously fostering highly personalized one-on-one customer relationships. This introducesunprecedented competitive pressures andcustomer demand for real-time response.
In this environment, data is clearly a company’sgreatest asset and must be intelligently leveragedto assure survival… tracking and pursuing newmarkets… anticipating and meeting individualcustomer needs… documenting market trends todevelop better products and services. The solutionsnecessary to manage this new age of digitalinformation go beyond the conventions of storagemanagement, which are tactically focused onsimply "parking" and protecting data.
In the digital marketplace, data achieves itsmaximum strategic value and impact when inmotion – allowing it to be rapidly accessed,shared, replicated and manipulated in criticalapplications at every level of a business enterprise.Data availability keeps data in motion by enablingreliable, unfettered delivery across diversecomputing environments, from the desktop to thedata center. Broader and more strategic thanstorage management, data availability empowersusers to fully leverage data storage, applicationsand the Internet.
VERITAS Software is The Data AvailabilityCompany. We’re uniquely suited to this missionbecause we envisioned the need and shaped ourtechnological innovations, relationships andinfrastructure to provide a data availability"platform" for the market. Validating this visionare the world’s leading technology vendors whohave integrated and leveraged VERITAS technologyas a vital component of their own innovativesolutions and market positions. The ever-growingVERITAS partnership list features the biggestnames in virtually every segment of enterprisestorage, server, application and networkingtechnology. They have helped create an industry-standard VERITAS data availability "layer" acrossmultivendor systems. When installed, all of ourhighly featured solutions integrate easily on acommon foundation, to provide seamless andhighly automated data availability.
Data availability solutions from VERITAS yieldprofound business benefits. VERITAS solutionscreate the means not only to rapidly convert datainto business intelligence, but to make it widelyaccessible as well. The result: the virtual eliminationof downtime, reduced operating costs, enhancedproductivity and unmatched flexibility to respondto new opportunities. Ultimately, VERITAS dataavailability solutions deliver a better bottom lineand a stronger, more competitive market position– an imperative for companies seeking success inthe Internet age.
VERITAS plans to further solidify its place in thetechnology market’s highest tier by aggressivelyexecuting our three-pronged expansion strategy:
1. Extend our leadership position in the dataavailability market through innovation andcontinued increases in research anddevelopment investments. Our investmentsenable our customers to achieve increasinglevels of data availability.
2. Continue expanding support for the diversecombination of servers, operating systems,networks and storage systems used by ourcustomers. VERITAS’ heterogeneous strategyenables our customers the broadest choice forinteroperability of multiple hardware solutionsin the market, leading to improved access todata and dramatically lower costs.
3. Increase the strength and success of ourinternational operations by further expandingour sales and service capabilities to tap into theglobal markets where interest andrequirements for our software are accelerating.
VERITAS is uniquely positioned to thrive in today’sever-changing economic climate. Thank you foryour support, and I look forward to sharing thenext chapter of our growth adventure with you.
Gary L. BloomPresident and Chief Executive OfficerVERITAS Software
Dear Customer:
Gary Bloom Chief Executive Officer and President of VERITAS Software
VERITASsolutions createthe means notonly to rapidlyconvert data intobusinessintelligence, butto make it widelyaccessible aswell.”
“
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 24
5W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M
Evan Marcus is a data availabilityspecialist with VERITAS Software.He has more than 15 years of
experience in UNIX systems. Afterspending five years at SunMicrosystems, Evan joined FusionSystems and, later, OpenVisionSoftware, where he worked to bringthe first high availability softwareapplications for SunOS and Solaris tomarket. Evan is the author of severalarticles and gives talks on the designof high availability systems. Togetherwith Hal Stern of iPlanet he wroteBlueprints for High Availability:Designing Resilient DistributedSystems (2000, John Wiley &Sons). The book has been arunaway success,demonstrating the need foruseful, practical informationabout this topic. It’s about togo into its fifth printing.
Evan has a B.Sc. in ComputerScience from Lehigh University(1984) and an MBA from RutgersUniversity (1989).
Planning and defining theright level of availability
Evan, how would you tell a businessto go about deciding what level ofdata availability it should have?
EM: I never tell a business what levelof availability they need. They tell me.You need to learn what the cost ofdowntime for a particular system is. Ifmy customer doesn’t know that, thenI dig deeper and ask what business isdone with the system. Availability
costs money. In order to find anappropriate level of availability for aparticular system, you need todetermine how much money you canafford to spend to protect it.
Customers will often say that theywant hundred percent uptime. Evenif hundred percent uptime werepossible – it’s not – nobody couldafford it. You have to strike a
balance.There will always be calamities thatyou cannot protect against. What'smore, there will always be certaintypes of failures you cannot recoverfrom without a brief interruption ofsome sort. Even if hundred percentavailability were to become possibleat some point in the future, it wouldprobably be at such a high cost thatit would not make good businesssense to implement it.
How do you know that the basiclevel of data availability, backup, isnot enough for your operationanymore?
EM: Work through a thoughtexperiment. If your system wentdown, and you were forced torestore from backup tapes, how longwould that take? A thoughtexperiment may not be adequate.Actually doing a restore is a muchbetter and more reliable way to runthis test. If recovery takes too longfor your business and production
needs, then it’s time to findadditional levels of protection.
Do you think businesses willneed increasingly higher levelsof data availability as timegoes on?
EM: I believe that most will.What I have seen is that when
there is a significant outage thatwas not properly foreseen or
defended against, a company willrestate its availability requirements forthat particular system, and suddenlyfind more money to protect it. Iexpect that that evolution willcontinue. Beyond that, manybusinesses are becoming more andmore dependent on their systems torun their business, or to performother critical functions. If thosesystems fail, the business can godown. Those systems definitelyrequire additional protection.
Availability 101: Creating Data Availability in your Business
AVAILABILITY CONCEPTS
Q&A with Evan Marcus
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 26
What is the biggest risk to dataavailability in the businesses you see?
EM: Ignorance. People who designand implement critical systems oftenhave limited knowledge of what itactually takes to deliver acceptablelevels of availability. There arehundreds of stories of people whotried to build highly availablesystems, but missed some singlecomponent that caused the wholething to come tumbling down. Forexample, there are anecdotes ofpeople plugging systems into thesame outlet, power strip, or electricalcircuit, causing an overload. Or thecompany who had a jet enginepowering their backup generator, butthe day they needed it they realizedthat they had never filled the jetengine’s gas tank. These may beextreme situations, but many of usmake avoidable mistakes.
Building a high availabilityinfrastructure
How would you define a highavailability environment?
EM: High availability can be lots ofthings. Anything that will makecomputing resources available to yourusers a higher percentage of the time ishigh availability. Sometimes that's justgood practice: testing, documentation,separating production fromdevelopment, and so on. Sometimesit's failover or replication. The moreinvolved the solution the more it costs.Different systems have differentrequirements for availability, and sodifferent levels of spending that areappropriate. You wouldn't necessarilyput failover on a small developmentsystem at a small college, but youmight still take steps to protect itagainst simple forms of failure.
Is it plausible that a storage serviceprovider (SSP) would be able toguarantee 99.999% availability of itsservices?
EM: Probably not. Any vendors whoguarantee any level of availability inany product or service either don'tknow what they're doing or theyhave so many caveats that theguarantee is meaningless. There aretoo many external events that couldcause downtime. My local phoneservice was out for three days lastyear due to a hurricane, for instance.Could a provider in California protectyou against rolling blackouts? UPSsystems are just battery backups, andeventually they drain.
In high availability environmentsmany users forget to documentprocedures, let alone practice themthoroughly. How could one improvethis?
EM: Make documentation a criticalpart of the effort. Make it policy fornew system administrators to spendtheir first days reviewing thedocumentation. Don't accept newdevelopment efforts withoutadequate documentation anddocumentation plans.Documentation must simply becomepart of the routine. I also recommendyou keep fully up-to-date copies ofall documents available offline. Youdon’t want to have thedocumentation needed to reboot asystem on the system that's down.
Do you have any suggestions howbusinesses should best allocate theirfunds for training as opposed tohardware and software?
EM: Training doesn’t replacehardware and software. Trainingmakes your personnel more efficient,
and better able to do their jobs.Training can save money onpersonnel; you don’t need to hire asmany people, and you can makebetter use of those scarce resourceswhen they are properly trained.
What is the best way to write up theprojected return on investment tojustify an expenditure in technology?
EM: This is going to sound muchsimpler than it really is. The way Iwould approach ROI is to consider allof the outages that a particularsolution will prevent or reduce, oreven increase as part of a largersolution. Determine the likelihood ofeach downtime event, the expectedduration of the outage, and cost ofdowntime per hour. Examine thestate of the system relative to thesefactors before you apply a particularsolution, and then look at it after youapply the solution. Subtract the firstfrom the second, and compare thatto the total cost of ownership of thesolution.
What do you think of the state ofSANS today, and how will they playinto high availability?
EM: SANs are likely the future ofhigh availability. They make failoverconfigurations much moreeconomical. They make it easier formore systems to take part in acluster. They also make it easier tocentrally protect data. Data can be,say, mirrored or RAIDed in a centraldata store, and then made availableto cluster members alreadyprotected. This simplifiesadministration on the system end agreat deal.
With the advent of SANS and clusterfile systems, where multiple hosts canserve the same application or data,
AVAILABILITY CONCEPTS
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 7
how important is single-hostavailability?
EM: What matters most is applicationavailability. The host is nothing morethan a mechanism for deliveringapplication service. That is the placeto concentrate your protection efforts.Any particular host is valuable, ofcourse, but only in its ability to deliverthe expected service. SANs make itmuch easier to keep services going,though, because more hosts areavailable to back each other up.
Increasing the viability ofyour high availabilitysolutions
Most high availability solutions on themarket today center around RAID,with a single point of failure at thecontroller. Is there a way to avoidthis?
EM: The more common single pointof failure that I have seen is in thebox itself. Any RAID-array solutionhas single points of failure. I do notrecommend putting all of your disksin a single container. My favoriteapproach for avoiding this singlepoint of failure is to use multiplecontrollers that each connect toseparate disk arrays, and mirror thedata between the arrays. I am notaware of any specific products thatmay be coming along to address this,though.
File system corruption on a shareddisk often becomes a single point offailure. How can I remove it?
EM: When vendors introduce filesystem rollback, as there is fordatabases today, you should be ableto send the file system back in timeto a point when no corruptionexisted. Of course, doing all the rightthings, such as shutting down
systems when you can, will preventan awful lot of file system corruption.
What are the most common sourcesof failures in single-site highavailability designs?
EM: In single-site high availabilitydesigns, it's most often theenvironment: power, cooling,interference from neighboringsystems, things like that.
What do you recommend toconfigure high availability betweenbusinesses that may each own partsof a transaction or a relationship?
EM: Separation. Would you want aproblem in business A's applicationto affect business B's? In mostenvironments, that's just not goingto be acceptable.
Today, a lot of companies are placingtheir Web hosts in sophisticated IDCs– Internet data centers – with severallayers of redundancy in their powerdelivery and internet connectivity.How much emphasis should be onbare metal recoverability of the hoststhemselves?
EM: Bare metal recovery is a veryimportant element of availability. Ifyou lose a system disk, it could takehours to rebuild it if you have toreinstall the operating system andthen reinstall your applications, asopposed to performing a bare metalrecovery.
Can I fail over between a system at amain site in one city and a remotesite in another city in a differentstate?
EM: Yes, but there is a fundamentaldifference between local failover andremote failover. Despite what somevendors tell you, it is a really bad ideato fail over between two remote
sites. The cut-off between local andremote sites is determined by thetechnology. If two systems can accessthe same disks at the same time andcan live on the same subnet, thenthey are candidates for local failover.Updates made to one system can bequickly and easily accessed from theother once a failover is completed.
I've seen problems of "false failover"due to loss of network heartbeat.Besides being a hardware issue, howcommon is it for this to happen?
EM: I have not seen this happen verymuch at all. Good failover softwaregives its heartbeating a high priority,and when the system can squeezeout even a cycle or two, those will gotoward heartbeat maintenance. Ofcourse, if your critical systems areperforming that poorly, then youhave other availability problems thatneed to be addressed.
Do you recommend looking at fault-tolerant systems?
EM: Not really. Failover technology,implemented properly on reliable andwell-designed hardware systems, canbe just as reliable as any faulttolerant system. Remember, faulttolerant systems only protect againsthardware faults. A software oroperating system fault will crash oneof those systems just as quickly as itwill a regular UNIX box.
Do you have any suggestions forhow businesses should evaluateproviders of data storagemanagement software?
EM: The advice I would offer here isthe same as I would offer whenevaluating any provider of hardwareor software. Look for stable,
Continued on page 15
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 5
The customer
The Excite portal, provided by Excite@Home, the leader inbroadband, is a leading Internet content site that morethan 15 million visitors view per day. Excite initially offeredusers free, customized news and information. Today, theExcite portal’s services have expanded to include 18programmed channels of content, state-of-the-art searchtechnology, Web-based e-mail, PAL instant messaging,chat functions and online shopping.
The challenge
Excite@Home needed a tool that would give it the highestreliability and confidence in the systems that run theExcite portal. Because it has more than 15 million onlineusers per day, downtime would mean lost customers, andlost customers would mean lost revenue. “Lack ofavailability is one of the most compelling reasons fortoday’s online users to go somewhere else,” said RichInglis, senior systems administrator at Excite@Home. “Weknew from the start that our systems needed to beavailable to our customers 24 hours a day, seven days aweek.”
Excite@Home also needed a backup solution to protectthe large amount of critical online data generated everyday on the Excite portal, such as customer profiles,content and billing information.
The solution
The criteria for selecting a data-management solution arealways more stringent for an Internet-based business.With customers accessing information 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, there is no time to bring down thesystem to optimize files or restructure databases. All thismust be done quickly and in the background, withoutaffecting the customer’s experience.
Excite@Home initially received an offer for a datamanagement solution from its hardware vendor. Thesoftware package was compatible with Excite@Home’sservers and was free, but the company declined. Instead,it chose VERITAS Database Edition™ for Oracle, a packagethat includes VERITAS Volume Manager™ and VERITASFile System™ with VERITAS Quick I/O™. “We hadprevious knowledge of VERITAS software and we knewthat it was scalable, reliable and easy to use,” statedInglis. “In a business world centered on ROI and costanalysis, it’s really a testament to the quality of theVERITAS Software products when customers choose themover a free software solution.”
The automation and functionality of VERITAS DatabaseEdition allow Excite@Home to effectively manage thesystems that run the Excite portal. “With VERITASSoftware we can have far fewer administrators managinga large array of storage,” explains Inglis. “It has been saidthat you need one administrator for every 250 GB ofstorage. We’re operating with only one administrator forevery 10 TB of storage.” Excite@Home attributes thisperformance to the manageability brought by VERITASVolume Manager and VERITAS File System.
VERITAS Quick I/O also reduces the operating costs ofExcite@Home by offloading CPU burden onto disk. As aresult, Excite@Home can operate the Excite portal withfewer computers. “If we didn’t have VERITAS Quick I/O,we would need to buy bigger computers. This would not
Excite@Home Uses VERITAS Technology toImprove ROI and Increase Backup Performance
SUCCESS STORY
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 28
OverViewbe cost-effective,” stated Inglis. “VERITAS software hasdefinitely saved us a lot of money. We figure that for everyVERITAS Quick I/O instance we save $50,000 per server.”
As a backup solution, Excite@Home initially implemented asoftware package recommended by a vendor. It worked for awhile but couldn’t keep up with the vigorous growth of theExcite portal. Two years after implementing the software, itbecame ineffective. “We had 1.5 million files that we werebacking up at the time,” said Inglis. “If we had to restore thefiles, it would have taken the software 20 days, working aroundthe clock, to restore. This isn’t timely. At one point it becamequicker to re-create the data by hand than to restore it off thetapes.”
Then Excite@Home implemented VERITAS NetBackup™DataCenter. Excite@Home anticipates that the VERITAS solutionwill be able to keep pace as the Excite portal grows andcontinues to add broadband features. The Excite portal currentlyhas 120 TB of data and expects this number to double everyyear. With VERITAS NetBackup DataCenter in place,Excite@Home feels confident that the Excite portal data will bebacked up consistently and will be recoverable in a matter ofhours.
"VERITAS Software is a successful company because it is alwayswriting the scripts and improving its products the way that theadministrators would like them to be improved. So you knowthat it is providing you with tools that are going to be useful toyou," said Inglis. "I count on VERITAS Software to continue toprovide new and better ways for my team and me to get ourjobs done right – the first time. That's what's critical to me andcritical to Excite@Home."
Excite @ HomeThe CustomerThe Excite portal provided by Excite@Home, the leader inbroadband, features free, personalized Web services,multiple programmed channels, state-of-the-art searchtechnology, Web-based e-mail and online shopping
The ChallengeReplace legacy backup system with a solution that willscale to meet the growing demands of the Excite portal
The Solution• VERITAS Database Edition™ for Oracle
• VERITAS NetBackup™ DataCenter
Business Benefits• Less administrator time needed to manage database
• Scalable database backup solution
• Reduced costs by eliminating need for larger computers
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 9W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 9
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 210
SANS
Last March, CEO Gary Bloom andother executives presentedVERITAS’ Quality of Storage
Service (QoSS) vision and technologyroadmap to a large group ofcustomers, partners, press, analystsand industry observers at corporateheadquarters in Mountain View,California. Announcements includedkey partnerships with Cisco andINRANGE Technologies and theintroduction of VERITAS SANPointControl™ 2.0, the softwareapplication that simplifies andcentralizes the management ofheterogeneous SANs (see page xx ofthis issue).
Guests attending the event took partin the first public tour of the VERITASIntegration Lab (iLAB). The iLAB,tightly integrated with VERITAS’SANPoint Consulting Services, is akey component of the VERITAS SANinitiative. The VERITAS iLAB hasgenerated a wide variety of pre-tested SAN configurations byworking closely with virtually everyserver, storage and infrastructurevendor in the industry. Leveraging tenyears of software development andtesting expertise, the iLAB performsextensive stress and interoperabilitytesting on complete SAN solutions inorder to recommend truly robustconfigurations. When they use theextensive SAN knowledge base thatresults from thousands of hours ofdeployment and integrationexpertise, IT organizations canaccelerate the deployment of SANsolutions with confidence.
A new IT operations modelto reduce cost andcomplexity of managingstorage
While SANs deliver the physicalconnectivity necessary for centralizedstorage management, storagevirtualization is an enablingtechnology that makes centralized,logical representation of mixedphysical infrastructures possible.Storage virtualization dramaticallyreduces the need to manageheterogeneous storage infra-structures on a vendor-specific basis.
Managing these highly centralizedinfrastructures and data centers hasincreased the accountability of datacenter teams. A wide range of“storage accounts” such as end-users, applications, departments oreven external organizations (in thecase of xSPs) often rely onoverburdened teams to supply accessto storage in such a way that itmeets their unique performance,availability or security needs. In orderfor data center teams to efficientlysupport the complex storage needsof individual storage accounts, theyneed to adopt a new administrativemodel.
The new Quality of Storage Servicemodel makes use of many years ofSAN deployment expertise atVERITAS. This administrative modeloutlines best practices for monitoringand managing enterprise storageenvironments. QoSS acounts for thefact that IT organizations are creatinga new role of the storageadministrator, a person qualified and
VERITAS Delivers New Quality of Storage Servicefor Storage Area Networks
By Debbie Perry, Product Marketing Manager, SAN Solutions, VERITAS Software
Storage is a highlyvisible investment formost IT organizations.VERITAS Software hasbeen working with awide range of enterprisecustomers over the pastyear, defining newprocesses and tools toefficiently deliverstorage as a service tocritical applications.The Quality of StorageService model satisfiesthe requirement of ourcustomers for hetero-geneous management ofSANs and ensuresVERITAS’ continuedleadership in the SANsoftware market.
— Gary BloomPresident and CEOVERITAS Software
”
“
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 11
equipped with all tools to manage highly centralized andheterogeneous storage environments successfully.Specialized storage administrators are then accountablefor delivering the quality of storage needed by eachorganization, called a storage account. The storageadministrator must be able to deliver storagemanagement services in four key areas of the QoSSmodel. For this, IT organizations need to definerequirements and measure storage service delivery foreach of their storage accounts in these metrics:
• Time-to-recovery defines the time required for anapplication to recover after a failure and have its databack online
• Time-to-capacity is the rate that new storage withthe necessary reliability and performance characteristicscan be assigned to an application and available online,or “provisioned”
• Application performance guarantees ensure thestorage infrastructure delivers the performance neededby specific applications
• Survivability of data gives assurance that anapplication’s stored data can be recovered from arange of failures or administrative mistakes
VERITAS is supporting its customers with new storagevirtualization and centralized data availability solutionsthat address elements of each of the four identified QoSSmetrics. VERITAS SANPoint Control 2.0, a comprehensiveSAN-management application, has the advanced storageprovisioning features necessary to dramatically decreasetime to capacity for each storage account. VERITASSANPoint Foundation Suite HA, announced in January2001, delivers advanced, integrated high availabilityclustering, using VERITAS Cluster Server™ and data-sharing storage virtualization technologies to dramaticallyreduce the time required for enterprise applications torecover from a failure. Important VERITAS solutions thataddress survivability of data include VERITAS NetBackup™‚including VERITAS VERTEX™ Initiative innovations, andVERITAS Volume Replicator™. In combination withVERITAS Volume Manager™, the expanded VERITAS V3™
Storage Virtualization Initiative will be an increasinglypowerful platform for solutions to address QoSS concerns.
Business and operational benefits of QoSS
The QoSS model can yield significant efficiency increasesas it addresses the escalating costs of storage andoptimizes the impact of highly skilled IT staff. By
combining new processes, tools and technologies, thereare five ways in which deploying a QoSS can affect yourbottom line:
• QoSS increases the visibility of the generally hiddenadministrative costs of data storage with a billing orcharge-back model for each storage account, based onlevels of service, giving you an improved cost controlmechanism.
• QoSS reduces delays for IT projects caused by lack ofstorage skills by relying on a specialized storageadministrator team with up-to-date storage expertise.
• QoSS removes inefficiencies by exploiting theeconomies of scale of centralized procurement and bysharing of consolidated server and storage resources.
• QoSS enables flexibility to optimize storage costs andcharacteristics for the changing needs of specificapplications or organizations by allowing storageadministrators to configure varying levels of servicewithout a high degree of manual reconfiguration.
• QoSS supports high levels of storage service – e.g.,very fast application time to recovery – and makes itpossible for data to remain available even when thebusiness is experiencing potentially catastrophicfailures; this service level might be impossible without aworking QoSS model because of costs or complexity.
New developments in VERITAS V3 storagevirtualization technologies
As part of the ongoing VERITAS V3 SAN initiative, thecompany develops innovative storage virtualizationtechnologies that work in combination with VERITASSANPoint Control to let storage administrators furtherreduce time to capacity. As an optional element toVERITAS SANPoint Control, VERITAS Software will soondeliver a new V3 Intelligent Provisioning Service (IPS) tointelligently automate the provisioning of storage tostorage accounts with a rules-based engine. V3 IPS reducesthe complexity of storage provisioning based on needs ofserver applications in increasingly large, heterogeneousSAN installations. VERITAS engineers are also developingVERITAS V3 SAN Volume Manager, a scalable SAN-widevolume provisioning service based on VERITAS VolumeManager™. SAN Volume Manager will allow SANadministrators to more flexibly provision storage at alogical level.
Continued on page 15
SANS
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 212
By Gina Kieslich Bajenaru, Senior Product Marketing Manager, VERITAS Software
VERITAS SANPoint Control™ 2.0:Realizing SAN Potential with a Powerful,Centralized Management Tool
SAN deployment has numerousadvantages, including costmanagement through storage
consolidation, higher availability ofdata, better performance andseamless management of online andoffline data. These resources canbecome truly effective only whenadministrators enjoy full control overthe entire SAN environment with acentralized SAN managementsolution. VERITAS SANPointControl™ gives SAN administratorsthe comprehensive centralizedmanagement functionality they need.The product supports the Quality ofStorage Service model VERITASrecently published (see article onpage 10). VERITAS’ partnerships withleading SAN providers andparticipation in SAN standardsinitiatives ensure that SANPointControl continues to find broadindustry and customer acceptance(see article on page 16). SANPointControl can deliver the availability,scalability and manageability essentialto SAN operations for existing,growing and new SANs. This article isan overview of what this productdoes and what’s new in version 2.0.
Many SAN management productsoffer the ability to understand thephysical connectivity of the SANthrough the discovery of deviceinterconnects. This approach islimited to a one-sided view of theSAN, only displaying a “switchesperspective” of physical connections.Optimal SAN management
must occur at two levels – physicaland logical – to maintain control,regardless of the underlying deviceenvironment. With the discovery ofhost attributes like operating systemplatform, operating system handlesand IP address, SAN managementsoftware can make the critical linkassociating logical devices to a hostand its applications.
VERITAS SANPoint Control deliversthis data-centric management fromhost application through interconnectto the storage resources, regardlessof the underlying hardware andoperating system. As the product ofa hardware-independent company,VERITAS SANPoint Control canseamlessly manage physical andlogical components, bridging all thelayers in the SAN. SANPoint Controlhas a modular architecture, enablingthe integration of new standards anddevices as they become available.
Keys to understanding theSAN environment: accuratediscovery, visualization andinventory reporting
Keeping track of devices and theirconnections in the SAN is a dauntingtask. Today, many administratorstrack and provision their SAN usingspreadsheets and inventory reportsthat are immediately outdated.SANPoint Control eliminates this byautomatically discovering the physicaland logical connections of the SAN,displaying the information in a
VERITAS SANPoint Control Key Features
• Automatic andcomprehensive SANdiscovery, visualization andinventory reporting
• Physical and logical mappingof storage resources to hostapplications to ensure secureownership
• Logical storage groupingand capacity reporting to aidin the effective allocation ofstorage, includingintegration with VERITASVolume Manager™ forstorage virtualization
• Centralized eventmanagement, ensuring SANdevice performance andavailability
• Easy, user-customizablepolicy management
• Real-time and historicalperformance data for qualityof service reporting
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 13
graphical topology map, and logging the data in a varietyof inventory reports. Using both in-band and out-of-bandprotocols, leveraging industry standards, SANPoint Controlautomatically captures and displays details, includingdevice-driver version, firmware level, status, performance,free and in-use port count, hardware manufacturer, modelnumber, worldwide name (WWN) and more. WithSANPoint Control, the storage administrator also candefine an unlimited amount of customized attributes foreach device in the SAN to track information, such asphysical location, account code and many others.
With an intuitive and easy-to-use graphical user interface,SANPoint Control supports intelligent management withthe capability of drilling down into the logical and physicaldevices on the SAN. The zooming ability makes navigatingthrough SAN topology easy. In the topology map,integrated tool tips help identify devices and paths in theSAN, making needless navigation unnecessary.Information on SAN devices – including hosts with hostbus adapters (HBAs), interconnects and storage devices –appears in context, revealing resources in zones as theyare physically and logically connected. SANPoint Controlalso includes an easy and comprehensive search capability.
Securing storage ownership: centralizedLUN management, zoning control andintegration with VERITAS VolumeManager™
To give SAN applications the storage resources theyrequire, they need secure storage from arrays and tapebackup devices to the hosts within the SAN. SANPoint
Control seamlessly integrates secure storage masking fromleading array providers, including Hitachi Data Systemsand EMC, to hosts in the SAN through easy-to-use logicalunit (LUN) security wizards. SANPoint Control alsosupports data-path zoning control for interconnects fromBrocade, QLogic, and McDATA. Using a Zone Wizard toabstract the individual interconnects’ complex zoningtools, creating, adding to or deleting zones is as simple asselecting the devices.
Using VERITAS Volume Manager™ on a SAN gives theadministrator many additional storage virtualizationcapabilities, including pooling storage across multipledisparate arrays on the SAN. When Volume Manager andSANPoint Control are integrated, the administrator caneasily manage a SAN from a single centralized console,which automatically discovers and displays VERITASvolumes in its interface. In addition, SANPoint Controlmakes adding storage to a Volume Manager host veryeasy. When zoning storage to a Volume Manager host,SANPoint Control automatically initiates an operatingsystem rescan so that the new device is immediatelyavailable for use by Volume Manager on the host.
VERITAS SANPoint Control ensures that unauthorizedusers cannot access SAN settings. To give administratorsand operators the access they require, SANPoint Controloffers two modes of security access: administrator anduser. The administrator can make changes and zone theSAN. Users are limited to viewing information.
Effectively allocating storage with logicalstorage grouping and capacity reporting
In many enterprises and storage solution providersbusinesses, end customers want to know whether storageresources are managed as a group and have the focusthat they require. With SANPoint Control, administratorscan easily define and locate resources that are owned orleased by a specific group to make management of criticalcustomer resources easy. In addition, the LUN Query Toolin SANPoint Control enables administrators to search theSAN for a specific type of storage that matches user-defined quality-of-service (QoS) requirements (capacity,configuration, location, RAID level, cost) and returns a listof all storage that meets those requirements.
SANPoint Control can deliver detailed capacity reports toaid in growth planning and gathers detailed informationfor use in charge-back reports. SANPoint Control tracks
SANS
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 214
LUN allocation to hosts as well as tostorage groups, distilling real-timeand historical reports that clearlyshow where storage resources arebeing consumed.
Tracking SAN events usingcentralized devicemanagement
The SANPoint Control real-time alertviewer monitors heterogeneousdevice status, providing extensiveproactive management capabilities ofthe SAN environment. By supplyingadvanced policies on SAN devices,SANPoint Control monitors the statusand performance of the devices andalerts when behavior falls outsideacceptable user-defined boundaries.If vendor-specific management isnecessary – for firmware updates, forexample – SANPoint Control gives in-
context launch support for elementmanagers supplied by the devicevendor. In addition, the administratorcan telnet to the device to manage itdirectly by simply right-clicking thedevice in the SANPoint Controlconsole.
Proactive SAN quality-of-service management andSAN policies
SANPoint Control presents both real-time and historical performance datafor critical service-level parameterssuch as connectivity, available spaceand throughput. Real-timeperformance monitoring, withflexible user-defined thresholds,notifies administrators about issuesthat could affect overall SANperformance before they have animpact. Logging this data for
reporting greatly extends theadministrator’s capability to audit andvalidate service-level agreements.
SANPoint Control has a powerful andflexible policy-management service.With this, each SAN environment canbe customized to define whatparameters are monitored and howthey should be responded.Notification and action options forthese responses include e-mail,command line script, PERL Script, andSNMP traps. Out-of-the-box policiesare included, based on thecollaborative knowledge of VERITASand its partners who are SANhardware providers. Standard reportssupport common storage service-levelagreements.
Support for Microsoft Windows 2000 andWindows NT 4.0
Discovery and visualization of the following devices:
• Brocade 2040/50 and 2240/50 switches
• Compaq StorageWorks array enclosures
• McDATA and QLogic switch support, enhanced withlatest in-band methodologies
• Additional VERITAS Volume Manager attributes: MediaHost, Media IO Paths and Media Public Capacity
Event and performance management
• Threshold-based monitoring
• Switch device and/or port status (online/offline)
• Fabric events (fabric split/join etc.)
• SNMP traps from switches and arrays
• Traffic/error thresholds on switch port or link
• Utilization/error statistics on arrays
• Environmental (power, temperature, fan etc.)
• Notification services, via e-mail or the administrationconsole, use SNMP to communicate with managementframeworks (Openview etc.)
• Policies can be either preconfigured out-of-the-box, orcan be modified by the administrator, with the optionof invoking a command or script
New Features in Version 2.0 of VERITAS SANPoint Control
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 15
Reporting
SANPoint Control 2.0 comes with over 40 out-of-the-boxreports. It also includes an ODBC-compliant database withthe ability to export and create custom reports. Reportscover:
• Inventory of fabrics, devices, hosts, switches, HBAs andgroups
• Capacity by host, storage device or group
• Historical alerts
• Real-time and historical performance, including traffic,errors, summary and detailed performance reports
Logical storage grouping
You can now:
• Define logical groups of SAN objects:
• Generic groups: hosts, storage devices, interconnects
• Storage groups: storage devices
• Storage accounts: hosts and devices
• Add user-defined attributes to storage
• Perform a search with the advanced storage searchtool to discover LUNs that match one or moreproperties, like type (mirrored LUN, raid-5 LUN, etc.) orvendor (EMC, HDS, etc.)
Enhanced storage access and allocation
• Switch-based zoning administration
• LUN security (LUN binding and LUN masking) for EMC,HDS and Compaq arrays
• Centralized interface with simple wizard to:
– Add a suitable storage object to a storage accountor perform the necessary zoning and/or maskingoperations to assign a LUN to a specific host
– Rescan the operating system and make VERITASVolume Manager aware that a new disk is availableafter zoning and masking operations are complete
– Improve launch-in-context of the Volume Managerconsole to add a disk to a disk group
successful companies, who partner with, or at least workwell with, your other key vendors. Look for vendors whowill not lock you into a technology.
You’ve written a book about high availability and how toaccomplish it in a business operation. Do you have anyother plans for writing or teaching?
EM: There is a full day seminar based on the material inthe book, which I present several times a year, atconferences like VERITAS Vision, along with SANS, LISA,and Usenix. I expect that there will be a second edition tothe book sometime in the next couple of years. At thispoint, I don’t see myself writing another whole book fromscratch.
These initiatives are based on emerging storagenetworking standards, and will evolve with them. VERITASSoftware is an active participant in a number of standardsgroups including the Storage Networking IndustryAssociation (SNIA), the Fibre Alliance, the Jiro platformexpert group and the Fibre Channel Industry Association(FCIA).
For additional information on VERITAS’ Quality of StorageService vision, please go towww.veritas.com/us/products/san/.
Availability 101 — Continued from page 7
QoSS in SANs — Continued from page 11
Word Search Puzzle Solution — From page 20
Read the Solution upside-down.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 216
VERITAS SANPoint Control™ Technology PartnersWorking Together to Bring SAN Benefits to Customer Operations
VERITAS is actively engaged with industry-leadingproviders of SAN technology and standardsorganizations enabling solutions that meet the
requirements of our shared SAN customers. The web ofpartnerships surrounding VERITAS SANPoint Control™ isvery typical for the degree of cooperation andcollaboration VERITAS engages in. The scope of thesestrategic partnerships ranges from adoption of VERITAScore technologies and OEM agreements to full productinteroperability and integration support. The VERITASapproach to doing business reflects a spirit of cooperationand true heterogeneity. As a customer, you will be able toenjoy a wide array of viable platform choices.
VERITAS SANPoint Control 2.0 supports discovery andvisualization of a wide range of SAN storage suppliersproducts including those from ADIC, IBM Corporation, LSILogic Corporation, MTI Technology Corporation, STK, SUNand many others (see article on page 12).
VERITAS SANPoint Control in a Brocadeenvironment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports the Brocade Silkworm2040, 2050, 2240, 2250, 2400 and 2800 switches. WithSANPoint Control, administrators can discover andvisualize Brocade Silkworm switches, their principal orsubordinate role in the SAN, total and free ports, firmwarelevel, what devices are connected to each port, portstatus, zoning information and more.
Through integration of the VERITAS and Brocade SANtechnology, customers can work with a single point ofmanagement and control. Its capabilities include:
• Discovery and visualization of the Brocade switch
• Integration of VERITAS SAN management technologiesand the Brocade Fabric OS for improved enterprise SANmanagement
• Support for the latest Brocade Fabric OS, version 2.3
• Launch-in-context of Brocade Web tools
• Wizard-based zoning through SANPoint Control consoleand command line interface
• Out-of-the-box performance, availability and statusmanagement of the interconnect as well as easy,immediate deployment of event management andnotification services
VERITAS and Brocade joint programs
• Brocade encloses a 60-day trial version of VERITASSANPoint Control with every Brocade switch
• A cooperative beta program ensures out-of-the-boxcompatibility
• Joint marketing and educational activities promote SANadoption and management
• VERITAS is a Brocade Fabric Access Partner
VERITAS SANPoint Control in a Compaqenvironment
VERITAS SANPoint Control 2.0 will automatically discoverand visualize the Compaq StorageWorks arrays with theirexposed logical units (LUNs).
VERITAS SANPoint Control in an EMCenvironment
SANPoint Control 2.0 will automatically discover andvisualize the EMC Symmetrix arrays and their associatedLUNs. SANPoint Control also supports LUN masking –including management, creation and editing – of the EMCSymmetrix devices.
SANS
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 17
VERITAS SANPoint Controlin an EMULEX environment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports theEmulex LightPulse LP7000E, LP8000and the LP8000DC. SANPointControl automatically discovers thesehost bus adapters and their physicaland logical host-based connections to the interconnectand any underlying storage devices.
VERITAS and Emulex joint programs
Joint initiatives include support of the Common Host BusAdapter (HBA) application programming interface (API).
VERITAS SANPoint Control in a Hitachienvironment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports the Hitachi Freedom 5800,7700E, 9200 and 9900. SANPoint Control willautomatically discover and visualize the Hitachi arrays andtheir associated LUNs. SANPoint Control 2.0 also offerslaunch support of Hitachi’s Freedom Storage RemoteManagement Console as well as the Freedom StorageResource Manager. In addition, SANPoint Control 2.0allows out-of-the-box performance and status monitoringwith notification services for the HDS line of arrays.
VERITAS further extends its capability with the new 9960to provide LUN Masking and LUN binding support nativelythrough the SANPoint Control console.
VERITAS and Hitachi joint programs
• The companies will jointly engineer technology foropen, heterogeneous enterprise SAN management
• Hitachi will include a 60-day trial version of SANPointControl 2.0 with every 5800, 7700E, 9200 and 9900array
• Hitachi and VERITAS will collaborate on joint salesmodel and development programs to support theseefforts
VERITAS SANPoint Control in an INRANGEenvironment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports the FC/9000 Director aswell as the FC/9000 8- and 16- port edge switchesthrough discovery and visualization, giving SAN managersinformation about the FC/9000 line, including: theprincipal or subordinate role in the SAN, total and freeports, firmware level, what devices are connected to eachport, port status and more. In addition, SANPoint Control2.0 supports out-of-the-box performance and statusmonitoring with notification services.
VERITAS and INRANGE joint programs
• INRANGE will include a 60-day trial version ofSANPoint Control 2.0 with all INRANGE FC/9000Directors and switches, starting in the second quarterof 2001
• INRANGE will develop consulting packages around theinstallation and configuration of SANPoint Control withthe FC/9000 Director and FC/900 8- and 16-port edgeswitches
• INRANGE will resell SANPoint Control licenses as partof its consulting package
• INRANGE and VERITAS will cooperate in jointmarketing initiatives
• INRANGE and VERITAS will jointly develop SANmanagement solutions that compliment mutualcustomer needs
VERITAS SANPoint Controlin a JNI environment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports theFibreStar FCI-1063-N and the FC64-1063-N host bus adapters. SANPoint Controlautomatically discovers these host bus adapters and theirphysical and logical host based connections to theinterconnect and any underlying storage devices.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 218
VERITAS and JNI joint programs
Joint initiatives include support of the Common HBA API.
VERITAS SANPoint Control ina McDATA environment
SANPoint Control 2.0 supports theMcDATA ED-5000 Director throughdiscovery and visualization of theMcDATA Directors, their principal orsubordinate role in the SAN, firmware level, total and freeports, what’s connected to each port, port status, zoninginformation and more.
Integration of the McDATA and VERITAS technology offerscentralized management capabilities, including:
• Wizard-based zoning through the SANPoint Controlconsole
• Out-of-the-box performance, availability and statusmanagement of the interconnect
• Out-of-the-box policy, event management andnotification services
• Launch-in-context of the McDATA Enterprise FabricConnectivity (EFC) Manager
VERITAS and McDATA joint programs
McDATA will distribute a demonstration version ofSANPoint Control 2.0 on a partner marketing CD withevery McDATA Director shipped with EFCM Manager inthe second quarter of 2001.
VERITAS SANPointControl in a QLogicenvironment
SANPoint Control 2.0supports the 2200F and2202F QLogic SANBladehost bus adapters as well as the QLogic SANBox 8- and16-port switches. SANPoint Control discovers these hostbus adapters and their physical connection to the SAN.SANPoint Control also supports discovery of QLogicswitches and their principal or subordinate role in theSAN, firmware level, total and free ports, what devices are
connected to each port, port status, zoning informationand more.
Integration of QLogic technology and VERITASSANPoint Control results in:
• Discovery and visualization of the SANBlade host busadapter and interconnect
• Wizard-based zoning for QLogic SANBox switchesthrough the SANPoint Control console
• Out-of-the-box performance, availability and statusmanagement of the SANBox switch
• Out-of-the-box policy, event management andnotification services
• Launch-in-context of the QLogic SANsurferinterconnect manager
VERITAS and QLogic joint programs
• QLogic is currently including a 60-day trial version ofVERITAS SANPoint Control with every QLogic SANboxswitch and host bus adapter
• As a one-stop shop for customers, QLogic is resellingVERITAS SANPoint Control directly, branded as VERITASSANPoint Control for QLogic
• Joint initiatives to inform and educate the market onour shared SAN solutions and support of the CommonHBA API
VERITAS and Sun Microsystems SANcollaborative programs
Sun Microsystems is licensing VERITAS V3™ SAN AccessLayer technology and VERITAS SANPoint Control. Sun willdistribute these technologies integrated into the Jirotechnology-based Sun StorEdge management console.
SANS
We are updating our subscription list!
We are revamping the subscription list for VOX VERITAS and we don’t want to lose your order. Please take a moment tofill out the form below to keep your name on our free subscriber list.
Fax your completed subscription form to 407-418-5217, or e-mail your subscription request with the information listedbelow to [email protected].
Don’t forget to pass this on to a friend that would like to receive a free subscription as well!
❑ Subscribe me to VOX VERITAS. My complete mailing information is below.
❑ Change my address or contact information. My name, company name and any information that has changed is notedbelow.
❑ Cancel my subscription. Please see my name, company name and e-mail.
* First name______________________________ Middle Initial ______ *Last name_________________________________
Title __________________________________________________________________________________________________
Company name________________________________________________________________________________________
* Address 1 _____________________________________________________________________________________________
Address 2 _____________________________________________________________________________________________
* City __________________________________________________________________________________________________
* State/Province____________________________________ *Zip/postal code ______________________________________
* Country ______________________________________________________________________________________________
* E-mail __________________________________________ Telephone ___________________________________________
Fields marked with * are mandatory.
I would prefer to read VOX VERITAS…
❑ In print ❑ Web-based
My relationship to VERITAS is that of a …
❑ Customer ❑ Partner ❑ Consultant
❑ Investor ❑ Analyst ❑ Employee
❑ Other Please explain _________________________________________________________________________________
If you have any comments and feedback on the content of VOX VERITAS, please e-mail it to the editor, Chris Lemoine, [email protected]. Thank you very much for your help!
VOX VERITAS®
Downtime
Backup ExecCluster ServerCreative ServicesData AvailabilityDatabase EditionEAPEarly Adoption ProgramFastResynchGary Bloom
High AvailabilityIntelligent Disaster RecoveryLANNetBackupQoSSROISANSANPoint ControlServer Free Agent
Shared Storage OptionStorage MigratorVERITASVERITAS FoundationVERTEX InitiativeVISIONVPro ServicesVolume Manager
The VERITAS Word Search Puzzle
Now that you’ve completed and faxed in your VOX VERITAS subscription information update form, it’s timefor a moment of recreation. Locate and circle the terms listed below. Each of these terms appears somewherein this issue of VOX VERITAS. Search forwards, backwards, horizontally, vertically and diagonally. Have fun!
Solution on page 15
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 21
VERITAS recently introduced VERITAS NetBackup™version 4.0 with its ServerFree Agent. Server-freebackup from VERITAS means moving data directly
from disk to tape without going back through the hostserver. The technology is meant to reduce the impact onIT storage infrastructures and reduce the cost of systemsownership, but what does this actually mean? How willusers be able to state the real benefits of this VERITAStechnology? More importantly, how will VERITAS server-free technology lead to an improved bottom line fromboth a business and an IT point of view? To answer thesequestions, let’s take a look at two of the main benefitsassociated with server-free backup technology.
Advantage #1 – server and LAN resourcesavings: reduced CPU, I/O, memory andnetwork impact
The problem
In most LAN-based backup architectures, data flows fromeach server being backed up across the LAN to adedicated backup server. This means each server beingbacked up is involved in the backup process. In the past,businesses could handle this process during allocatedbackup windows. Today, nobody will want to tolerate thissort of impact on critical servers. Resources such as CPU,I/O, memory and network facilities must be dedicated tobusiness transactions, not backup. Backup is important,but it must consume as little of these resources aspossible.
In addition, some corporations have begun to spend moreof their IT budgets to purchase additional servers forbackups. However, IT purchasing dollars for hardware,software or human resources are not keeping pace withdata growth. Portions of the budget are being lost to thepurchase of additional hardware. While this might fix theproblem initially, data growth is not slowing down, butkeeps increasing. This spending model does not lead to ascalable technology. IT departments need to make theirdollars go further.
Snapshots combine with direct disk-to-tapemovement for high performance backup
The largest benefit associated with the VERITAS server-freetechnology is the reduction in the “backup footprint” atthe host server-level. The ServerFree Agent’s use ofsnapshot technology combines with direct disk-to-tapemovement to significantly reduce CPU, I/O and memoryoverhead in the host server. It also places fewer burdenson the network. A test shows how dramatic this reductioncan be. In figure 1, the performance meter shows theimpact a standard Oracle backup using VERITASNetBackup can have on a system. While this is justifiablefor some IT operations, global enterprises usually cannotafford such a high impact on their systems. In figure 2, wecan see how small the impact is on an Oracle backup thatwas performed using the VERITAS NetBackup ServerFreeAgent. The same values (CPU, I/O, memory and network)go down to the point of almost being non-existent.Testing has also shown that these results only improve asthe amount of data increases.
In addition, being able to deliver more performance witha single backup server will also allow IT departments toreduce capital expenditure on additional server hardware.This becomes possible, because server-free technologyfrom VERITAS requires that a server only receive and passa small amount of metadata to a third-party copy engineinstead of handling all backup data by itself.
PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS
By Michael Adams, Product Marketing Manager, VERITAS Software
The Real Business Benefits of Server-Free Backup
Figure 1 Figure 2
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 222
PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONSVAdvantage #2 – leveraging storage areanetwork technology and applicationinvestments
The problem
Storage area network (SAN) technology supports serverand storage consolidation, improves performance,distance bridging and connectivity through fibre channel,and increases the backup and restore capabilities for IToperations. IT managers are looking to maximize the valueSANs contribute to their businesses.
Hot backups currently serve as the best solution to backup critical applications such as Microsoft Exchange orOracle Financials. However, enterprise environments needmore advanced and higher performing techniques forbackup and recovery. In addition, users may not be awareof the fact that application vendors must enable their APIsso that third-party vendors can make server-freetechnology happen for these applications. Withoutenabling these application APIs for advanced functionality,server-free backup is not possible.
Low-impact backup and ROI improvementwith VERITAS server-free backup
VERITAS server-free backups introduce a new level offunctionality to a SAN environment beyond what iscurrently available. The movement of data across adedicated network without host/server involvement canhelp leverage SAN infrastructure and expenses beyondLAN-free backup (see figure 3). This will help justify $400
to $1,000 per-port costs of SAN hardware. In addition, itwill maximize the use of SAN hardware such as fibrechannel switches and software like the VERITASNetBackup Shared Storage Option™.
When applications can be backed up using the NetBackupServerFree Agent, data protection will not have a majorimpact on users trying to access them. Once theServerFree Agent creates a snapshot, it releases theapplication, which can then continue with its transactions.Applications are no longer involved in the backup process.VERITAS takes hot backups to the next step, increasingthe productivity of the application server while deliveringdata protection.
While it is true that application vendors must enable APIsto make this functionality available, some of the mostpopular application and database vendors on the marketeither have this technology or will offer it in the very nearfuture. For the rest, it will not be long before globalenterprise class users require vendors to enable APIs forsnapshot type capabilities.
Future outlook
VERITAS continuously enhances its products. VERITAS’server-free technology will see improvements in terms offlexibility, meaning multiple operating system platformsand snapshots that can be taken, and more, as well asperformance. However, bear in mind that this is already afully viable, highly effective technology. While VERITASserver-free technology is not for everybody, its benefits forusers with increasing backup and performance needscannot be overlooked.
Figure 3
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 23
If IT organizations had limitless amounts of disk storageavailable to satisfy the needs of users and applications,the concept of storage management (HSM) would not
exist. However, IT budgets are limited, and data and datastorage resources must be managed intelligently.
Storage management and hierarchical storagemanagement (HSM) are proven concepts in the mainframeworld. HSM uses management policies according to whichdata is migrated to secondary storage on the basis ofcriteria such as file age and size. This allows systemmanagers to manage data proactively by ensuring thatonly relevant data is kept online, and gives them anautomated way of moving idle data to a less expensivestorage medium. Research shows that as much as 80percent of networked files are used less than once permonth. Often, IT organizations are incurring the overheadof managing data that has not been accessed in monthsor years.
File migration for more efficient, lessexpensive data storage
The VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator™ family ofproducts is the solution for keeping critical data availablewhile reducing the amount of online storage to manageand maintain. NetBackup Storage Migrator monitors diskcapacity on network servers and, when necessary, movesinfrequently accessed data to secondary storage, such astape, optical libraries or even low-cost disk subsystems.This reduces the amount of time required to performbackups and restores. NetBackup Storage Migrator frees
up storage space on network servers and eliminatesdifficult out-of-space messages. Users and applications donot need to know that a file has been migrated, andretrieval is completely transparent.
By Jeff Lundberg, Product Marketing Manager, VERITAS Software
The VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator™
Product Family:Storage Management for Intelligent Data Growth
VERITAS NetBackup StorageMigrator™ has a Java GUI.Storage Migrator featuresmenu options to set the filesystem state to simplifyadministration.
VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator™
Major Benefits
Control hardware costs
Delay or eliminate disk hardware expenses by proactivelymanaging data. Reduce peak quarter- or year-end diskrequirements by adjusting usage thresholds to guaranteemaintenance of minimal levels of free space.
Reduce backup times
Stop backing up inactive files, wasting online disk space aswell as tape, server CPU and network resources.
Increase application availability and userproductivity
Eliminate outages due to out-of-space errors bymonitoring disk storage on networked servers andautomatically migrating inactive files to secondary storagewhen a disk begins to fill.
Avoid user distraction
Users and their applications can see and access fileswithout being concerned with their actual location;NetBackup Storage Migrator retrieves requested filesautomatically and transparently.
Enjoy simple and flexible configuration
Administrators can configure NetBackup Storage Migratorto meet their unique needs; they may exclude specific filesfrom migration, schedule retrievals in advance and designmultiple-level migration strategies.
Manage your heterogeneous systems
NetBackup Storage Migrator supports heterogeneouscomputing environments; it manages and migrates datafrom both Windows and UNIX servers.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 224
Policy-based storage management andtransparent access
NetBackup Storage Migrator leaves behind smallplaceholder files to ensure that users maintain theirfamiliar directory structure. The placeholders allow easytransparent file access, automatically retrieving migratedfiles. When a user attempts to access or open a migratedfile, it is automatically retrieved from secondary storageand cached to the online file system. NetBackup StorageMigrator automatically manages the storage on the fileserver according to administrator-defined guidelines setfor each individual managed volume. In addition to theautomatic storage management features, an administratorcan create and schedule activity to move specific data toand from secondary storage at specific time intervals,using the calendar-based JAVA interface.
A complete family of migration solutions
The NetBackup Storage Migrator family of productsincludes VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator for UNIX,VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator for MicrosoftWindows and VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator forExchange. The latter was previously called “VERITASRemote Storage for Exchange” and was discussed underthat name in VOX VERITAS 4.1. The NetBackup StorageMigrator family integrates easily into almost anyenterprise architecture. NetBackup Storage Migrator forUNIX supports Sun Solaris, HP-UX and SGI IRIX. Theproducts support optical disk storage systems and tapevaults as well as mainframe-based data centers.NetBackup Storage Migrator for UNIX integrates withVERITAS NetBackup™ to manage media. NetBackupStorage Migrator for Exchange migrates Exchangeattachments to near-line or offline media managed byVERITAS Backup Exec™, VERITAS NetBackup or WindowsRSM.
Integrate with VERITAS NetBackup™ forfaster backups
NetBackup Storage Migrator can integrate with VERITASNetBackup for very efficient backup and easy recovery ofdata. There are strong performance and operationaladvantages to recommend this. In this configuration, allyour data is recoverable, and backups are faster.Migrating seldom-used files to secondary storage,NetBackup Storage Migrator helps you shorten backuptimes by reducing the amount of data written during abackup. When integrated with VERITAS NetBackup, anyfile system backups write only the placeholder files formigrated files. NetBackup is HSM-aware, so backupoperations do not trigger unnecessary caches of migratedfiles. Also, NetBackup and NetBackup Storage Migratoruse the same media manager, which allows theapplications to efficiently share secondary storage devices.
Download a free performance analysis tool
From the Storage Replicator page on the VERITAS Website, you can download a free File System Analyzer(FSA).The FSA graphically illustrates the benefits of usingNetBackup Storage Migrator. It scans the file system andlets you perform a what-if scenario, setting differentcriteria for migration to observe possible file system spaceusage improvements. Go to
h t t p : / / w w w . v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o d u c t s /s t o r a g e m i g r a t i o n /
for this download.
See also “A Closer Look at Enterprise Data Managementwith VERITAS Storage Migrator for UNIX” on page 27 ofthis issue.
PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONSV
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 225
New challenges for Windows Systemsadministrators
Protecting applications and data in today’s rapidly growingMicrosoft Windows environments is challenging. Theamount of data that needs to be managed is increasing,as are availability requirements. Administrators have to domore, but have less time to do it in. Adding to thechallenge has been the lack of sophisticated managementtools for the Windows platform and Windowsapplications. Information from a recent Dataquest studyconfirms that Windows systems administrators spend onaverage twice as much time managing storage than theirpeers in the UNIX world.
With the release of VERITAS Cluster Server™ v1.2.1 forMicrosoft Windows NT, two key VERITAS solutions forachieving high application and data availability in aWindows environment – VERITAS Cluster Server andVERITAS Volume Manager™ 2.6 for Microsoft WindowsNT – are now integrated. In this article, we describe a fewbenefits of this integration.
Advantages of product integration
VERITAS Cluster Server and VERITAS Volume Managerboth help to increase the availability of applications anddata. Both support heterogeneous platforms, operating inboth UNIX and Windows environments.
VERITAS Cluster Server is a powerful clustering solutionthat ensures business continuity for applications and data.A VERITAS Cluster Server cluster configuration consists ofa group of interconnected servers (also called “nodes”)that use a common set of storage disks or disk groups.Applications and services installed to the shared disks canbe hosted by any node in the cluster. Cluster Servermonitors all critical components for failure by performingtasks such as querying a network interface, writing to anactive database, or reading from a physical disk. If itdetects a failure with any component on the system thatan application is dependent on, VERITAS Cluster Server
migrates, or “fails over” that application to another serverin the cluster. In the event of another failure, it willmigrate the application to another node in the cluster,allowing continuous client access even in the event ofmultiple system- or application-level failures.
VERITAS Volume Manager is an advanced disk andstorage management solution for Windows enterprisecomputing environments. It alleviates downtime duringsystem maintenance and unplanned outages by enablingeasy, online disk administration and configuration. VolumeManager supports disk usage analysis, RAID techniquesand the dynamic reconfiguration of disk storage while asystem is online. These tools ensure continuous dataavailability and data protection. They also eliminate theneed for servers to be taken offline for administrative andmaintenance tasks, allowing system administrators tokeep data available to end users when they need it.
The integration of VERITAS Cluster Server and VERITASVolume Manager for Windows NT brings several keybenefits to users. Most importantly, the integration enablesthem to take advantage of a key Volume Manager feature– the ability to dynamically grow storage in a clusteredenvironment without taking data or applications offline. Inaddition, when used with VERITAS Cluster Server, VolumeManager can present disk resources as cluster diskresources. This enables VERITAS Cluster Server tocommunicate with Volume Manager about which serversneed access to specific storage devices in the cluster, bothbefore and after application failover in the cluster itself.This ability to re-map applications to storage is particularlyuseful in a storage area network (SAN) environment toensure overall availability of both applications and data.
Managing shared disks in a clusteredenvironment
Data growth is a constant challenge for Windowsadministrators; Volume Manager helps meet thischallenge by enabling administrators to grow or alterstorage online, without making applications or data
Achieving High Availability of Applications andData in a Microsoft Windows EnvironmentVERITAS Cluster Server™ and VERITAS Volume Manager™ Integration
By James Gentes, Product Manager, and Craig Huber, Product Marketing Manager, VERITAS Software
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 226
PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONSVunavailable. The ability to grow storage without takingapplications or data offline is especially critical in aclustered environment.
In both clustered and non-clustered environments, thevolume construct that Volume Manager operates on isknown as a dynamic volume. When shared dynamic diskgroups are under the control of VERITAS Cluster Server,Volume Manager organizes the disk groups into clusterdisk groups. All of the operations that Volume Managercan do on non-clustered disk groups are also enabledwith clustered disk groups. The system administrator cancreate, import, deport, rename and delete cluster diskgroups from the Volume Manager console as well as fromthe command line.
Volume Manager supports two types of disk groups –dynamic disk groups and cluster disk groups. When usedwith VERITAS Cluster Server, Volume Manager uses clusterdisk groups to ensure that no more than one node in thecluster can control the same disk group at any given time.VERITAS Cluster Server manages the ownership of thedisk group and communicates to Volume Manager whena failover is taking place between nodes in the cluster, sothat the disk group ownership can be changed to thenode that is the failover target, ensuring data integrity.This failover of cluster disk groups with the benefitsenabled by Volume Manager is simply not possible whenusing native Windows NT 4.0 alone – it requires thecombination of VERITAS Cluster Server and VolumeManager.
VERITAS Cluster Server provides separate resources tocontrol two specific functions of Volume Manager: thedisk group and the mount. A mount resource can beconfigured in VERITAS Cluster Server to assign any driveletter to a specific volume. A disk group can beconfigured to check the file system prior to import or, ifnecessary, be forcefully deported. This functionality allowscomplete control over SAN resources and how they aredistributed and used during failover in a VERITAS ClusterServer cluster.
High availability clustering in a SANenvironment
SANs are an ideal complement to high availabilityclustering. The integration of VERITAS Cluster Server andVolume Manager makes it easier than ever to create SAN-
enabled clusters. SAN-attached storage managed byVolume Manager can be assigned through VERITASCluster Server to be hosted on servers based on priority,allowing the most efficient use of resources. Moving diskownership from one server to another becomes a simpleadministrative task.
Using Cluster Server in a SAN enables groups of servers inthe cluster to share access to data in a pool of storage. Bytaking advantage of the ability of Volume Manager toquickly re-map storage to applications, applications canfail over between nodes in the cluster and still have accessto their data. Read-only applications can share a singlecopy of data between multiple application servers,removing the necessity of replicating data in a cluster. Allof this can occur while applications are online, maximizingavailability and productivity.
Implementing VERITAS Volume Manager in a SANenvironment also allows users an increased capacity forhandling data growth. As data requirements grow, newstorage can be added to the SAN, so server applications inthe cluster always have the storage capacity they need.
While this integration can be performed today in aWindows NT 4.0 environment, VERITAS engineers areworking on bringing it to Windows 2000 as well, witharrival expected this fall.
Learn more about VERITAS Cluster Serverand VERITAS Volume Manager at the 2001VERITAS High Availability seminar series
To learn more about Cluster Server and Volume Manager,register for the VERITAS Software High Availability seminarseries. More information on these half-day events isavailable at
h t t p : / / w w w. v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o m o t i o n s/ h a s e m i n a r
You can also get more information on VERITAS ClusterServer and VERITAS Volume Manager ath t t p : / / w w w. v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o d u c t s
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 27
VERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator™ for UNIX isideal for enterprise environments with manyterabytes of data. Its powerful administration
functions fit perfectly into large data center environmentswith centralized management. NetBackup Storage Migratorenables enterprise environments to manage their data fromheterogeneous platforms to a central location, using one ofseveral remote method options of storing data.
The sophisticated media management capabilities ofNetBackup Storage Migrator appeal to data centermanagers who have thousands of tape or optical volumesin the data center and at off-site locations, and whomight have experience with mainframe mediamanagement. The support for high-end robotics andhigh-speed devices will be important to those of you whohave already made an investment in that hardware.
A Closer Look at Enterprise Data Management withVERITAS NetBackup Storage Migrator™ for UNIX
By Jeff Lundberg, Product Marketing Manager, VERITAS Software
Storage Migrator manages the oldest data that is storedon the network servers.
As secondary storage, NetBackup Storage Migrator forUNIX uses directly connected tape, optical disk, ormagnetic devices. It also supports the VERITASNetBackup™ Media Manager Shared Storage Option andits method of attaching SAN devices. The remote optionsinclude Alternate Disk (for NFS-mounted file systems), FTP,and automatic migration using NetBackup. The MediaManager component equips NetBackup Storage Migratorwith the interface to the tape and optical libraries.Support for large-capacity library devices eliminates theneed for operator action to either migrate or cache files.The net result is seemingly unlimited online storage at alower cost per megabyte, because the extra storage is onlower-cost media such as tape or optical.
How the migration process works
There are two main steps in the data migration process.
• NetBackup Storage Migrator selects files to be migratedbased on predefined selection criteria and “pre-migrates” them, by adding them to a list which will beprocessed.
• NetBackup Storage Migrator copies these files to oneor more secondary storage devices.
However, the “pre-migrated” (now migrated) files remainavailable on the disk until it is necessary to purge them inorder to make their space available to the file system.When the managed file system becomes full or reaches itspredefined high-watermark level, NetBackup StorageMigrator automatically purges the migrated file copiesfrom disk to quickly provide additional space. Theplaceholder (UNIX inode) still remains in the user’sdirectory and information about each migrated file (size,number of copies, location, and type of media for eachcopy) resides in a database on the server.
When a user or process accesses a migrated file,NetBackup Storage Migrator makes it available by cachingthe data back to disk. Users and processes on remotesystems can access a managed file system by using FTP orNFS. After NetBackup Storage Migrator caches themigrated files back into the file system, FTP or NFStransfers occur as if the files had never been migrated.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 228
NetBackup Storage Migrator can also use an NFS-mounted file system as a secondary storage device.However, NetBackup Storage Migrator cannot migratefiles from an NFS-mounted file system.
During the migration phase, NetBackup Storage Migratorselects files and then copies them to secondary storage. Ifthe file system becomes full or fills to a predefined highwatermark, NetBackup Storage Migrator makes spaceavailable by purging migrated files from the disk. Themain steps are:
NetBackup Storage Migrator selects files whenever thehigh watermark is exceeded or the migbatch process isrun for “grooming” the file system. The selection processapplies the controls selected by the administrator.NetBackup Storage Migrator selects files by scanning thefile systems it manages and evaluating each file accordingto the selection criteria established. The default criteria arebased on file size and time elapsed since the last access,and additional criteria can be used. Files that meet thecriteria become candidates for migration, and NetBackupStorage Replicator places them on a list. During the pre-migration phase, NetBackup Storage Migrator makes thework list and extends the database. Each migrated filereceives a file handle number, which NetBackup StorageMigrator uses to identify migrated files. It stores the filehandle in the file handle database (FHDB) for the filesystem. Each managed file system uses a separate filehandle database.
COPYCOPYCOPY
Caching
Local Disk
SecondaryStorage
Local DiskLocal Disk
High WatermarkReached
Low WatermarkReached
Purging
FHDBInfo
COPYCOPYCOPY
Migration
Local Disk
SecondaryStorage
High Watermark
Files migrate to secondary storageas the file system fills, based onadministrator parameters. Files stayon local disk.
Migrated files are purged whenhigh-water threshold exceeded.After purging, only “slices” ofpurged files remain.
Purged files are coped back toprimary storage when they areaccessed by the user.
Create work lists for copying files to
secondary storage
Select files to migrate
Pre-migrate selected files
Determine the storage method
Copy files to secondary storage
Update database to show location of files
Release disk space by purging data blocks
from disk
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 29
NetBackup Storage Migrator selects these files until thereare no more files that meet the selection criteria, or untilit selects enough to reduce space used to a predefinedlevel called the low watermark.
Customizable file caching and easy accessThe name of a migrated file remains in its originaldirectory and visible to the administrator as a migratedfile. Not to confuse end users, migrated files appear tothem as if they had never been migrated. Before a user canaccess data in a migrated file, NetBackup Storage Migratormust cache the data back. If NetBackup Storage Migratorhas not purged the migrated copy from disk, it simplyaccesses the data, resulting in a no-caching delay.Otherwise, NetBackup Storage Migrator copies files fromsecondary storage and “reattaches” the data blocks tothe original placeholder in the original directory and filename.
Caching places the file’s data blocks back on disk and setsa cached flag in the extended attributes of the inode. If acached file is left unmodified, the FHDB entry remainsvalid. When the file is re-migrated, NetBackup StorageMigrator simply purges the data blocks. When a usermodifies a cached file, however, NetBackup StorageMigrator sets its FHDB entry to “obsolete,” making themodified file into a non-migrated file, which may againbecome eligible for migration at a later time.
If there are two copies of the file and one copy issomehow damaged, NetBackup Storage Migratorautomatically caches from the other copy. In all instances,caching occurs automatically and without extra effort bythe user. Because the application accessing the data isblocked during the cache operation, there may be a delaywhen caching migrated files to primary disk. The lengthof the delay depends on several factors:
• Availability of drives
• Availability of the volume
• Load time of the media
• Transfer rates from secondary storage to primary disk
• Size of the files
• Level of activity on the system
You can minimize caching delay by configuring enoughtape or optical devices to handle the peak demand, andmatching device characteristics to the size and frequencyof access for migrated files. For instance, if one device isavailable, then only caches or migrations on one piece of
media can be processed at a time. All other cacherequests must wait. However, if four devices are availableto Storage Migrator, a maximum of four simultaneouscaches is possible, assuming no migrations are active.
SlicesDuring the migration process, NetBackup StorageMigrator copies all data blocks to secondary storage.However, it allows you to configure an amount of datathat you want to retain on disk after a purge is complete.The portion of the file copy that NetBackup StorageMigrator keeps on disk is called the “slice.”
The slice value is a configurable file system parameter andcan be set to a different value for each file system. A readrequest in the amount of the configured slice will beimmediately satisfied, using the data blocks remaining onthe disk. If the read request spans the slice or iscompletely beyond the slice, the whole file is cachedback. In this situation, NetBackup Storage Migrator alsoallows for a partial file caching option. Depending on thesize of the slice, you can prevent some GUI interfaces andstandard utilities like file and head from accidentallycaching a large number of migrated files.
Tape and optical media management
NetBackup Storage Migrator makes use of the samemedia manager as VERITAS NetBackup™, which results instreamlined, more efficient data management and reducesthe number of required robots. During configuration, theNetBackup Storage Migrator administrator defines thestorage methods that will be available to it. Possiblemedia types are magnetic disk, tape, optical disk, orremote storage. The administrator also defines whichmethods, and therefore which media, to use for specific
VERITAS NetBackupStorage Migrator™
VERITASNetBackup™
RobotManagement
DeviceManagement
MediaManagement
Media Manager Interface
Users
Media Manager
Device
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 230
file systems. The configuration for one file system couldspecify that the migrated files go on a tape, and files fromanother file system could go to the same or differentstorage media.
When it transfers data to or from a storage device,NetBackup Storage Migrator determines from its ownvolume database on which volume it should store themigration data. It includes the volume information in atape request to the device manager, which then assignsdrives based on availability.
The Media Manager tracks the location of both onlineand offline volumes and keeps this information in itsdatabase. The device manager and robotics software usethis information to verify correct media usage.
Disk Space Management
NetBackup Storage Migrator supplies parameters andprocesses that allow the administrator to maintain freespace between configured limits and avoid a full diskcondition. Migration parameters include the high and lowwatermarks, which determine when files are pre-migratedand purged. In addition, NetBackup Storage Migrator canuse minimum age and minimum size parameters todetermine which files to migrate.
The administrator can start grooming processes from theNetBackup Storage Migrator JAVA GUI, the command lineor the JAVA GUI’s calendar-based scheduler. These scriptsperform the following functions:
• Select and migrate files to secondary storage withoutremoving the pre-migrated copies from the disk(migbatch)
• Create more disk space immediately by purgingmigrated files from the disk (miglow)
• Force the migration of designated files(migpurge/mignospace)
Find additional information about VERITAS NetBackupStorage Migrator for UNIX at
h t t p : / / w w w . v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o d u c t s /s t o r a g e m i g r a t o r u n i x /
or e-mail [email protected].
An updated list of supported platforms is at
h t t p : / / w w w . v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o d u c t s /s t o r a g e m i g r a t o r u n i x / m a t r i x . h t m l
DOWNLOAD
Efficient Off-Host Processing in Clustered Systems with VERITAS FastResync
Download the New Administrator’sGuide
Many of you have asked how best to take advantageof the VERITAS FastResync option. There is excellentnew documentation available now. The VERITAS Off-Host Processing Using FastResync Administrator’sGuide tells you how to implement off-host processingfor offline and online backup of databases andcluster-shareable file systems, and for decision supportand database error recovery on clustered systems.Once activities such as backup and decision supportare offloaded from critical production server nodes,you are likely to find improved overall systemthroughput and reduced resource contention in yourclusters. FastResync was recently certified by ourengineers for VERITAS SANPoint Foundation Suite™HA, which includes VERITAS Cluster VolumeManager™. This vastly increases the range of theperformance improvements you can produce withFastResync.
Download the Administrator’s Guide at
h t t p : / / w w w. v e r i t a s . c o m / u s / p r o d u c t s /s a n p o i n t f o u n d a t i o n s u i t e h a /
or
f t p : / / f t p . v e r i t a s . c o m / p u b / p r o d u c t s /o h p s . d o c . t a r. Z
The Guide is intended for system administrators whoare already familiar with installing, configuring andmaintaining high-availability clustered systems usingVERITAS software.
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 31
VERITAS recently released the results of the largestrestore benchmark ever performed on an Oracle8idatabase. In conjunction with Sun Microsystems
and its enterprise-class hardware, VERITAS NetBackup™DataCenter 3.4 restored an Oracle8i database of morethan 25 TB with sustained throughput between 700 and800 gigabytes per hour. The aggregate throughput wasover 1.1 TB per hour. A 1 TB per hour milestone had beenaccomplished in the past on a Sun system, also usingVERITAS NetBackup (see http://www.sun.com/storage/whitepapers/hspeedbackup.html ). This newbenchmark presented a much greater challenge becauseof the extremely large amount of Oracle data involvedand the demanding system configuration requirements.
The benchmark was performed with Acxiom Corp., aleading provider of information technology outsourcingservices in Little Rock, Ark. Acxiom's client requiredmaximum backup and recover performance out of itslarge Oracle database over a gigabit networkinfrastructure. All benchmark testing was performed atthe Sun Benchmark facilities in Menlo Park, California.
A demanding test setup
The IT architecture consisted of a Sun Enterprise 10000server and a Sun Enterprise 6500 server, connected to twoSun StorEdge L700 libraries with 20 fully configuredDLT700 tape drives each. A unique aspect of thisconfiguration was that the E10000 and E6500 needed tobe able to stream backup and restore data via a gigabitnetwork interface backbone. This was an unusualconfiguration, because that both servers were connectedto fully populated L700 tape libraries with the E10000configured as a NetBackup Master Server and the E6500as a NetBackup Media Server.
To stream data as efficiently as possible between thesetwo systems, the powerful and flexible configurationcapabilities of NetBackup DataCenter came fully into play.NetBackup DataCenter 3.4 drove 40 tape drivesconcurrently for backup and recovery operations. Used asVERITAS NetBackup master server and client, the SunEnterprise 10000 housed the more than 25 TB instance of
Oracle8i data, while the Sun Enterprise 6500 server actedas the VERITAS NetBackup media server.
The operating system for this test was Solaris 8 on kernelpatch 108528-02. Test engineers made severalmodifications to the file /etc/system, mostly forconfiguration of shared memory. They placedmodifications to network parameters made via the nddcommand in the directory /etc/rc2.d. These modifications,introduced at the request of network engineers at Sun,were made to account for special requirements of the Sungigabit network interfaces.
Fast recovery and low CPU utilization
When a disastrous event occurs, computer downtime canbe significantly reduced with quick and efficient recoveryof data. Backups are of very limited value unless recoverycan be fast, efficient and accurate. Data recovery fromtape can be problematic and slow. In this test, VERITASNetBackup DataCenter software demonstrated itspowerful capabilities. In the benchmark, data recoverythroughput averaged over 800 GB per hour, with peakrates approaching 900 GB per hour. This means thatrecovery times are not significantly longer than the time ittakes to back up the original data.
In addition, the low CPU utilization observed during thesetests is an indication that the NetBackup DataCentersoftware has the capacity to scale to even higherthroughput levels. Even at backup rates of 1 TB per hour,VERITAS NetBackup DataCenter has not reached its limit.
Increased data integrity for gigabitnetworks
Gigabit technology is one of the most anticipated newnetwork architectures since 100-megabit networks. Withthe validation of this benchmark study, customers ofVERITAS Software and Sun Microsystems looking toimplement a gigabit network now can rely on VERITASNetBackup DataCenter as a proven high-performance,scalable data protection solution.
VERITAS NetBackup™ DataCenter 3.4 PassesBenchmark Test with over 700 Gigabyte-per-HourRestore of the Oracle8i Database
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 232
I am looking to invest in a SAN and haveheard about 3PC. What is it and should I bebuying some?
3PC or third-party copy is the latest technology to beenabled by SANs. In simple terms, it enables data to becopied from disk to tape, without the need for it to go viaa server. Hardware within the SAN fabric interconnect,such as a fibre bridge, does all the data movement,having been instructed in what needs to be transferred bya backup server.
By making it unnesessary for the data to go via the server,and having the data travel over the SAN (rather than theLAN or WAN) 3PC allows the server to continue tooperate efficiently, even while in use by end users. Thiseffectively removes the need for a backup window, as itcan now happen at any time. There were a number oftechnical issues that had to be resolved before 3PC couldbecome a reality. Not least of them is the requirement ofa consistent mapping from the file system to the blockson disk. While this may at first seem simple, there aremany end cases, such as running a defragmentation ofthe disk while 3PC is being carried out. Without this, datacorruption is inevitable, because the server can move ablock and the 3PC data mover, which is in the SAN fabric,would then move the wrong block. One major advantagethat VERITAS has is its ownership of the underlying filesystem and volume manager. We have fully integratedthem into our backup 3PC solution and can thereforeavoid the problems created by operations such asdefragmentation.
What do you see as the biggest issue withSANs today?
SANs have come a long way in the last two years. Moreand more corporations have a SAN, and those SANs arestarting to become big. Effective management of theserapidly growing environments is the largest issue we havetoday. VERITAS SANPoint™ Control is becoming more andmore important in the battle for people to manage morewith less. Being able to automatically discover andvisualize the increasingly complex environment is a realbenefit, but it will be the increased reporting facilities inversion 2.0 that will be key in helping to manage theenvironment. We created more than 40 reports to offerresource inventories, capacity statistics and both real and
historicalperformanceinformation. All ofwhich are essential ifthe management isto scale with theimplementation.Further integrationwith products suchas VERITAS VolumeManager™ and anintelligent
provisioning service will ensure that resources on the SANare fully utilized.
Every few years we hear that the time forhierarchical storage management (HSM) hascome. Now it’s being said again, with SANsbeing the driver this time – what do youthink?
HSM has been in open systems for many years, with astrong niche market in industries such as oil and gasexploration and other huge data producers. The conceptbehind HSM is simple: you move data off expensiveprimary storage, such as disks, onto slower but cheapersecondary storage, leaving behind a small stub orplaceholder. When the stub is accessed, the HSM engineretrieves the data from the secondary storage and puts itback onto disk, where the application accesses it as if ithad never been away. Performance is the big issue here.You need to be able to restore the data in a timelymanner so the user doesn’t notice too much of a delay.When carrying out a restore in some environments (wherethe data travels across the LAN) there can be noticeableeffect on users as the LAN becomes saturated – this maynot be acceptable. In this instance there are a couple ofsolutions. One is to have a locally attached tape drive andthe other is to use a SAN. In a SAN environment, the datapasses over the SAN, leaving the users the LAN. HSM canhelp in justifying a SAN by improving the return oninvestment, because it will not only be a furtherapplication that makes use of tape libraries, but also canreduce the need for new disk purchases as data can bestored on cheaper tape. However, HSM is not foreveryone. It depends on the size of the files and howfrequently the data is accessed.
Ask the Doctor
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 33
So, yes, I think that the time of HSM has really come –both for UNIX and for Windows. SANs have brought thetechnology back into the minds of administrators and arenow in many different environments.
There is a free performance analysis tool available fromour Web site, in the VERITAS Storage Migrator™ productsection. It will analyze your file systems and show youhow you would benefit from using VERITAS StorageMigrator and its HSM technology.
What are the distance limitations whenlooking to mirror VERITAS VolumeManager™?
This is a bit of an open-ended question... in other words, Ineed more information. However, if you have a SAN, thena distance of 10 miles is very obtainable, with distances ofaround 30 to 40 miles obtainable using additional third-party products. If the distances are sufficiently small andthe fibre infrastructure is in place, then mirroring is theeasiest mechanism and options such as setting thepreferred plex can be used to optimize read performance.If the infrastructure is not in place, or the distance is toogreat, then you can use VERITAS Volume Replicator™.This is being successfully done in a variety of scenarios,even across very large distances through a WAN usingeither synchronous or asynchronous replication – and ithas the added benefit of being able to replicate to up to32 nodes, in a one-to-many or many-to-one format, tobest utilize your hardware.
There seems to be a lot of press coverageof iSCSI – how is this different from SCSI?
ISCSI, or IP storage, is, in essence, SCSI but over standardEthernet. Some people see this as an alternative to fibrechannel, offering block-level storage over existinginfrastructure – if you happen to have gigabit Ethernet.
VERITAS is involved in iSCSI and has been an activeparticipant in the standards discussions since the IETFstarted its working group last year to ensure that ourproducts use the technology to its fullest extent.
What happens in VERITAS Cluster Server™when the node I am attached to with theGUI fails?
Quite simply, the GUI reconnects to another node in thecluster – automatically.
When the GUI first connects, it gets all the hosts that arein the cluster. When the node it is attached to fails, it firsttakes a snapshot of the current configuration and thenloops through the hosts listed and tries to connect to it.Once connected, it sends the cached user name andpassword to become authenticated. When authenticated,a new version of the cluster configuration is sent. The GUIcompares this with the one it had stored and will updatethe GUI with the differences.
If, for example, the network is down between the hostwith the GUI on it and the server, then the GUI willcontinue to attempt to reconnect to all the hosts insequence for a period of time before giving up.
In general, the whole process is very quick and takes onlya few seconds. Often the user doesn’t even notice thatthe GUI is now automatically connected to a differenthost in the cluster.
Questions?
The doctor is available. E-mail [email protected].
INVITATION
New VOX VERITAS Readers’ Forum:Share your Good Ideas andExperiences
System engineers, UNIX or Windows systemadministrators, database managers, data storagespecialists and all of you working with VERITASproducts in your organizations: we want to hear fromyou.
Did you resolve any business issues, get rid ofperformance bottlenecks, control costs or have othersuccesses in your data availability strategy? Do you feelthat this may be something your peers might findinteresting and useful? Please take a moment to writea note. E-mail it to the editor, Chris Lemoine, [email protected].
We will publish the most interesting contributions, andwe’ll have a gift for you. So please make sure youinclude your telephone number and mailing address.VOX will also credit you with your full name and title.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 234
VERITAS has now streamlined all of its services tomake sure you receive the same quality ofconsistently responsive and business-oriented
service anywhere in the world. The family of VERITASservices includes technical support, consulting andeducation. In the last issue of VOX VERITAS we gave youan update on VERITAS Vsupport™. This time, we’ll takeyou on a brief tour of VERITAS Consulting Services.
VERITAS Consulting guides your IT decision makersthrough the maze of business and data availabilitychallenges. We understand information technology andyour business requirements, and can maximize the successof your IT strategy through the rapid deployment of newdata availability solutions. The VERITAS ConsultingVProServices apply our experience and resources to derivethe maximum value and performance from your IT andavailability infrastructure.
A complete data availability solution consists of VERITAS’platform-independent software products expertly appliedin your environment to meet your business objectives.With VERITAS Consulting, you can make use of VERITASexpertise in all aspects of data availability technologyincluding high availability, storage area networks, dataprotection and data management. VERITAS Consultingwill:
• Assess your current practices to match your dataavailability strategy with your business needs
• Design a solution to help you achieve your dataavailability goals while minimizing risk and maximizingyour investment in our products
• Launch an optimized VERITAS solution rapidly andeffectively
• Extend the capabilities of VERITAS software products tomeet any specific business needs
• Help manage your solution by sharing VERITASexpertise in extended maintenance and projectmanagement projects
VProServices: comprehensive dataavailability consulting services for dynamicbusiness environments
The new structure of VProServices reflects the typicallifecycle of bringing new data availability technology intoyour business. This framework allows you to enter at anypoint in the lifecycle, giving you full control over serviceswhen you need them.
VProAssesshelps youdefine a dataavailability plan whichmatches your businessstrategies. Itaddresses all dataavailability technologydisciplines includinghigh availability, dataprotection, storagearea networking anddata management. Ina VProAssessengagement, wematch your businessgoals with yourcurrent environment, identify any gaps are identified anddetermine possible solutions. We capture the resultinganalysis in a detailed report.
VProDesign services define the architecture of yourdesirable data availability environment. The design phasemay include hardware recommendations and a projectplan. As the leading platform-independent provider ofdata availability software, VERITAS is uniquely qualified tohelp you design an availability infrastructure that fullymeets your needs and gives you full latitude in yourplatform selections.
VProLaunch applies our best practices to get theVERITAS products in your operation up and runningquickly and efficiently. Using the VProLaunch servicesreduces ramp-up time and removes any guesswork from
SERVICES
By Arya Barirani, National Business Development Manager, Enterprise Consulting Services, VERITAS Software
VERITAS Consulting Services: Turning Data Availability Potential into Reality
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 35
the technologydeployment phase.VERITAS consultantsmake sure the dataavailability layer isdeployed optimallythe first time.
VProExtendservices addsoftware tools toexpand existingVERITAS productswith additional
capabilities to increase the usefulness of VERITAStechnology in your business. These tools include theVERITAS SNMP Extension (see below) and VERITAS VaultExtension.
VProManage services keep the VERITAS technology inyour business running at optimum performance levels. Asyour IT environment changes or new VERITAS productreleases become available, your data availabilityinfrastructure may need adjustment. VProManage servicesinclude system health checks and performance tuningsservices.
VProResource gives you continuing access to theexpertise of VERITAS consultants. They are available toyou for managing special projects or to help run andmaintain data availability technology in your operation foran extended period of time.
VERITAS SNMP Extension: frameworkintegration for intelligent proactive eventmanagement
Many companies have invested in framework tools whichuse Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). Thesetools allow them to manage vast system resources withlimited staff, streamline their business processes, ensuremaximum data availability and increase the ROI of theirtechnology investments.
The VERITAS SNMP Extension delivers SNMP-basedenterprise framework integration and intelligent proactiveevent management for VERITAS data availability products.It enables common framework tools such as HPOpenView or Tivoli TME to monitor, control and configureyour VERITAS software environment. With the VERITASSNMP Extension, system administrators can spend theirtime working on other projects, knowing that any eventin their VERITAS software environment will generate anotification to their framework, pager or e-mail. TheSNMP Extension can also be configured to automaticallytake corrective actions in case problems arise.
The SNMP Extension is suitable for any frameworkenvironment that supports the SNMP protocol and isavailable for VERITAS NetBackup™, VERITAS ClusterServer™, VERITAS Volume Manager™ and VERITAS FileSystem™.
To find out more about VERITAS Consulting VProServices,please contact your VERITAS sales representative or go toour Web site.
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 236
ACTIVITIES
VERITAS Software now has an Early AdoptionProgram (EAP). Complementing our beta programs,EAP gives you an opportunity to make your voice
heard in the development of VERITAS technology.
If you are a customer who is strongly committed tocontinuous availability of the data and applications in youroperations, the Early Adoption Program can be of greatvalue in planning your technology infrastructure. Youparticipate in shaping the direction of the technology thatkeeps your data available. You work with the developersto optimally implement this technology in your business.You see new VERITAS products early, and can test themthoroughly on the platforms used in your productionenvironment. Thanks to your feedback, the final productswill be more reliable and functional.
VERITAS EAP is a structured relationship withcommitments on both sides. You sign an EAP agreementof participation that defines the scope of yourinvolvement. VERITAS’ obligations will typically include thefollowing elements:
• Increased level of technical support, backed up byseveral VERITAS organizations including productmanagement, product marketing management,multiple field support teams and engineering,throughout the program
• Assistance in building appropriate test scenarios foryour environment
• An effective communications channel to make theresolution of any issues easy and fast
• Regular check-point conferences and a focus groupforum
Your EAP commitments will usually include the following:
• Agreement to a specific level of product testing
• Participation in an initial program kick-off which givesyour technical staff an introduction to the product, itsfeatures and requirements, and gives you a chance togive feedback on research and engineeringspecifications
• Contribution to setting VERITAS’ product direction bytaking part in a focus group conference
• Participation in periodic check-point conferences
• Reporting of beta test incidents and cooperation withVERITAS’ technicians to clarify any confusion withthose incidents
• Permission for VERITAS to use your company’s name,and the success story relating to the VERITAS productimplementation in your business, in marketing materialsuch as press releases, white papers and case studies
The Early Adoption Program enhances our qualityassurance efforts by incorporating real-life experience andtesting results from our customers. EAP promotes dataavailability in your business by close cooperation withVERITAS experts during product implementation, and byleveraging your understanding of the needs for thattechnology.
To find out more about the VERITAS EAP, go to
h t t p : / / b e t a . v e r i t a s . c o m /
or contact us at [email protected].
The VERITAS Early Adoption Program (EAP)Take an Active Role in Creating Tomorrow’s Data Availability Solutions
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 37
VERITAS Publishing is a publishing venture ofVERITAS Software Corporation. It helps to satisfythe need for reliable, comprehensive and practical
information on data availability and data storagemanagement technology. VERITAS Publishing makes useof the wealth of experience at VERITAS, and also serves topromote VERITAS Software’s leadership and innovation inthe data storage industry.
VERITAS Software has established a partnership with JohnWiley & Sons, the largest independent publisher in NorthAmerica, to create the VERITAS Series for globaldistribution of its intellectual property in form of books. Inkeeping with VERITAS’ focus and business interests,VERITAS Publishing will primarily deliver books about dataavailability and storage. Steered by an advisory counciland editorial board, VERITAS Publishing is developingbooks at four different levels:
• Strategy: what CIOs need to know to build a dataavailability layer
• Concepts: defining and explaining data availability,SANs and other concepts
• Best practices: guidelines for optimal implementationof availability technology
• Handbooks: how to use VERITAS products mosteffectively
Earlier this year, VERITAS Software and VERITAS Publishingannounced a book called Disk Storage Managementfor Windows Servers, by Paul Massiglia, EngineeringTechnical Director, VERITAS Software. This is a guide tohelp administrators implement and configure onlinestorage in Microsoft Windows workgroup and enterpriseenvironments. The book gives readers the architecturalbackground that enables them to formulate onlinestorage strategies, and shows how VERITAS volumemanagement technologies apply these principles inWindows environments.
This book explores how disks, volumes, mirroring, RAIDand fault-tolerant disk subsystems work and interacttogether. It outlines how VERITAS volume managementtechnologies, including VERITAS Volume Manager™ forMicrosoft Windows NT and Windows 2000, make easy,online disk and storage management possible. Readersalso learn how they enhance the benefits of fibrechannel-based storage area networks in a Windowsenvironment.
Please contact your VERITAS representative if you’reinterested in the current version of this guidebook. Anexpanded and retitled version of the guide, titled HighlyAvailable Storage for Windows Servers, ISBN: 0-471-03444-4, will be available in bookstores in the fall of thisyear. For the same timeframe, you can also expect thesecond book in the VERITAS Series by Richard Barker andPaul Massiglia, Storage Area Network Essentials, ISBN:0-471-03445-2.
Other books from VERITAS authors currently availableinclude:
• Case Method: Entity Relationship Modelling; byRichard Barker; Addison-Wesley; ISBN: 0201416964
• Case Method: Tasks and Deliverables/Oracle: TheRelational Database Management System; byRichard Barker; Addison Wesley; ISBN: 0201416972
• Case Method: Function and Process Modelling; byRichard Barker; Addison Wesley; ISBN: 0201565250
• UNIX Internals: A Practical Approach; by StevePate; Addison Wesley; ISBN: 020187721X
• Blueprints for High Availability; by Evan Marcusand Hal Stern; John Wiley & Sons; ISBN: 0471356018
The Book on VERITAS: VERITAS Publishing
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 238
ACTIVITIES
In March, VERITAS and Sun Microsystems teamed up atPayne Elementary School in San Jose to help the schoolto enhance the operation of its new computer learning
lab for students. VERITAS presented the school withsoftware, VERITAS NetBackup™ BusinesServer 3.4, and isalso donating training and ongoing support. VERITAShopes to remain involved with supporting the school andthe school district as it expands its computing andnetwork operations. Right now, VERITAS is still assessinghow extensive the support needs of Payne Elementary are.It’s important to VERITAS Vsupport™ to be responsive andaccommodating to this school before expanding theprogram. Sun Microsystems donated the hardware for thelearning lab. The network consists of 31 SunRay NetworkAppliances linked to a Sun Enterprise E250 server.
Students are using the technology to learn everythingfrom math to making group presentations. They also do alot of research. All files reside on the E250 server. All theSunRay Network Appliances need to do is run browsersoftware. Teachers often embed other sites’ links into theschool’s Web page. When the students do theirassignments at home, they can access the same pageswhen they log on. School officials say the technologyhelps create a perfect learning environment, and helpsstudents acquire valuable computing skills.
Payne Elementary is a pilot site. The school district isworking to have a districtwide network with similar labsat each of its schools. Future plans also call for twoSunRay Network Appliances in each single classroom. Thelab and network at Payne Elementary are a trainingground for effective data protection and best practices forthe entire school district. The district’s IT department isalready replicating the same infrastructure at anotherschool. They hope to use VERITAS technology to roll out aconsistent data protection and recovery strategy for theentire district. The idea is to use NetBackup BusinesServerto perform centralized backups for all of the schools inthe district. So far, Mike Jones, the Director of InformationTechnology for the Moreland School district, and his staffhave to drive out to each school to do the backups. They
look forward to having theirtime freed up for other tasks.
Mike Jones tells us that “As far as VERITAS, the thingthat’s exciting to me is [that] I like the idea ofstandardization and I want to apply a single backupstrategy districtwide. So this is going to allow this schoolin particular and me and my staff to learn the VERITASproduct, get it on a SunRay server, and learn what welearn and then based on that, start to migrate it out to allof our servers.”
Grants Update
In keeping with VERITAS Software Foundation’s focus forthis year, all of its grants are education-related. VOXreported on the grant to the NEA Foundation for theImprovement of Education in its last issue. VERITASSoftware Foundation also made four grants to schools inthe Roseville, Minnesota, area. Grants during the secondquarter of 2001 will be to schools in the Mountain View,California, area.
Hardware Donation Program
In the first quarter of this year, the Foundation, togetherwith the VERITAS IS&T department, donated used cellphones to the Donate-A-Phone program, whichrefurbishes the used phones and makes them available tothe elderly and victims of abuse. The Foundation and IS&Thave now teamed up to define a hardware donationprogram. It will involve the recycling of all VERITAShardware, including such old company items ascomputers, monitors, scanners, printers, phones, pagersand fax machines. These items will go to needyorganizations.
Contact VERITAS Software Foundation [email protected] or write to VERITASSoftware Foundation, 1600 Plymouth Street, MountainView, CA 94043.
VERITAS Foundation NewsVERITAS and Sun Partner to Donate Technology and Training to Schools
By Cecily Joseph, Executive Director, VERITAS Software Foundation
W W W . V E R I T A S . C O M 39
Events
You're invited to this special half-day seminar,where we'll discuss how to plan for and maintainhigh levels of data and application availability
across your environment.
Who Should Attend?
When a user makes a request for data, that request oftenpasses through multiple tiers in the data center – Webservers, application servers, database servers, storage, andnow even more complex infrastructures such as storagearea networks (SANs). If you're responsible for ensuringavailability in any of these areas, you'll benefit from theinformation in this seminar.
Opening Keynote
"Perceived Availability: Managing Today's Internet DataCenter" - Achieving availability from the applications allthe way to the storage pool, across wide distances, intoday's complex, heterogeneous environments.
Choose Either Breakout Session
“Deploying HA”
Fundamental availability planning and management, thecost of implementing highly available solutions, and howto build a recovery profile which matches to specificapplication or organizational needs. The session coverstechniques and tools for deploying online storagemanagement, clustering and data replication inenvironments with mixed hardware and operating systems.
“Advanced HA”
In-depth discussion of the next generation of bestpractices and tools that further shrink recovery times andincrease scalability in critical environments. We will alsodiscuss centralized management in a global, mixedenvironment.
Registration
Space is limited. Go to h t t p : / / w w w. v e r i t a s . c o m /u s / p r o m o t i o n s / h a s e m i n a r / to register todayat your preferred location.
Enabling High Availability (HA) Everywhere
Go Everywhere with VERITAS
Want to be as global as your data? As a special bonus allattendees have a chance to win a trip around the worldthat includes three international cities over 14 days. Tripincludes airfare, hotel, and even some tourist dollars!
DATES AND LOCATIONS
Go to:
http : / /www.ver i tas . com/us/promot ions/haseminar / locat ions .h tml for dates andlocations.
Coming to these locations worldwide:
June San Francisco, CA, USALong Beach, CA, USAPhoenix, AZ, USA Seattle, WA, USAVancouver, British Columbia, Canada
July Mexico City, MexicoSao Paulo, BrazilPortland, OR, USADenver, CO, USAHouston, TX, USA
August Chicago, IL, USACincinnati, OH, USATokyo, JapanHong Kong, China
September Detroit, MI, USASwedenRaleigh, NC, USAAtlanta, GA, USAGermanyLondon, England
October King of Prussia, PA, USATysons Corner, VA, USANew York, NY, USAHartford, CT, USAMontreal, Quebec, Canada
Events
VERITAS VISION2001™, theFifth Annual VERITASWorldwide Users’ Conference,
is the premier event to gainknowledge about data availabilityand interoperability from users withreal experiences, mingle withVERITAS executives and network withother VERITAS users.
You can preview the latest VERITASsolutions and participate in productupdates and strategy discussions.Choose from over 70 sessions,technical presentations, businesssessions, product demonstrations,
complimentary product tutorials andforums on current issues in dataavailability and interoperability. Visitour Partner Solutions Pavilion, whereVERITAS’ key partners demonstratethe latest available technologies.
Don’t miss –• Complimentary tutorials
• Executive keynotes
• Breakout presentations
• Partner Solutions Pavilion
• Birds-of-a-feather sessions
• Evening entertainment
5th Annual VERITAS WorldwideUsers’ ConferenceNovember 4 – 8, 2001Wyndam Anatole Hotel, Dallas TX
Conference registrationAdvanced registration US$995
Onsite registration US$1,395
To register, visitwww.veritasvision.com.
Call for presentationsIf you are interested in making apresentation at the event, please seethe Web site for details.
90-01447-399 • VER06-VOXNSL4.2-0003
VERITAS Software CorporationCorporate Headquarters350 Ellis StreetMountain View, CA 94043650-527-8000 or 800-327-2232
V O X V E R I T A S 4 . 240
Check out the Events Calendar at the New VERITAS.comVOX VERITAS will still make announcements on important VERITAS events such as VISION2001, but we won’t try to incorporatethe complete events calendar anymore. There are simply too many events. Please visit the Events Center pages at veritas.com. AfterJuly 1, the Web site will have many contextual features that will make it more responsive and interesting to you. You will be ableto search for events by type, and link directly to detailed event information.
