POWER SOLUTIONS March 200436

Simplifying Enterprise Backup and Restore Operations

Using BakBone NetVaultThis article examines the deployment, configuration, and manageability of BakBone!

NetVault™ tape backup and restore software. Three enterprise data backup scenariosare profiled, using NetVault with Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, Dell PowerVault™ storage,and a Dell/EMC! storage area network.

BakBone® NetVault™ 7 software is based on a modular,

object-oriented architecture that enables administra-

tors to integrate tape backup and restore operations seam-

lessly with a variety of operating systems, databases and

messaging applications, storage devices, and storage area

networks (SANs). NetVault can be used to configure and

deploy any storage device, as long as the client’s operat-

ing system (OS) recognizes the device and can commu-

nicate with it through a network adapter. As enterprise

IT environments grow and change, NetVault can help

administrators scale out storage configurations quickly

and flexibly to meet business needs.

A NetVault backup and restore configuration com-

prises three main components:

• NetVault server: A backup server that manages

networked as well as direct attach storage devices,

and also maintains a NetVault database of sched-

ules, indexes, logs, and device information

• Client: A host server that participates in the net-

worked backup and restore process

• SmartClient™: A NetVault client that also is config-

ured with direct attach storage used in the backup

and restore process

Using Dell™ PowerEdge™ servers, Dell PowerVault™ stor-

age, and a Dell/EMC® SAN, BakBone engineers profiled

three common enterprise computing configurations at Dell

labs in October 2003. For each scenario, BakBone engineers

installed, configured, and demonstrated NetVault running

a complete, error-free restore and backup operation.

Profile 1: Basic enterprise configuration Once engineers completed the hardware setup for the

basic enterprise configuration, installing the NetVault

software took approximately 15 minutes. The NetVault

software installation does not require administrators to

reboot the servers, which is particularly advantageous in

computing environments that cannot afford downtime.

Application Plugin Module™. To enhance NetVault

support for third-party database and messaging appli-

cations, administrators can install an optional Application

Plugin Module (APM™) from the NetVault server. BakBone

offers APMs for Oracle®, Sybase®, Informix®, and various

other applications. Using APMs, NetVault automatically

adds application-specific components to the backup and

restore selection criteria that appear on the NetVault

graphical user interface (GUI). From the common

NetVault GUI, administrators can manage all backup

and restore operations across the SAN, network attached

storage (NAS), wide area network (WAN), or local area

network (LAN).

As enterprise computing environments become more

complex, NetVault can help simplify administration through

policy-based job management tools that allow IT staff

to create editable, reusable job templates. Policy-based

administration can improve productivity and help reduce

human error by enabling administrators to monitor, manage,

STORAGE ENVIRONMENT

BY JOE GALLO

and edit multiple jobs as a single group, or set—and apply job tem-

plates to additional hosts as environments grow.

Profile 2: Enterprise SAN configuration A major objective in profiling the enterprise SAN environment was

to determine the amount of NetVault reconfiguration that would be

required to migrate from a direct attach SCSI Dell PowerVault 132T

tape library to a PowerVault 132T connected to a SAN. Building upon

the basic enterprise configuration in profile 1, BakBone engineers con-

nected additional servers to the SAN, installed a PowerVault 132T Fibre

Channel bridge module, and linked the bridge to a newly installed

host bus adapter (HBA) in the NetVault server. For this migration,

engineers performed three main NetVault configuration tasks: installing

NetVault SmartClient software on the two new SAN servers; identi-

fying the servers as clients within the NetVault server; and scanning

for shared drives.

Engineers reused the policy management sets they created for

the basic enterprise environment with slight modifications to the

software configuration to recognize the new shared SAN storage. The

NetVault process to reconfigure the direct attach storage model as the

SAN storage model described for this scenario took approximately

30 minutes.

Many backup and restore offerings require administrators to

install shared storage modules on every host that accesses SAN

storage. These modules typically require licenses, which can increase

storage costs. In comparison, NetVault software scans, discovers,

and configures shared storage from the NetVault server instead of

at each client—thereby helping to reduce installation time and lower

costs. For the enterprise SAN configuration profile, engineers quickly

configured NetVault to the shared storage option—which is required

only on the NetVault backup server.

A modular, object-oriented approach to storage architecture

enables NetVault to work with virtually all types of storage devices.

Because many administrators are more familiar with backup and

restore techniques involving tape drives and slots than physical disks,

NetVault displays physical disk space as virtual disk libraries (VDLs).

Having a common interface for managing different types of storage

media allows IT staff to implement new backup and restore strate-

gies quickly and flexibly.

For the enterprise SAN configuration, BakBone engineers cre-

ated a four-tape-drive, 30-slot VDL using a Dell/EMC® CX600 Fibre

Channel storage array. Engineers then created a backup policy to

back up the VDL. The policy also specified that a copy from the

VDL backup data be created on the PowerVault 132T tape library.

The NetVault VDL software configuration and the creation of a

backup policy were accomplished in minutes.

Profile 3: Enterprise NAS configurationIn an enterprise NAS environment, a NAS server such as the Dell

PowerVault 775N can be used as the NetVault backup server (see

Figure 1). After creating a direct SCSI connection between the

PowerVault 132T tape library and the PowerVault 775N server,

BakBone engineers installed the NetVault server software. The entire

NAS configuration—including VDL and tape library initializations

as well as policy management set creation—was completed in approx-

imately three hours.

When a PowerVault 132T tape library is directly attached to a

NAS device with NetVault installed, the maximum number of con-

current tape backup jobs is not restricted to the number of physi-

cal tape drives. That is, backup jobs can be copied to a VDL

before—or instead of—the physical tape device. Because VDLs can

be configured with an unlimited number of virtual tape drives, they

overcome the limitations of a physical tape drive library. In this way,

VDLs enable administrators to perform multiple backup jobs from

different servers concurrently.

Implementing VDLs also can help administrators improve tape

backup performance by eliminating the bottlenecks that can occur

between data and tape when backup data streams are slow. After

the initial backup, NetVault copies the backup data from the VDL

to the physical tape library at SCSI bus speeds.

Enterprise-class restore and backup Modular, object-oriented architecture enables adminis-

trators to deploy various NetVault configurations quickly

and easily. In addition, NetVault can help simplify sys-

tems management in heterogeneous environments

by allowing IT staff to administer both tape-based and

disk-based storage from a common GUI. Such flexibility

and ease of use help make NetVault a cost-efficient

backup and restore option for scalable enterprise com-

puting environments.

Joe Gallo (joseph.gallo@bakbone.com) is a senior sales engineer for BakBone

Software, Inc. He specializes in developing backup and disaster recovery plans

for distributed enterprise computing environments.

STORAGE ENVIRONMENT

www.dell.com/powersolutions POWER SOLUTIONS 37

PowerEdge 2650 serverRed Hat� Linux� Advanced

Server 2.1

PowerEdge 2650 serverRed Hat Linux Advanced

Server 2.1MySQL™ APM

PowerEdge 2650 serverNovell� NetWare� 6.0

PowerEdge 6650 serverMicrosoft� Windows� 2000 Server

Microsoft SQL Server™ APM

LAN

LANPowerConnect™ 5224Gigabit Ethernet switch

PowerVault 132Ttape library

PowerVault 775N NAS serverNetVault server

NetVault virtual disk library

Figure 1. Enterprise configuration using NAS