Supported RDA with OST software and components
For the list of supported DMAs and DR Rapid plug-ins, see the DR Series System Interoperability Guide.
The DR Series system licensing is all-inclusive, so that no additional licensing is required to use RDA with OST or the optimized duplication capability. The RDA with OST plug-in that gets installed on a supported Linux or Windows media server platform is a free download. However, if you are using Veritas backup applications, you may need to purchase additional licensing to enable OpenStorage Technology; refer to your Veritas documentation.
Best Practices: RDA with OST and the DR Series System
This topic introduces some recommended best practices for using RDA with OST operations with the DR Series system.
- OST and non-OST containers can exist on the same DR Series system. The DR Series system supports having both OST and non-OST containers on the same appliance. However, this can cause incorrect capacity reporting as both container types share the same underlying storage.
- OST replication and non-OST replication on the same DR Series system. Non-OST replication needs to be configured, and it is replicated on a per-container basis. However, this type of replication will not replicate OST containers. OST replication is file-based and is triggered by the DMA.
- Do not change the container connection type from NFS/CIFS to OST. A non-OST container must be deleted before this container can then be created as an OST container using the same name.
Setting client-side optimization
Client-side optimization (also known as client-side deduplication) is a process that can contribute to saving time performing backup operations and reducing the data transfer overhead on the network.
To configure dedupe/passthrough before the client makes a connection, you need to use the DR Series system command line interface (CLI).
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NOTE: To update a client in the DR Series system GUI, the client must already be attached (and therefore enabled to appear in the GUI). If a client connection exists, you can select the radio button in the GUI to modify it. |
You can turn client-side optimization On or Off by using the CLI commands, rda --update_client --name --mode. For more information about DR Series system CLI commands, see the DR Series System Command Line Reference Guide.
Configuring an LSU
You can configure a logical storage unit (LSU) as an OpenStorage Technology (OST) connection type container for data storage by using the DR Series system GUI. To configure an LSU as an OST connection type container, log in to the DR Series system and complete the following:
- Navigate to the Containers page (in the Dashboard navigation panel).
- Click Create to create a new container.
- In Container Name, enter a name for the container.
- In Marker Type, select the None marker type.
For OST operations, only the NetBackup and Backup Exec media servers are supported.
- In Connection Type, set the container type to Rapid Data Access (RDA).
- In the RDA pane, set the RDA Type to Symantec OpenStorage (OST).
- In Capacity, select either the Unlimited or Size options to set the capacity for the OST connection type container.
If you select Size, make sure to define the desired size in Gibibytes (GiB).
- Click Create a New Container (or click Cancel to display the Containers page).
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NOTE: For general information about creating DR Series system containers, see Creating Containers, and for creating an OST connection type container, see Creating an OST or RDS Connection Type Container. |
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NOTE: The capacity option in this command example sets the quota on the LSU. This is the maximum number of bytes (ignoring optimization) that can be written to an LSU and it is listed in the gigabytes (GB). If the capacity option is not specified (or if 0 is specified for the capacity), then the LSU will not have a quota. If this is the case, then this means that the amount of data that can be written to the LSU is limited only by the amount of free space on the disk. |