Getting started

Getting started

 

IMPORTANT: The information in this topic is intended only to provide an overview of the steps and information required to configure vRanger and the Quest DR Series appliance. Before implementing this solution, review the full vRanger and Quest DR Series documentation.

vRanger integration quick start for Quest® DR Series

Integrating vRanger with a Quest DR Series appliance is achieved by adding the DR Series appliance to vRanger as a Quest Rapid Data Access (RDA) repository. The following steps describe the integration process at a high level, and provide links to the remaining topics for more exploration. Before implementing this solution in a production environment, read this information thoroughly.

1	Confirm integration requirements: Before starting the integration, confirm that you are using supported versions of vRanger and the DR Series software. For more information, see Product requirements for integration.

2	Install and configure the DR Series: To install your DR Series and integrate with vRanger, perform the following operations:

▪	Install the DR Series hardware: Assemble the rails, and install and connect the DR Series to your infrastructure.

▪	Log in and initialize the DR Series: Log in to the DR Series system CLI by using a local console keyboard-video-mouse (KVM) connection or an iDRAC connection. Configure your system network settings using the Initial System Configuration Wizard.

▪	Configure network settings: Ensure that you have an active network connection and a fully configured IP address.

▪	Register and configure your DR Series: Log in to the web interface and complete the registration process and Initial System Configuration Wizard, which includes password administration, Active Directory connection, and additional network configuration.

▪

Create a storage container: Containers function like a shared file system, which can be assigned a connection type of None (to be defined later), NFS/CIFS, or RDA (includes Rapid Data Storage [RDS] clients). Containers can then be accessed using Network File System (NFS), Common Internet File System (CIFS), or RDA.

 

IMPORTANT: For integration with vRanger, create an RDA container, with the RDA Type setting as RDS.

3	Install vRanger: Using the vRanger installer, install vRanger on a machine meeting the vRanger system requirements. For a high-level overview of the vRanger installation process, see Installing vRanger. For more information, see the Quest vRanger Installation/Upgrade Guide.

4	Create a Quest RDA repository: After vRanger is installed, add the DR Series to vRanger as a Quest RDA repository. Any backup written to this repository is deduplicated according to your DR Series configuration.

Product requirements for integration

To integrate vRanger with a DR Series appliance, you must be using one of the following supported product versions:

•

vRanger:

▪	7.1 or later — for RDA integration

▪	7.0 — for CIFS/NFS only

▪	6.1 — for CIFS/NFS only

▪	6.0 — for CIFS/NFS only

•	DR Series systems:

▪

DR4x00

▪

DR6x00

•	DR Series software:

▪	4.0.3 or later — for RDA integration

▪	4.0.3 or later — for CIFS/NFS only

Product overviews

Product overviews

The following topics provide an overview of vRanger and the Quest DR Series appliances, and important information about the licensing required to integrate the two products.

What is vRanger?

vRanger is the leading VMware® data protection solution that also backs up and recovers Windows® physical servers and files with blazing speed and minimal storage requirements. With vRanger, you get comprehensive protection for both virtual and physical environments that you can manage from one intuitive interface.

vRanger has historically supported the Quest DR Series systems as repositories, but required that the Quest DR Series system was configured as an NFS share. vRanger extends this functionality to support the more advanced functionality offered by the DR Series, and allow direct configuration of Quest RDA repositories.

vRanger licensing

For virtual machine (VM) backup, a license for vRanger controls the number of source CPUs that you can configure for backup. For licensing purposes, a multi-core processor is counted as a single CPU. For physical backup, each server protected consumes one physical backup license.

Every VMware® ESXi™ host for which vRanger is expected to provide protection must be properly licensed, both by VMware and in the vRanger Host Licensing tab.

 

IMPORTANT: A Quest vRanger license is required for integration with the Quest DR Series. vRanger Standard Edition (SE) and vReplicator are not supported by Quest DR Series. This topic uses “vRanger” for simplicity, but only vRanger Backup & Replication is supported for use with Quest DR Series.

Quest DR Series overview

The DR Series system is a high-performance, disk-based backup and recovery appliance that is simple to deploy and manage, and offers unsurpassed Total Cost of Ownership benefits. Features such as innovative firmware and an all-inclusive licensing model ensure optimal functionality and the assurance of no hidden costs for desired future features.

Using Quest deduplication and compression algorithm technology, this system can achieve data reduction levels averaging 15:1. This reduction in data results in less incremental storage needs and a smaller backup footprint. By removing redundant data, the system provides deduplication and compression that delivers:

•	Fast, reliable backup and restore functionality.

•	Reduces media usage and power and cooling requirements.

•	Improves overall data protection and retention costs.

•	Reduces overall network traffic — as only unique data is transmitted.

•	Allows for increased scalability through the addition of more RDA capable devices.

The benefits of data deduplication can be extended across the enterprise — through the deduplicated replication function — to provide a complete backup solution for multi-site environments.

Shorter Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and more attainable Recovery Point Objectives (RPO) can be assured as critical backup data remains on disk and online longer. Capital and administrative costs are diminished at the same time as internal service-level agreements (SLAs) are more easily met.

The DR Series includes the following:

•	Advanced data protection and disaster recovery.

•	Simple management interface — using the system GUI.

•	Wide variety of data backup installations and environments.

The Quest DR Series contains data backup and management software preinstalled on a Quest hardware appliance, which provides you with a robust disk-based data backup capability installed on a deduplication-enabled appliance.

The system supports two interface types, and the system software manages the storage containers using the following interfaces:

•	A command line interface (CLI)

•	A graphical user interface (GUI)

 

Understanding the Quest DR Series

Understanding the Quest DR Series

 

IMPORTANT: The information presented in this topic is a summary of the full documentation. For more information, see the vRanger and Quest DR Series documentation.

Available DR Series configurations

The Quest DR Series system is a solution designed to reduce your backup data footprint using several comprehensive backup and deduplication operations that optimize storage savings.

The DR Series system consists of the following components:

•	Software: The system software supports record linkage and context-based lossless data compression methods.

•	Hardware/VM: Following are the hardware and virtual appliance (VA) types that support the DR Series:

▪	DR2000v system: A VM template in various capacities for VMware® ESXi™ and Hyper-V® that can be deployed on our existing VM infrastructure.

▪	DR Series appliance: A rack-based appliance available in various configurations.

▪	Expansion shelf: The hardware system appliance supports the addition of external Quest PowerVault MD1200 data storage expansion shelf enclosures.

DR Series features and concepts

DR Series features and concepts

This topic provides an overview of the primary features and concepts in the Quest DR Series appliance.

•	Deduplication and compression

•	Replication

•	Supported protocols

•	Rapid Data Access (RDA)