NetVault support for deduplication devices (Data Domain, Quantum DXi etc.) (4047783)

An overview of NetVault support for deduplication devices and the different approaches to using them.
 

NetVault supports several deduplication devices.

There are essentially two ways of supporting these.
1) One way is to use the device in its emulation mode, in which it emulates a physical library and behaves just like one. In this case NetVault isn't even aware that the unit deduplicates. The unit is connected through SCSI or Fibre to the NetVault server. In this mode, it can either be supported through our support for the library and drive combination that the deduplication device emulates, or through a native library template and definition.

Therefore, these units are listed in the Supported Libraries matrix http://usdownloads.quest.com.edgesuite.net/Repository/support.quest.com/NetVault%20Backup/8.5.3/Documentation/NetVault_Backup_Supported_VTL_Libraries_Drives.pdf#search=%22Libraries%22. Currently, this support includes the Data Domain DD400, the Falconstor IP Stor, and the Quantum DXi series.

2) With the deduplication units from Data Domain, we also support them as a "NAS device". In this case a volume that has deduplication enabled is mounted from the unit as an NFS or CIFS share on the NetVault server and a VTL is created on it. This NetVault VTL behaves in the same manner as it would if it was on any other volume, it just has lots of virtual tapes on little diskspace.
The sizing needs to be appropriate so that the appliance does not run out of underlying physical disk space, and the NFS volume should be mounted over an isolated, high-performance network.

This second option is a solution which we also support, but currently we only support this on Data Domain appliances, as those are the only ones we have certified yet.

You can find a whitepaper on this on the Data Domain website: http://www.datadomain.com/partners/technology-partners.html#BakBone

We also have an attached application note for Data Domain in tape drive emulation mode : See attached file; App_Notes_DataDomain_DD410_A7.pdf

We also have an attached application note for Data Domain as a VTL: See attached file; NetVault_Backup_Application_Notes_Data_Domain_5xx_v2.pdf

BakBone SFDC Solution Number: 00003743