Forum Discussion

Kev_Lamb's avatar
Kev_Lamb
Level 6
8 years ago

Appliances in Real World

Not sure if this is the right place for this, if not can the Mods please move it. Our current set up is as follows: Site1 1x RHEL Master Server, 2x RHEL Media Servers & HP B6200 StoreOnce Site2 ...
  • elanmbx's avatar
    elanmbx
    8 years ago

    I have also been working with NetBackup for about 10 years - the last 6 or so almost exclusively with the appliances (5220-5240, 5330).  There definitely were some challenges when they were "young", but they have made significant strides since the early days.

    Rehydration (to tape) was a significant challenge until 7.6.x came out.  VMware VADP backups have gotten MUCH better as well.

    The biggest advantages for me:

    • Single point of contact for issues.  Historically (with a "roll-your-own" environment) if you contacted Symantec on a tough performance issue, you would end up having to involve all sorts of parties.  For example, the OS vendor (Sun Micro), the fibrechannel vendor (EMC), the storage vendor (Hitachi) and they would spend inordinate amounts of time pointing fingers.
    • DEAD SIMPLE UPGRADES - download the upgrade package, find a maintenance window of 4-6 hours, and run "INSTALL <upgrade package>" - keep in mind this often includes BIOS upgrades, PCI card firmware updates, OS updates, storage updates, disk firmware updates, etc.  Most admins I know would fight with all these aspects of system upgrades.
    • DEAD SIMPLE REPLICATION - bring up the remote appliance, point SLPs at it, call it good.

    Veritas has done a very good job with these appliances, IMO.

ejporter's avatar
ejporter
Level 4

I have been working with Netbakcup for a good many years.   For the last 5 years pretty much all appliances.   They work pretty well, and I think the price for the appliance is fairly reasonable compared to build your own.  The big advantage, is one vendor to support the whole stack.  And It is a simple solution if you have remotes sites.

You might also look athe virtual appliance for small sites, or dedicated master servers.

I have had challanges with them,  but no more than with a conventional netbackup environment.  And they have improved greatly since they introduced them.

 

elanmbx's avatar
elanmbx
Level 6
8 years ago

I have also been working with NetBackup for about 10 years - the last 6 or so almost exclusively with the appliances (5220-5240, 5330).  There definitely were some challenges when they were "young", but they have made significant strides since the early days.

Rehydration (to tape) was a significant challenge until 7.6.x came out.  VMware VADP backups have gotten MUCH better as well.

The biggest advantages for me:

  • Single point of contact for issues.  Historically (with a "roll-your-own" environment) if you contacted Symantec on a tough performance issue, you would end up having to involve all sorts of parties.  For example, the OS vendor (Sun Micro), the fibrechannel vendor (EMC), the storage vendor (Hitachi) and they would spend inordinate amounts of time pointing fingers.
  • DEAD SIMPLE UPGRADES - download the upgrade package, find a maintenance window of 4-6 hours, and run "INSTALL <upgrade package>" - keep in mind this often includes BIOS upgrades, PCI card firmware updates, OS updates, storage updates, disk firmware updates, etc.  Most admins I know would fight with all these aspects of system upgrades.
  • DEAD SIMPLE REPLICATION - bring up the remote appliance, point SLPs at it, call it good.

Veritas has done a very good job with these appliances, IMO.