Forum Discussion

BKPEXEAdmin's avatar
BKPEXEAdmin
Level 3
7 days ago

WORM Instance in Flex Appliance

Hi guys,

 

We are about to deploy a Flex Appliance WORM instance, and we have some concerns regarding its usage :

  • Do we still need a MediaServer instance when using the WORM instance? Is the WORM instance considered as WORM storage that still requires a MediaServer instance to write to it, or is it an all-in-one instance (MediaServer + WORM storage)? In summary, when creating the WORM instance, does NBU recognize it as a MediaServer or not?
  • When working with WORM, is deduplication still utilized? Typically, we create MSDP volumes within MediaServer instances. Wondering if WORM uses also Dedup.
  • Does enabling WORM impact the appliance's capacity consumption? Some other vendors claim that enabling WORM can double or even triple capacity usage when using Dedup with WORM, which raises concerns about its practicality in our case, because the capacity of our Flex system is already low, and if that's the case, we'll have to avoid using WORM.

Thanks in advance for any feedback given.
Regards.

Flex
instance
MSDP
WORM
  • kiyan's avatar
    kiyan
    7 days ago
    • Do we still need a MediaServer instance when using the WORM instance? Is the WORM instance considered as WORM storage that still requires a MediaServer instance to write to it, or is it an all-in-one instance (MediaServer + WORM storage)? In summary, when creating the WORM instance, does NBU recognize it as a MediaServer or not?
      Yes you will need a media server instance seprately, then you will create the WORM storage , (in media server, bp.conf add the worm storage name before creating the WORM
    • When working with WORM, is deduplication still utilized? Typically, we create MSDP volumes within MediaServer instances. Wondering if WORM uses also Dedup.
      when you add the WORM storage to Media server, it will be a PureDISK, so dedupe is there.
    • Does enabling WORM impact the appliance's capacity consumption? Some other vendors claim that enabling WORM can double or even triple capacity usage when using Dedup with WORM, which raises concerns about its practicality in our case, because the capacity of our Flex system is already low, and if that's the case, we'll have to avoid using WORM.
      it uses the capacitys as a usual dedupe storage in netbackup, only there will be restriction for deletion and expiry as per the WORM settings (compliance, enterprise)
  • kiyan's avatar
    kiyan
    Level 6
    7 days ago
    • Do we still need a MediaServer instance when using the WORM instance? Is the WORM instance considered as WORM storage that still requires a MediaServer instance to write to it, or is it an all-in-one instance (MediaServer + WORM storage)? In summary, when creating the WORM instance, does NBU recognize it as a MediaServer or not?
      Yes you will need a media server instance seprately, then you will create the WORM storage , (in media server, bp.conf add the worm storage name before creating the WORM
    • When working with WORM, is deduplication still utilized? Typically, we create MSDP volumes within MediaServer instances. Wondering if WORM uses also Dedup.
      when you add the WORM storage to Media server, it will be a PureDISK, so dedupe is there.
    • Does enabling WORM impact the appliance's capacity consumption? Some other vendors claim that enabling WORM can double or even triple capacity usage when using Dedup with WORM, which raises concerns about its practicality in our case, because the capacity of our Flex system is already low, and if that's the case, we'll have to avoid using WORM.
      it uses the capacitys as a usual dedupe storage in netbackup, only there will be restriction for deletion and expiry as per the WORM settings (compliance, enterprise)
    • davidmoline's avatar
      davidmoline
      Level 6
      7 days ago

      Hi BKPEXEAdmin

      The only additional item I would add to the already excellent responses is that the deduplication pool that is used by a WORM instance is separate to the dedup pool used by a media server instance with MSDP. There is no global deduplication across storage servers - even if on the one Flex appliance. This could explain the additional storage requirements you mentioned. 

      Cheers

  • L_BR's avatar
    L_BR
    Level 5
    7 days ago

    We have a few Flex Appliances scattered across my country. According to what the business partner configured for us, we have 1 Media server instance with 2 Storage Server instances. One with WORM enabled and one without.

    Deduplication is unaffected by WORM. WORM just prevents you or bad actors from expiring images before their specific expiration date. So yes it still uses deduplication.

    The only time it will impact capacity consumption is when Netbackup freaks out and does not properly expire the WORM'd images. I had an instance on a different NBU appliance where WORM'd images had an expiration date in the year 3000 :) So be careful when choosing the kind of Lockdown mode. Choose the one that will allow support to be able to remove the WORM Lock on images if it comes to that, I can't quite remember which one it was called.

  • StefanosM's avatar
    StefanosM
    Level 6
    7 days ago

    hello
    WORM and MSDP are both considered storage servers. The difference, apart from WORM functionality, is that MSDP binaries reside on the same server as the media server, whereas the WORM storage server is a separate system from the media server.
    Both utilize the same deduplication engines and achieve the same level of deduplication ratio for the same data.

    The WORM storage server does not have media server logic, so a media server is required to manage backups to the WORM storage server.
    If you use client side deduplication the data will go from the client direct to the worm storage nut still you need a media server.
    For small environments, the Master server can function as a media server.

     

  • tcsimerson's avatar
    tcsimerson
    Level 3
    7 days ago

    A couple of notes about the creation process:

    • Before you create a WORM storage server instance, you will need to set the Flex appliance lockdown mode.  There are two versions:
      • Enterprise mode:  this will allow you to delete/expire images through a two stage process.
      • Compliance mode:  there is no way to delete/expire images when this mode is activated.
    • When creating the WORM storage server instance,  you will be prompted for lots of information there are two important prompts to make special note of:
      • Username and password:  this will be needed when you create the disk storage target on the media server.
      • Retention policy:  this is where you define a min and max retention you can store on the WORM instance.  Using good values here will help avoid the year 3000 expiration that L_BR mentioned above.

    Finally, the dedupe engine on a WORM instance is the exact same as any other MSDP storage target.  You can freely duplicate images to and from WORM and MSDP storage which will utilize optimized deduplication.  Due to the nature of WORM/immutability, you will probably see a slightly higher usage that you would on a regular MSDP storage target.  Nothing like double or triple the needed storage you mentioned our competitors require.  More in the 5% to 25% more depending upon the retention times on the images in the WORM storage.