Netbackup and puredisk vs puredisk

[zenworksb]

Netbackup does integrated de duplication

Also for large environments symantec recommends you use pure disk instead of netbackup for just de deuplication

Need to know the limitations on de dup for netbackup?

Anything on puredisk on size limitations sheet?

Thanks guys doing a design and need to know where to use Netbackup puredisk, or just puredisk thank you

[S_Williamson]

Hi

It comes down to a few things

Cost: Netbackup is more expensive that Puredisk to setup. The both require a Front End TB license for the Dedup Storage Pool, but Netbackup you need to pay for the Enterprise Server License unless you have a Media server that can handle the additional load

Location: Based on your layout, what sites are you backing up? Are you going to have a Central Dedupe pool and if so do the remote sites have a Link big enough to backup to it. The inital run is quite large. Do you plan to have remote media servers and use the AIR in NBU 7.1 . Puredisk can allready replicate data between sites and dedupe it aswell.

Limitations: Netbackup dedupe pool is 32TB per node. Puredisk is 16TB per node. These are expandle (nodes x 5)

Personally we have a global network and some really slow links (Satelite to Rigs) and some fast fibre links aswell. We use remote sites with Puredisk (Onsite) and replicate data back to a central site. The Central site has Puredisk and Netbackup. Puredisk exports to Netbackup on a weekly basis.

The only exception to this rule is Exchange. Puredisk is a real PITA :) to restore Exchange and it cant export Exchange data to tape so I recommend for your own sanity if nothing else, to Backup Exchange for Netbackup whereever in the world it may be.

Hope this helps.

[teiva-boy]

Can you clarify this statement?

"Cost: Netbackup is more expensive that Puredisk to setup. The both require a Front End TB license for the Dedup Storage Pool, but Netbackup you need to pay for the Enterprise Server License unless you have a Media server that can handle the additional load"

What Enterprise Server license?  Dedupe can be licensed with either standard or Enterprise server.  However, there are some questions in regards to Enterprise Disk, which is unlocked when you enter in the dedupe license keys, and if you would get access to that with a Standard version of NBU.

That said, in small environments NBU dedupe makes sense.  Outside of that, you'll want an appliance for scalability.  Either Symantec's own, or a purpose built one (preferably one that is OST compatable)

[S_Williamson]

Hi

Its NOT a good idea to have your Master server with a dedupe storage pool (unless your environment is tiny). Symantec recommend 1GB of ram per TB of deduped storage plus you still need memory for your normal operations. Not sure if your going Windows or Unix but you want atleast 4-8GB of ram just for the master server to do its normal operations.

Puredisk Server is effectively free, you just need to add Front end TB licenses based on the size of your environment.

Netbackup is far from free. You need licenses for The Server itself,, Puredisk addon License, the Front end TB license and Storage Life Cycle policys (SLP is needed to move the Data from the Dedupe disk to Tape)

A Standard Server License for Netbackup does not allow a media server to be connected to it from memory, just stand alone. This is not to do with Enterprise disk at all.

Simon

[teiva-boy]

"Puredisk Server is effectively free, you just need to add Front end TB licenses based on the size of your environment."

I call bulls*

I hate this story from backup Vendors that their dedupe is free.  Symantec is actually one of the more worse ones out there.  

Whats not free

1.  An x86 server with multiple cores/cpu's and up to 36GB of RAM

2.  Internal DISK via SAS/SCSI totaling up to 32TB if disk

-OR, SAN based storage

Which means, HBA's, multipathing, PC switches, FC ports, etc.

There is no such thing as a free lunch!  There is some $15k+ in hardware here, on top of licensing.  and I'm short changing the HW costs here, probably more like $30k when having to buy storage too.

TSM is no different and Commvault too when they give their pitches to customers.

I actually rather do like NBU's built in dedupe, and think it's a good thing.  Somewhere down the road, PD will be gone and NBU will absorb those features.  Until then, there has to be two platforms.  But neither is cheap or free.  Dont get me started on the complexity of PD and management and maintenance...

[S_Williamson]

My point did not include hardware, I was talking about Netbackup vs Puredisk. You are going to need a server either way so I didnt see the relevance of adding this to the discussion point.

Yes you are going to need a server, as to HBA's etc? Well thats debatable and depends on the size of the enviroment thats being backed up. Most of our servers are Dell's with a tray of MD1000 (or MD1200) with Sata disks and we backup from 10 to 30 agents on a single SPA.

Simon

[teiva-boy]

Well the only disk Puredisk supports is internal, NetApp NFS, or FC disk.  No iSCSI.  Even with the FC disks, Symantec wants you to go by their Storage Foundation HCL, which is crap!  They only really cover mid and high end disk and it's never current with newer models.  So you take a chance on support and they perform a best effort in supporting you.