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Commvault SnapBackup vs NetBackup Snapshot client (on NetApp filers)

Michel_van_Kess
Level 2
Partner

Is there anyone who could comment on the new Commvault SnapBackup component vs NetBackup Snapshot client.? (or maybe another feature)

I have been reading about this new Commvault SnapBackup feature that makes a snapshot on storage level and makes an index of this snapshot. So, no stream backup! only a snapshot!
 
I was wondering if Netbackup is able to create a consistent snapshot of a netapp LUN in the same way.

tks!

Michel

 

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Michel_van_Kess
Level 2
Partner
Hello Abe,

Thanks for your response. The Commvault SnapBackup option is able to index the snapshot and you can mount it on a so called "proxy server". That way you can run advanced verifications and restore even single messages and single files. Also a online PIT restore is possible.

Also NetBackup does restore of PIT for Exchange, SQL, Oracle...and so on. With the difference that the snapshots aren't hardware based, but software based.

But I hope, now that Commvault lanced SnapBackupm, that the Snapshot Client might get NetApp SAN consistent hardware based snapshot capabilities very soon.

thanks for ginving your opinion!

Regards

 Michel

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4 REPLIES 4

Abesama
Level 6
Partner
See Chapter 5 (page 90) of the pdf in this page.

http://support.veritas.com/docs/290224

A snippet from the page, for your glance.

= = =
NAS snapshot overview
 By means of Snapshot Client and the NDMP V4 snapshot extension, NetBackup can make snapshots of client data on a NAS (NDMP) host. The client data must reside on the NAS host and be accessible on the client through an NFS mount on UNIX or CIFS on Windows.
A NAS snapshot is a point-in-time disk image. Snapshots can be retained on disk as long as desired. The data can be efficiently restored from disk by means of the Snapshot Client Instant Recovery feature. 
= = =

SnapVault is a method to retain the snapshot on a secondary NAS host for another level of security you can enjoy.

Abe

Michel_van_Kess
Level 2
Partner

Thanks Abe, I saw the NAS_Snapshot feature,

NAS snapshot is only applicable when you make a snapshot of a CIFS or NFS volume and not a iSCSI or FCP LUN. The LUN resides in a volume but the server is responsable for the file system.

This means that a software client option or agent needs to do some kind of consistency check and/or flush. On Windows this is done via VSS or other Software Snapshot Providers. For netapp there is a software called SnapDrive.

The NAS_Snapshot feature is in my opinion not applicable for these kind of snapshots. According to the snapshot client manual, the snapshot client can make a VSS snapshot of a LUN and store a online copy on the local disk, so this is on the OS level, not on the Storage level.

It doesn't make a Hardware Based Snapshot on the Storage Array. This is a difference with the Commvault SnapBackup feature. This feature makes a SnapShot on the Array itself.

In my opinion NetBackup is not capable to make a hardware-based consistent snapshot for a, for example, Exchange database LUN. But I hope that I am wrong!

Kind regards

Michel van Kessel

Abesama
Level 6
Partner
I did not read the manual carefully, yes it seems the snapshot is being initiated via the Windows/UNIX backup client, not directly from the NetBackup media server to the NAS host.

Not knowing much about how Commvault NAS snapshot works, I can not say this in definite tone, but it seems NetBackup's way of snapshot has ups and downs.

Downside is, as you said, the OS needs to do the snapshot, flush, etc.
Upside is, I think, because OS was involved in the snapshot, it might be able to do file level restore and etc.

Does the Commvault NAS snapshot offer the ability of all the file level recoveries?

By mounting the snapshot back, of course individual files can be restored but I think the difference in NetBackup is that NetBackup might be able to list the files from it's own catalog (image database) on the NetBackup restore GUI.

Yes, I'm throwing few wild guesses here ... thanks Michel for clarifications.

Cheers,

A

Michel_van_Kess
Level 2
Partner
Hello Abe,

Thanks for your response. The Commvault SnapBackup option is able to index the snapshot and you can mount it on a so called "proxy server". That way you can run advanced verifications and restore even single messages and single files. Also a online PIT restore is possible.

Also NetBackup does restore of PIT for Exchange, SQL, Oracle...and so on. With the difference that the snapshots aren't hardware based, but software based.

But I hope, now that Commvault lanced SnapBackupm, that the Snapshot Client might get NetApp SAN consistent hardware based snapshot capabilities very soon.

thanks for ginving your opinion!

Regards

 Michel