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Fibre transport or Ethernet

Pierre_J
Level 4

Hi all,

We are running NetBackup 8.1 and have a Data Domain as target.
The Data Domain is now connected to Ethernet (2x10Gb). We like to connect it to FC as well.

Do we need to configure something on the Media server to accomplish this?

Can the type of transport be influenced on the Media server?

Thanks in advance for answers.

5 REPLIES 5

sdo
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Why would you like to connect via FC "as well" ? Is there a problem that you are trying to solve ? If 2 x 10Gb LAN is a problem, then shouldn't you be "replacing" LAN connectivity with SAN connectivity - i..e not have both ?

Hi sdo,

It is the functionality to startup a VM from DD, ie. faster restore that is being asked.

Marianne
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I can only assume that your request is based on the following section in NBU for VMware manual:

Performance recommendations for Instant Recovery for VMware

After Instant Recovery, the virtual machine is on an NFS-attached datastore that is presented by the NetBackup media server. The performance of the virtual machine and of Storage vMotion depends on the following: the network speed and latency between the ESXi host and the media server, and the speed of NetBackup storage that the backup is recovered from.

Veritas recommends the following:

  • A SAN connection from the NetBackup media server to its disk storage unit.
  • For Fibre Channel SAN, a minimum speed of 4 gigabits per second.
  • For iSCSI SAN, a minimum speed of 1 gigabit per second.
  • When you use Storage vMotion to migrate a restored virtual machine, migrate one virtual machine at a time per media server. The migration may be slow if you simultaneously migrate multiple virtual machines per media server.
  • ....


If you look at the minimum speed requirements, I'm confident that your 2x1010Gb connections will outperform SAN transport.

Anyhow, if you still want to config SAN transport, you need to follow the configuration steps in :
EMC Data Domain Boost for OpenStorage Administration Guide

Look for this section:
Configuring DD Boost-over-FC Service

X2
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@Pierre_JYou need to know what is the RTO in case of VMs. Then you can try various configurations to see which one suffices. If more than one suffices, choose the one which is simpler.

I have FC connections from the media server(s) to the DDs. We have not setup "instant recovery" yet as the RTO, even for production servers, is not that short. Also, not just for instant recovery, FC connections to DDs will enable direct restore of VM from DD to VMware environment for a SAN connection as the data does not have to go through the media server. Only meta-data is sent to media server via IP. Lastly, FC connections will put lesser data through your LAN during backups/restores.

Thank you Marianne for you quick answer.

My question was also for possible future replacement of the current Data Domain and it off course might be possible that faster FC (like 16 Gb or even better) can then be deployed. Then the 10 Gb Ethernet will be outperformed.

So I understand that only the right FC-DD-name has to be specified to get data over the right infrastructure.

Thanks again!