Managing Tape Library Directly Connected to Unified VNX 3500

[manmountain]

I want to have an end solution where client backups are stored on disk for a period and also copied over to tape. At the moment the solution I have is working but performance is poor.

In my current solution I have a Tape Library unit directly connected to Netbackup Media server. I have EMC Unified VNX sliced into 3 file systems. Using the VNX data mover the VNX file systems are mounted via NFS share onto the media server.

I am using Disk Staging to initially store backups to disk as stage 1. Then for stage 2 relocation of images to tape the backups are sent back over the network to the media server.

So I am looking to improve this situation as the relocation of images to the tape library takes a significant amount of time.

I would like to move the tape library to connect directly to the VNX. I know that the tape library can be controlled by the media server over NDMP when directly connected to VNX. 

However I am curious to know if I can use disk staging in this scenario. Otherwise would using NDMP direct copy be an option?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Yasuhisa_Ishika · Accepted solution]

It is not possible to use VNX in such senario. NDMP DirectCopy without VTL can only copy NDMP images. If you want to use disk storage as staging area to tape directly attached to it, you need OST Direct_Copy configuration. VNX does not provide OST. The only way to store data to tape attached directly to VNX, just configure direct NDMP backup policy for DSU volumes. In this configuration, data stored in tape is not hanbled as copies of primary backup images - just an NDMP backup of VNX volumes. To restore data from tapes, you need to restore NDMP data to VNX, then restore data from images on VNX. Keep in mind that you need to do import operation aftrer NDMP restore if retention of primary images passed.

[Omar_Villa]

What are the nics speeds of the vnx? Maybe is a mater of tuning like configuring the right block sizes in the vnx volumes, the right buffer sizes and numbers under the media server either for the backups or the dups. Other option could be to mount the vnx volumes with a iSCSI this should work better and will reduce the NFS handshaking. Using SLPs all this can be controlled with very few policies. Regards