22. July 2008 by Myke.

Okay boys and girls.  We have been asked to post how our current ExaGrid system is doing and what kind of deduplication stats we are seeing.  To say the least, myself and Travis have not seen this kind of backup in our entire careers and it is pretty damn awesome to say the least.

Deduplication Ratio - 8.63:1
Total backup data - 36TB
Space consumed - 4.1TB

To show that we have 36TB of data taking only 4.1TB is just crazy.  We have had nothing but success with this system.  And with the software package from CommVault, our backups at this location are going great.  We could not be happier.

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22. July 2008 by Myke.

Multi-site Data Center Cross Protection:

• ExaGrid supports two-site or multi-site cross protection for up to 9 data center locations.
• Because ExaGrid only moves the byte-level changes from the local site to offsite systems, only about 1/50th of the data has to traverse the WAN.
• Eliminates or supplements off-site tape with live disk-based repositories for long-term off-site retention or disaster recovery.
• Simplified multi-site management — a user with appropriate privileges can manage the entire multi-site environment via a single web-based user interface, versus products that require each site or device to be managed separately.

Backup-Job-Aware Reporting:

• Advanced reporting correlates backup jobs stored on the ExaGrid with the backup application providing unprecedented visibility into the true status of the backup data.
• ExaGrid’s disk-based backup system is the only product that shows de-duplication ratio by backup job, allowing organizations to optimize the results of byte-level data de-duplication.
  • The ExaGrid system is the only product that shows replication status by backup job, ensuring that any remote site restores are executed from complete backup jobs, and that the most recent data possible is being used versus resorting to a guessing game during a critical recovery scenario.

High Capacity, Scalable Virtualized GRID Architecture:

• Store a 30TB full backup, plus weeks or months backup history/retention, in a single GRID system with a single management console (6 x 5TB ExaGrid servers = 30TB Virtualized GRID system). 
• Plug-and-play growth — new systems virtualize together automatically — no splitting data or losing de-duplication efficiency across separate systems.
• Performance scales with data growth since processing power, memory and bandwidth are added along with storage capacity.
• Automatic data load balancing across all servers in the GRID.
• Multiple 30TB GRID systems can be installed for increased capacity.

Best Performance for Shortest Backup Window and Fastest Data Restoration:

• Fastest backup performance due to post-process de-duplication. Write directly to disk without any on-the-fly processing to slow down backups.  (ExaGrid Backup throughput: up to 4.08TB/hour.)
• By keeping the most recent backup in its whole form and storing all previous versions as the byte-level changes (de-duplication), ExaGrid is the only vendor that offers rapid restore of backup jobs and fast tape copy for offsite tapes — unlike other solutions which require re-assembly of every backup job from millions, or even billions of small blocks tracked in large hash tables.  (ExaGrid Restore throughput: up to 2.6TB/hour.)

“We listened carefully to our customers and added several important new capabilities that greatly improve the way they execute and manage their backups,” said Marc Crespi, VP of product management, ExaGrid Systems, Inc. “This latest product version allows customers to deploy multi-site cross protection for up to 9 data center locations, simplifying multi-site data center backup and improving disaster recovery capabilities.  Also, with the addition of backup-job-aware reporting, ExaGrid provides unprecedented visibility into the true status of backup data at every stage of its lifecycle within the system.  These enhancements, combined with ExaGrid’s post-processing data de-duplication and scalable GRID architecture, provide customers with the shortest backup window and fastest restores possible even as their data grows.”Taneja Group Technology Validation Report:

Download the complete Taneja Group report about the ExaGrid Disk-based Backup System via: http://www.exagrid.com/why_exagrid/industry_analyst_perspectives.asp. Availability:

The latest version of ExaGrid Disk-based Backup System is expected to ship within the next 30 days.

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21. July 2008 by Myke.

Well we have been rocking and rolling with this backup solution for a few weks now and it has totally changed how we backup data. the data deduplication that the Exagrid hardware/software does has been amazing.

Check out these stats:

All Data
Deduplication Ration - 3.78:1
Total backup data - 12,441.08GB
Space consumed - 3,292.32GB

Misc Data
Deduplication Ration - 5.81:1
Total backup data - 4,413.62GB
Space consumed - 760.00GB

NAS Data
Deduplication Ration - 3.17:1
Total backup data - 8,027.46GB
Space consumed - 2,532.32GB

Our amount of tapes has dropped by 65% and our backup times are cut down by almost 75%. So now we are saving on backup times, amount of tapes being used and stored off-site and we will have about 12 weeks of backups on-site on hard drive. That means we can do restores from hard drive and in a worst case scenario we can request a tape from 13+ weeks ago.

Next step is to launch this as our remaining sites.

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21. July 2008 by Myke.

“Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye” - My ode to Arcserve

We have been limping along and dragging bloody stumps for some time now using Arcserve as our backup solution. Well not anymore kids, we now have a great solution in place. We have moved our company over to a disk-to-disk-to-tape solution using Exagrid (disk based backups), CommVault (backup software) and Quantum (tape libraries). This has changed our backups so dramatically it is almost unbelievable. The speeds, the success rates and ease of deployment/restore are amazing. This will change how any and all backups are setup and all restores are done for our company. I cannot tell you how many sleepless nights I have had over the last few years working with unstable and not very effective backup solutions. I can honestly say that backups will be a second thought now. If you are a small, medium or large business, this is the solution for you. I have worked with many solutions as a consultant and this is by far the greatest and most reliable to date.

Imagine that you want to backup a server…and all you have to do is point and click and the agent is deployed (no restart required) and then that evening your backup runs without issue. Now I do not want to overload you with technical blah blah but the way this solution is running, our backups are faster and more efficient and the restores are so “Dummy” proof that you can almost let your end users do their own restores. Of course we will not do that as this will cause some serious confusion and of course the training time. I will post some pictures and diagrams later.

I have not even got to the greatest part of all yet. SUPPORT! How many times have you called and either got the south-side of India or the north-side of India? I hate those calls man, I mean I really hate those calls. And for the love of God, stop pretending your name is Bob or Erik or Tammy. We know your names are tough for us in the USA but trying to use a common American name only pisses us off even more. Sorry I got a bit carried away again. All three of our vendors have support here in the USA! That rocks man.

I will keep you all posted as we grow with this new solution and how much it helps us out on a daily basis.

New solution numbers
Backup times - cut down by an average of 53% (this will continue to get faster as we work out some backup issues, not the fault of the system but from us learning and debugging)
Backup space - cut down by an average of 75% (this is due to Arcserve kicking back improper space usage and the fact that the Exagrid system has a de-duplication ability and CommVault will not keep backing up the same file over and over unless it really has changed)

Here are a few articles that will also be helpful:

http://www.exagrid.com/backup_applications/CommVault_Galaxy.asp

http://www.commvault.com/qualified/exagridsystems.asp

http://www.cio.co.uk/whitepapers/index.cfm?whitepaperid=4566

http://travis.sarbin.net/2008/06/13/mid-deployment-report-commvault-exagrid

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