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Issue
29 - September 2001
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Improved
Storage Management for Central Servers - Backup Solution
By
John Chan
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Last issue, we mentioned
the acquisition of the Network Storage System (NSS)
as the standard platform for central storage, and the Storage
Area Network (SAN) is chosen as the NSS architecture for deployment.
This issue, we will focus on the acquisition of a centralised
backup solution (CBS) as another part of the storage management
improvement.
Benefits of CBS
Traditional backup methods using
local devices attached to each machine have many drawbacks. With
the introduction of the CBS, many of the deficiencies that were
traditionally very difficult to resolve can be eliminated. These
include the following:
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With the increase in the sizing
of each data volume, in particular, with the adoption of SAN,backing
up such a large volume by each system would be very time consuming
and require extremely fast and high capacity tape drives.
Using a CBS, the backup time can be trimmed down and the resources
can be shared more efficiently.
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There are numerous different
servers being installed centrally for providing various kinds
of services for the whole campus. Traditional backup methods
require an enormous amount of time and a lot of operational
intervention while a CBS can reduce the manual intervention
on backup and restore, hence saving manpower on operation
and support and avoiding possible human errors.
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Using a CBS, all backup and restore
procedures can be standardised for the many different platforms
that have been installed centrally. Again, this can save operational
manpower and support, thus reducing possible human errors.
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Traditionally, it is very difficult
to duplicate backup tapes. This means there is always a high
risk that data cannot be restored when required due to a defected
backup tape. With a CBS, tape duplication becomes an easy
job.
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Since resources can be allocated
more effectively with the setup of a CBS, the time required
for the restoration of data can be greatly reduced, thus minimising
the amount of interruption to users or services.
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Since a CBS manages all resources
centrally, the scalability of resources can be greatly increased
in cases where extra capacity is required for additional systems
or for the change in backup scheduling.
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The CBS has its own hardware
and software. This means that all backup traffic can be converged,
in most cases, to its private connection between the CBS and
the central storage such as SAN. In other words, the network
traffic, the SAN traffic, and the host resources would be
greatly reduced during the backup process. This can hardly
be achieved using traditional backup methods.
The Solution
The solution proposed by the EMC
Computer Systems Ltd. was recommended and acquired by the Computing
Services Centre (CSC) in June 2001. By August, all the necessary
hardware and software were delivered, and the CSC and the EMC
have been working together since then on the implementation of
the solution.
The EMC solution consists of an EDM server together with an ATL
P3000 tape library to form the main framework of the CBS. Initially,
the P3000 allows 12 DLT tape drives to be operating concurrently
and 326 tape slots to be filled up with tapes for operation readiness.
The EDM is the only product on the market that can support true
server-less backup solution. This means the EDM can be directly
attached to the SAN using a private connection, thereby totally
reducing the network traffic, the SAN traffic, and the resource
requirements on each individual system during the backup process.
By adopting this setup, all of the abovementioned benefits will
be fully accomplished.
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