File System and Database Backup

for

FlashDisk
using

CommVault Simpana Software

File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Table of Contents

Product Models Covered by This Document......................................................... 3

Why CommVault Simpana? .................................................................................... 4

System Topology ..................................................................................................... 5

Backing up File System Database via FlashDisk and CommVault

Simpana .................................................................................................................... 7
Step 1: Preparing the Environment ............................................................................ 7
Step 2: Configuring New Disk Libraries ..................................................................... 8
Step 3: Creating the Storage Policy ......................................................................... 10
Step 4: Adding a Sub-client for the File System Backup .......................................... 12
Step 5: Starting the Backup Job............................................................................... 14

Browsing the Backup Archive and Restoring Data from it ................................ 16

Backing up Data in a Database Server ................................................................. 17

Step 1: Adding a New Subclient ............................................................................... 17
Step 2: Starting the Backup Job............................................................................... 19

Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 20

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Product Models Covered by This Document

This application note applies to the following product models:

 All Winchester Systems FlashDisk Series Storage Systems

For related information about subsystem configuration, check the User Manual
that came with the storage system, or visit the Winchester Systems official
website for more product solutions: http://www.winsys.com

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Why CommVault Simpana?

To ensure highest data availability while streamlining backup and recovery tasks,
FlashDisk storage systems provide comprehensive protection to ensure data
availability for SAN and DAS configurations. Coupled with advanced hardware
design, modular architecture, easy and intuitive management and exceptional
price-performance ratio, FlashDisk provides a decisive competitive edge by
making IT efficiency keep up with growing needs.

Although FlashDisk has already been equipped with data protection functions
including snapshot, volume copy & mirror, synchronous and asynchronous
remote replication, they are all based on a block-level volume protection
mechanism. They support the highest levels of data availability and quick
service recovery after storage accidents, but may not meet the customer
requirement on file-level backup and recovery processes: simple protection for
host drives, folders, and files. For such file-level protection requests, it is
recommended for users to leverage the abilities of host-side backup software.

Winchester Systems is a technical partner of CommVault, a software maker who

has developed Simpana, a modern and comprehensive suite of data
management solutions to meet the backup and archival needs of enterprises.
The result of the collaboration of two companies has resulted in a cost-effective
host-based backup solution that maximizes data reduction and scales to meet
the needs of demanding enterprise environments. With proper configuration and
operation, users can build fast, reliable, and scalable storage systems.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

System Topology

This section describes the proposed topology including storage systems, host
servers, and client computers. Users can combine more than one of these
elements, depending on their actual environment.

Figure 1: Integrated topology with FlashDisk storage system and CommVault

Simpana software

Server Topology:

 CommVault Server: CommServe module (including CommServe Database

Engine) and backup management GUI CommCell Console have been
installed. The server is used to control all client computers, backup
resources, and tasks.
 Media Server: The media server is connected to the storage system via
direct connection or SAN network, and uses the capacity resource mapped
from the storage system for the media and as a backup destination.
 Laptop/Desktop for backup: The CommVault server searches for computers
(with agents installed) that can serve as the backup source in the same
network environment as the server.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Storage System Topology:

The media server uses the capacity of the storage system also for applications
(ex. Microsoft SQL Server database). Therefore, several storage volumes are
required in the topology. One is used as the destination of backup tasks, and
others are used for the media server mounted for the host file system, which is
also used for installing database applications.

Redundant models of FlashDisk are chosen for maximum capacity utilization.

The proposed topology contains two LVs (Logical Volumes). LVs are assigned to
different controllers: For example, LV1 is assigned to controller slot A and LV2 is
assigned to slot B. Then, partitions are created on each logical volume and are
mapped to the media server. Several disk drives are prepared, which are
discovered and mounted on the media server. Those disk drives are formatted
and then assigned to different drive letters, becoming independent volumes
inside the topology.

The file system in the media server uses the D: drive for storing data and the E:
drive for storing database including data and log files. The media server can
leverage the high performance and reliability provided by the FlashDisk system
to protect their files and database to serve host applications. The F: drive is
partitioned as the destination of backup copies for CommVault Simpana.

Figure 2: Proposed configuration of FlashDisk storage system

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Backing up File System Database via FlashDisk and

CommVault Simpana

Note: The procedure described here follows the system topology shown in
the previous section.

Step 1: Preparing the Environment

1. Connect the server, storage system, backup computer, and disk drives to
form a system topology, of which an example is shown in the previous
section.
2. Install the CommVault Simpana software suite and/or its modules to the
CommVault server, media server, and backup computers. For more details
about the Simpana software and its installation procedures, refer to the
CommVault website http://www.commvault.com.
3. Power up all devices, including the FlashDisk subsystem.
4. Launch the CommCell Console in the CommVault server.
5. Check the Client Computers in CommCell Browser panel. In this topology,
several exist: CommVault Server (CommServe installed), Media Server
(MediaAgent has been installed) and laptops or desktops for backup
(iDataAgent has been installed).

6. Check the MediaAgents node below the Storage Resource corner to see if
all settings have been properly configured and all software modules have
been installed. If the software modules are not found in the console despite
already being installed, check if the related services are running in the
Service Control Manager.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Step 2: Configuring New Disk Libraries

In this step, users will add the storage resources that are mapped from the
storage system to the management scope of Simpana. There are several
volumes configured for this practice (drive letter D: to F:), but only one disk drive
F: will be used as the destination of backup copies.

1. Right-click on the Storage Resources > Libraries node in the CommCell

Browser bar and select Library & Drive Configuration from the context menu.

2. The Library & Drive Configuration screen will appear. Confirm that the
MediaServer appears at the top as the selected MediaAgent, and click the
Start button and select Add > Disk Library.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software
3. Users may add a Disk Library by giving it an alias name and specifying the
Disk Device and Base Folder. Select the path (in this case, disk drive F: )
and click OK.

In the proposed topology, there should be only one library from “Partition 3” as
the backup destination. Because “Partition 3” has been mapped to the host and
mounted to the disk drive F:, the disk path is used as the backup target mounted
as a Simpana disk library.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Step 3: Creating the Storage Policy

A Storage Policy is required to configure backup settings and leverage the new
Disk Library from the FlashDisk storage system as the backup destination.

1. Right-click on the Policies > Storage Policies node in the CommCell

Browser bar and select New Storage Policy from the context menu.

2. The Storage Policy Wizard will appear. Select BackupLibrary (the library
created in the previous step) from the drop-down menu and click Next.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

3. Users will be guided to select the policy type (for protection and archiving),
backup name, default library and media agent for this backup copy. Users
can also specify the amount of data stream for backup and the aging rule
for the copy.

4. Users may enable the deduplication feature. Deduplication optimizes

storage capacity utilization but consumes more processing time during
backup processes.

5. After reviewing the settings of the newly created policy, users will have a
storage policy to engage the backup operation, with FlashDisk as the
backup target library.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Step 4: Adding a Sub-client for the File System Backup

In the proposed topology, two data volumes exist in the media server. One is
used for file storage (disk drive D:) and the other for database (disk drive E:). In
this step the backup source for storing the whole file system will be configured
by leveraging the resource and policy that has been created in previous steps.

1. Right-click on the Client Computers > Media Server > File System >
defaultBackupSet node in the CommCell Browser bar and select All Tasks >
New Subclient from the context menu.

2. The Subclient properties window will open. After naming the subclient, go to
the Content tab and select the contents: the whole drive or just folders.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software
3. Go to the Storage Device tab, select Data Storage Policy, and choose the
newly created backup policy from the drop-down menu. Users may also
create a new policy for this subclient using the Create Storage Policy button.

4. The diagram below shows the current system topology.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Step 5: Starting the Backup Job

One of the partitions in the FlashDisk has been added as a disk library, which
became the storage resource of the CommVault Simpana. The library policy and
related settings (such as the Deduplication function) has also been created. In
the previous step, a subclient for the host’s file system has been created and the
disk drive/folder to be backed up was chosen. In this step, the newly created
subclient starts the backup job.

1. Select the Client Computers > Media Server > File System >
defaultBackupSet node in the CommCell Browser bar. In the subclient list
that appears, select the newly created subclient (FileBackup in this case),
right-click and select Backup from the context menu.

2. Select the backup type (full or incremental backup) and backup schedule
(start immediately or at specific time), and click OK.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

3. The new backup job will appear in the Job Controller section. The current
backup status and progress also appear here.

A file system backup job to the disk drive (D:) has been created. Media Server
folders will also be backup up to the disk library (F: ) which also contains the
Media Server. In the proposed topology, users can also make a backup copy
from any client computer (such as a laptop) to the disk library in the Media
Server by applying the same storage policy. All they have to do is to create
another subclient in the file system node of the computer and select the same
backup policy which specifies the same disk library as the backup destination.

In short, data inside all client computers (which already contains agents) can be
backed up to the same centralized backup management system that exists in
the same subnet, while sharing the storage system mounted in the media server.
System administrators can easily manage all backup tasks in the enterprises
they belong.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Browsing the Backup Archive and

Restoring Data from it

When the backup job has been completed, users can browse the backup data to
verify the result, and to recover corrupted source data from the backup archive.

1. Select the newly created subclient (FileBackup in this case), right-click and
select Browse Backup Data from the context menu.

2. The contents of the backup archive will appear in a new tab. Check (select)
the data that needs to be recovered.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Backing up Data in a Database Server

If data for backup is the database in a database server (ex. Microsoft SQL
Server), the backup source configuration is different (but similar). In this step,
the database will be backed up by leveraging the same resource and policy that
have been created previously.

Some database configurations separate the data storage and transaction log
storage in different media. For such cases, Simpana allows users to specify
different storage policies between the main data and the transaction log. Users
can have two different policies and assign different disk libraries as their backup
destination. Of course, using the same media and sharing the data and log
backup storage works too.

If the database server is Oracle or MySQL, after configuring database in

Simpana, the node for those databases and the discovered database servers
will be listed in the CommCell Console browser.

Step 1: Adding a New Subclient

1. Select the Client Computers > Media Server > SQL Server > MediaAgent
node in the CommCell Browser bar (where the database server resides).
Right-click and select New Subclient > Database from the context menu.

2. After specifying the name of the new subclient, select the Content tab. All
the databases in the database server will be listed. Select the subclient
name that was created behind the databases that need to be backed up.
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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

3. Specify the Storage Policy for this subclient.

4. The diagram below shows the system topology. The database server’s main
program is installed in drive C: of the Media Server, but the database files
are stored to drive E:.

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File System & Database Backup for FlashDisk Systems using CommVault Simpana Software

Step 2: Starting the Backup Job

1. Right-click the subclient and select Backup from the context menu.

2. A new backup job will appear in the Job Controller section, which can be
used to check the current status and progress. For details, refer to the
previous section.
A database backup in which database files are located in disk drive (E:) in the
Media Server, and the disk library resides in the Media Server (F:). If the user
environment has several servers installed in different database servers, related
agents with dedicated database options can be installed, and everything will be
backed up to the same Media Server for centralized backup management.

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Conclusion

The capabilities of the backup software Simpana from CommVault match the
reliability, simplicity, and scalability of Winchester Systems FlashDisk storage
systems well. CommVault and Winchester Systems together provide maximum
optimization (deduplication and compression) of backup data in order to achieve
minimal disk usage and lower bandwidth that are crucial for data replication.
System administrators can take backups more frequently without drastically
increasing storage capacity or backup time, achieving better Recovery Point
Objective (RPO) capabilities. At the same time, high performance and reliability
of FlashDisk storage systems allow administrators to deploy applications and
disk-based backup solutions while meeting stringent Recovery Time Objective
(RTO) requirements.

A backup solution built on CommVault and Winchester Systems FlashDisk offers

capabilities that help customers effectively deal with robust protection
requirements and unmitigated data growth in enterprises.

Copyright © 2014 Winchester Systems Inc. All rights reserved. Winchester Systems and FlashDisk are registered trademarks of Winchester Systems Inc. All other trade

names are the property of their respective owners. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. Content provided as is, without express or implied

warranties of any kind.

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