NetApp (managed) Data Center Storage

American Internet Services (AIS) provides various backup type services utilizing a fully clustered NetApp FAS3020C capable of storing almost 100TB of online data.

In order to understand the various technologies and their requirements, AIS has put together this document to address common questions and concerns about these technologies.

Hardware

The NetApp FAS3020C is a highly scalable, versatile and reliable SAN/NAS hardware cluster. Utilizing state-of-the-art multipath-high-availability hardware and clustering technologies, the NetApp gives AIS the ability to manage and protect data while delivering high levels of service, hold down costs, meet regulatory requirement and adapt to our customer’s changing data retention needs. The NetApp 3020 utilizes RAID-DP - NetApp’s ultra high performance implementation of RAID 6. Interconnects to customer hardware can be handled by FCP, iSCSI, CIFS and NFS.

Network Connectivity

AIS can connect our customers to our NetApp using a variety of mediums and protocols. In our standard configuration, we support CIFS, NFS and the iSCSI protocol. NFS and iSCSI security is provided at the IP level while CIFS security is provided utilizing Microsoft Active Directory Credentials. Our NetApp is connected via redundant gigabit trunks (8 total) to a Cisco 6509 utilizing the 720GB Supervisor engines. Depending on the application and the intensity of the data transfer required, we can provide a single gig connection to a customer switch, or we can provide individual gig links to specific servers. In additional, we have the ability to add FCAL connectivity depending on customer demands and needs.

The type or types of protocols you may need to use will be based on your specific situation. For example, if you wanted to house your Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft SQL databases directly on the NetApp, you would need to utilize an iSCSI LUN. If you needed regular file sharing capabilities, or if you ran backup software that could target a file share to store its data, you could use CIFS or NFS. Extremely intensive Microsoft Exchange or Microsoft SQL implementations could require the added capabilities of Fiber Channel.

If you are interested in combining the benefits of the NetApp Snapshot Technology (see below) along with bit level backup of data stored on your equipment, then very specialized backup software written by SyncSort would be required to provide native integration with NetApp’s SnapVault technology.

Snapshot Technology

One of the main reason customers want to connect to the AIS NetApp is for backup of critical data. The most often asked question revolves around how the NetApp makes backups of the data on the unit itself. They do this by utilizing their patented snapshot technology.

A snapshot is a locally retained point-in-time image of data. NetApp Snapshot technology is a feature of the WAFL® (Write Anywhere File Layout) storage virtualization technology that is a part Data ONTAP®, the microkernel that ships with every NetApp storage system. A NetApp Snapshot is a "frozen," read-only view of a WAFL volume that provides easy access to old versions of files, directory hierarchies, and/or LUNs (logical unit numbers).

The high performance of NetApp Snapshot also makes it highly scalable. A NetApp Snapshot takes only a few seconds to create—typically less than one second, regardless of the size of the volume or the level of activity on the NetApp storage system. After a Snapshot copy has been created, changes to data objects are reflected in updates to the current version of the objects, as if Snapshot copies did not exist. Meanwhile, the Snapshot version of the data remains completely stable. A NetApp Snapshot incurs no performance overhead; users can comfortably store up to 255 Snapshot copies per WAFL volume, all of which are accessible as read-only and online versions of the data.

What Users and Administrators Do with Snapshot Copies

System administrators use Snapshot copies to facilitate frequent, low-impact, user-recoverable backups of files, directory hierarchies, LUNs, and/or application data. Snapshot copies vastly improve the frequency and reliability of backups, since they incur minimal performance overhead and can be safely created on a running system.

Snapshot copies provide near-instantaneous, secure, user-managed restores. Users can directly access Snapshot copies to recover from accidental deletions, corruptions, or modifications of their data. Since the security of the file is retained in the Snapshot copy, the restoration is both secure and simple.

Snapshot Technology Unifies NetApp Data Protection Solutions

Snapshot functionality is at the core technology of all NetApp data protection solutions, so each solution has inherited Snapshot technology's unique advantages. SnapMirror®, SnapRestore®, SnapManager®, and SnapVault™ offer enterprises stability, performance, storage efficiency, functionality, and interoperability that competing solutions—not based on NetApp Snapshot technology—simply cannot match.

Automated Data Backup with NetApp SnapVault Software

To ensure that important data is always protected and easily restored, NetApp created SnapVault. SnapVault provides a fast, centralized, and cost-effective disk-to-disk backup solution. By leveraging NetApp Snapshot technology, SnapVault is able to move and store data efficiently by eliminating redundant data across each backup.

Traditional backups store data on tape in proprietary formats accessible only through the backup application. SnapVault creates online backup archives in an accessible file system format. Users and/or administrators can securely and rapidly search and recover data directly from backups. SnapVault also provides near-instant disaster recovery by enabling users and applications to failover directly to the backup copy.

Key Features

  • Continuous block level incremental backups: After the initial full backup, all subsequent full backups transfer only block-level changes data. This reduces both backup times and the network bandwidth required to transfer the data.
  • Store hundreds of full backups cost effectively: Each full backup consumes only the disk space necessary to store changes from the previous backup, reducing capacity requirements 90% or more.
  • Backups accessible in file system format: End users with appropriate permissions can restore files without help desk support. Backup copies can be used for testing, reporting, and even failover in the event of a primary storage failure.
  • Integrated with leading backup software: Manage a SnapVault solution with industry-leading backup applications from Symantec, Syncsort, CommVault, and BakBone.
  • Reduce backup administration by 75%: Significantly reduce the complexity and unreliability of traditional backup environments that increase administrative overhead.

Overall Key Features

  • Stability: NetApp Snapshot is read-only, completely static, and incorruptible. As such, it enables organizations to perform consistent backups from a NetApp storage system while applications are running.
  • Performance: Storing a Snapshot copy on a NetApp system has no performance impact. In addition, creating and deleting Snapshot copies have virtually no performance impact.
  • Scalability: NetApp storage volumes support 255 Snapshot copies. The ability to store a large number of low-impact, frequently created Snapshot copies increases the likelihood that the desired version of data can be successfully recovered.
  • User Visibility and File Recoverability: The high performance, scalability, and stability of Snapshot copies mean they provide an ideal online backup for user-driven recovery.
  • Storage Utilization: Two Snapshot copies taken in sequence differ one from the next by the blocks added or changed in the time interval between the two. This block-incremental behavior limits associated storage capacity consumption. Some alternative implementations can consume storage volumes rivaling that of the active file system, raising storage capacity requirements.

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