White Paper: EMC VNXe Data Protection — A Detailed Review

White Paper

EMC VNXe DATA PROTECTION
Overview

Abstract
This white paper details the integrated features that can be
positioned for business continuity in the EMC® VNXe™ series
platforms. Data protection features include snapshots,
replication, and NDMP backups.

March 2012

Copyright © 2012 EMC Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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of its publication date. The information is subject to change
without notice.

The information in this publication is provided “as is.” EMC
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specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or
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Part Number h8219.2

EMC VNXe Data Protection – Overview 2

Table of Contents
Executive summary.................................................................................................. 4
Audience ............................................................................................................................ 4
Terminology ............................................................................................................ 4
VNXe data protection ............................................................................................... 5
EMC Replication Manager overview .......................................................................... 6
Snapshots .............................................................................................................. 6
Shared Folders and NFS datastore snapshots ..................................................................... 7
iSCSI snapshots ................................................................................................................. 9
Protection Storage ................................................................................................. 10
Scheduling ....................................................................................................................... 13
Replication ............................................................................................................ 15
Managing replication sessions ......................................................................................... 17
Synchronization Frequency............................................................................................... 17
Failover and failback operations ....................................................................................... 18
Backup and recovery ............................................................................................. 20
Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 22
References ............................................................................................................ 23


Executive summary
A small to medium sized organization’s data is one of its most valuable assets.
Therefore, the company’s highest priorities must include safeguarding its data.
EMC® VNXe™ Series provides integrated features for customers to meet their goals
of business continuity and data protection. This white paper describes the relevant
technologies for different business continuity and data protection situations.
Customers are concerned about data availability at all times. Outages, whatever the
cause, are extremely costly. Further, data outages affect customers of all sizes.
Systems and storage administrators have become aware of the importance of data
availability while hit with shrinking IT budgets. The difficulty they face is in deciding
which technology to apply to their situation.
While considering data protection tools, customers must evaluate which aspect of
data protection they need. Is security of data and risk mitigation needed? Do they
need highly available data during normal business operations, so that the failure of a
device does not affect the availability of their business function? Or do they need
data backup and recovery? All these aspects constitute the overall umbrella of
business continuity and data protection.

Audience
This white paper is intended for EMC customers, partners, and employees looking to
understand features that exist in the EMC VNXe product that can provide maximum
data availability.

Terminology
• Common Internet File System (CIFS) – An access protocol that allows users to
access files and folders from Windows hosts located on a network. User
authentication is maintained through Active Directory and file access is
determined by directory access controls.
• iSCSI protocol – The iSCSI (internet small computer system interface) protocol
provides a mechanism for accessing raw block-level data storage over network
connections. The iSCSI protocol is based on a network-standard client/server
model with iSCSI initiators (hosts) acting as storage clients and iSCSI targets
acting as storage servers. Once a connection is established between an iSCSI
host and the iSCSI server, the host can request storage resources and services
from the server.
• iSCSI server – A VNXe server that uses the iSCSI protocol to manage Microsoft
Exchange storage groups, generic storage virtual disks, Hyper-V datastores,
and/or VMFS-based VMware datastores.


• Local replication – Local replication occurs between two storage servers within
the same VNXe system. After the local replication session is established, a read-
only copy of the source storage resource is created on the destination storage
server.
• Network-attached storage (NAS) – File-based storage for a wide range of clients
and applications that access storage over network connections. Protocol-specific
file systems are located and managed on the storage system, which transfers
data to hosts over TCP/IP using CIFS and NFS file sharing protocols.
• Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP) – A standard for backing up file
servers on a network. It allows centralized applications to back up file systems
running in a customer environment.
• Network File System (NFS) – An access protocol that allows users to access files
and folders from Linux/UNIX hosts located on a network.
• Remote replication – The replication of stored data from one VNXe system to
another (remote) VNXe™ system or VNX/Celerra® system.
• Shared Folder server – A VNXe server that uses either the CIFS or NFS protocol to
catalog, organize, and transfer files within designated shares. A shared folder
server is required to create shared folders that contain CIFS or NFS shares, or NFS
VMware datastores.
• Snapshot – A read-only, point-in-time copy of data stored on the storage system.
Administrators can recover files and folders from snapshots.
• Storage resource – An addressable and configurable storage instance associated
with a specific quantity of storage, storage server, storage pool, and protocol
(iSCSI or NAS).
• Unisphere™ – A web-based management interface for creating storage
resources, configuring and scheduling protection for stored data, and managing
and monitoring other storage operations.

VNXe data protection
Data protection for the VNXe is summarized in three categories: snapshots,
replication, and traditional NDMP backups. The various application-aware
capabilities may add application knowledge and custom functionality but are still
based on the basic network-attached storage (NAS) and iSCSI protection concepts.
VNXe includes data protection functionality that revolves around the concepts of
protection and recovery for shared folder, application, or generic iSCSI LUN storage.
EMC Replication Manager (RM) is leveraged for iSCSI data protection.


EMC Replication Manager overview
Replication Manager manages EMC point-in-time replication technologies and
coordinates the entire data replication process from discovery and configuration to
the management of multiple disk-based replicas. This enables organizations to meet
service-level agreements for reduced recovery point objectives (RPOs) and recovery
time objectives (RTOs). Running on a separate Microsoft Windows server, it provides
a graphical user interface for managing the replication and snapshots of iSCSI LUNs.1

Snapshots
A snapshot is a virtual point-in-time image of the data within a storage resource that
has changed since the last snapshot. Snapshots provide a record of the content in
the targeted storage resource at a particular date and time, but they are not full
copies of the data. Periodically creating snapshots of storage provides an effective
technique for meeting data protection and recovery requirements. Based on the
importance and volatility of data within a VNXe storage resource, administrators can
define recurring schedules that specify times and intervals for VNXe snapshot
operations.
VNXe provides tools for performing manual (on-demand) snapshots, configuring
snapshot schedules, and performing snapshot restore operations and snapshot
recovery operations.
Administrators can choose default or customize snapshot schedules that specify
regular times to perform snapshot operations (automatic snapshot creation and
deletion). You can select the intervals, times, days, and dates at which snapshot
operations occur. A collection of rules within the schedule specify the interval,
frequency, and time that snapshots are taken. VNXe calculates the amount of storage
protection space needed based on the complexity of the protection schedule chosen
by the administrator. This value can be adjusted if desired.
The VNXe system also allows administrators to manually create snapshots that
contain on-demand images of specific storage resources at a particular time. You can
create a manual snapshot by navigating to the Snapshots tab in the Details section of
the given storage resource, and by clicking the Take Snapshot Now button (shown in
Figure 1). This feature is useful in various situations, such as taking snapshots of
data that will be unavailable for a period of time, that will be subject to unusual
circumstances or risks, or that is used for testing or debugging purposes.

1
Snapshots created with Replication Manager can be viewed and deleted in Unisphere.


Figure 1 Manual snapshot of the storage resource

When administrators need to restore a VNXe storage resource to its state at a
particular date and time, they can restore the storage resource from a particular
snapshot. It is important to note that modifications to files after the particular
snapshot was created will be lost.
Hosts connected to the storage resource continue to have access to the restored
data. The snapshot schedule automatically resumes.

Shared Folders and NFS datastore snapshots
Snapshots for Shared Folder and VMware NFS datastores are performed on the entire
folder or datastore; you cannot take a partial snapshot of these resources. Snapshots
are based on a copy-on-first-modify principle. Figure 2 illustrates the live view and
snapshot view of the snapshot window if the block is modified after the checkpoint is
created. The production data and snapshot data are maintained separately. It is
important to note that these snapshots are read-only. Data must be restored before it
can be edited.


Figure 2 Two views of the data during a snapshot window

End users, if they have the proper access permissions, can restore a file that was
accidentally deleted by accessing the snapshots from a host that is mounted (NFS) or
mapped (CIFS) to the share by adding “.ckpt” to the end of the share path. This
directs them to the hidden snapshot directory. If users are mapped to a CIFS shared
folder, they have the option to access the snapshot through Microsoft Explorer under
the Previous Versions tab in the share’s Properties window to perform the restore.
This leverages Microsoft’s Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) technology.
Alternatively, snapshot restores of shared folders can also be performed within
Unisphere to retrieve data recorded on a specific date and time (see Figure 3). With
this approach, note that the complete snapshot is restored, bringing the whole file
system back to a given point in time.


Figure 3 Restore a file from a previous snapshot of a Shared Folder

When administrators schedule snapshot creation of a shared folder, if the protection
storage runs out, the oldest snapshot is inactivated and deleted to make space for
any new snapshots.

iSCSI snapshots
Replication Manager is used to create or schedule application-consistent snapshots
for iSCSI storage resource, where the application data is halted to ensure that it
remains consistent with the application. Snapshots created with Replication
Manager can be viewed and deleted from Unisphere. However, protection schedules
are only visible in Replication Manager.
Creating snapshots in Replication Manager involves the following:
 Provisioning an iSCSI storage resource (including generic iSCSI, Exchange, VMware
VMFS, or Hyper-V) and enabling protection storage, where snapshots will be stored.

 Obtaining an EMC Replication Manager license.

 Installing and configuring Replication Manager on a host with a network connection to
the VNXe system.

 Creating an application set to specify the storage resource to protect in Replication
Manger.

 Creating a snapshot, or scheduling snapshots, of the application set.


 Viewing details about the storage resource and the snapshots in Unisphere.

Data on an iSCSI snapshot is accessible only if that snapshot is promoted. Promoting
and demoting of an iSCSI snapshot can be performed within Unisphere.

When the allocated protection storage runs out of space, iSCSI snapshots do not
recycle themselves as exhibited with NAS snapshots. In the case of thin-provisioned
storage, the space containing the iSCSI LUN and snapshots will auto-extend until
there is no space left in the pool. The administrator can modify the maximum space
allowed for an iSCSI LUN’s snapshot. The VNXe system will not create any new
snapshots until this space is freed, and an alert notifying the administrator of this
issue. All snapshot-related operations are executed at the application instance level.
For example, in the case that there are multiple vdisks under particular generic iSCSI
storage, the snapshot creation works on all of them. The user cannot selectively take
snapshots of the storage.

Administrators must keep in mind that once a snapshot is used to restore data, all
snapshots that were taken after that particular snapshot are destroyed and cannot be
recovered in iSCSI storage resources. This is a different behavior from the Shared
Folders and VMware NFS datastores, where all snapshots remain on the system.

Protection Storage
You can create protection storage when you use the provisioning wizards to create
storage resources, or you can create protection storage after you create other storage.
As shown in Figure 4, you can choose to do the following:
 Not configure protection storage
 Configure protection storage without configuring a snapshot schedule
 Configure protection and create a snapshot schedule

When you create protection storage, it is automatically provisioned to store
snapshots, and to restore or recover primary storage. Protection storage is separate
from the primary storage that is used for storing host, user, or application data. If
protection storage is reserved for a particular storage resource, then the VNXe system
automatically allocates a minimum amount of protection storage to support manual
snapshots of the primary data.


Figure 4 Configuring protection storage with a snapshot schedule

The protection storage for a resource can be increased without affecting its primary
storage. For iSCSI storage resources, VMFS datastores, and Hyper-V storage,
administrators can set different host access permissions for primary storage and
protection storage. You can also auto-adjust the size of protection storage, depending
on the size of primary storage. When enabled, VNXe adjusts the protection storage
size proportionately to any change to the size of the primary storage. For thick, or
non-thin provisioned, storage resources, it is important to note that administrators
cannot reduce the size of protection storage once it has been created.
When provisioning Shared Folder or VMware NFS Datastore storage resources, the
minimum size of the reserved protection storage is dependent on the primary storage
size. The algorithm for protection size is as follows:
 If the primary storage size is less than or equal to 20 GB, the minimum protection
size allocated is equal to the primary storage size.
 If the primary storage size is greater than 20 GB, the minimum protection size
allocated is either 5% of the primary storage size or 20 GB (whichever size is
greater).
For example, if an administrator specifies 15 GB for the primary storage, the VNXe
system allocates a minimum of 15 GB of reserved protection storage, resulting in an
allocation of 30 GB for the storage resource. If the administrator specifies 450 GB for
the primary storage, the VNXe system allocates a minimum of 22.5 GB of reserved
protection storage, resulting in an allocation of 472.5 GB for the storage resource.
With auto-adjust selected, if the primary storage size increases from 500 GB to 750
GB, and there is reserved protection storage of 5 percent, then the total amount of
storage allocated for the resource increases automatically from 525 GB to 787.5 GB.
In this example, the protection storage size increased from 25 GB to 37.5 GB.
When provisioning thick iSCSI storage resources, VMFS datastores, and Hyper-V
storage, the minimum protection size is 105 percent and the recommended
protection size is 135 percent of the size of the allocated storage depending on
whether a protection schedule is being configured. The recommended protection size
is based on the primary storage size. Administrators should use the recommended


protection size because depleted protection resources can lead to data loss in the
storage resource primary or protection data. Figure 5 shows the “Configure Protection
Storage Size” wizard pane when provisioning Generic iSCSI Storage. Choosing to
configure the storage resource with 10GB of primary storage, the wizard presents to
the user a minimum protection size of 10.500 GB and recommended protection size
of 13.500 GB.

Figure 5 Setting the Protection storage size

Table 1 displays the amount of protection storage that is provisioned relative to the
size of the primary storage. With Microsoft Exchange storage provisioning, you create
protection schedules in the Replication Manager interface.


Table 1 Protection Size based on Primary storage

Protection Protection Size Protection Size
Size Allow Protection Allow Protection (Snapshot
Application No Protection (No Snapshot Schedule) Schedule Configured)

Default/ Default/
Min/Default Min Min
Recommended Recommended

Shared Folder 0% 5% 5% 5%* 35%

Generic iSCSI
0% 105% 105% 105% 135%
(w/o Thin Provisioning )

Generic iSCSI
0% 5% 5% 5% 35%
(w/Thin Provisioning)

VMware (VMFS
0% 105% 105% 105% 135%
w/o Thin Provisioning)

VMware
(VMFS w/Thin 0% 5% 5% 5% 35%
Provisioning)

VMware (NFS) 0% 5% 5% 5%* 35%

Hyper-V
0% 105% 105% 105% 135%

Hyper-V
0% 5% 5% 5% 35%

Exchange
0% 105% 135% NA NA

Exchange
0% 5% 35% NA NA

*The minimum protection size of 5% can be overridden (to 20GB) based on the primary storage size.

Scheduling
Snapshot protection schedules are made up of one or more rules that determine how
often and at what times regular snapshot operations occur. Each snapshot rule
defines a snapshot type (interval), snapshot frequency, and snapshot time, and also
specifies the duration to keep the snapshot.
VNXe protection rule types include:
• Hourly (several times a day)
• Daily (every day)
• At daily intervals (every n number of days)


• On specific days of the week
• On specific days of the month
These rules are displayed when you configure protection storage with a snapshot
schedule. The daily protection rule is shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 Modifying the protection schedule

For each storage resource provisioned you can select one of the predefined schedules
(listed in Table 2), or create one or more customized schedules.
Table 2 Predefined snapshot schedule options

Schedule Name Take Snapshots Keep Snapshots
Default Protection Once every day 2 days
More Protection Once every day 7 days
Less Protection Once every day 1 days

An administrator can create a custom protection schedule by combining a number of
rules in order to obtain short-term storage protection (hourly/daily snapshots), long-
term storage protection (weekly/monthly snapshots), or both. However, the more
frequently the schedule takes snapshots, the more storage resources are consumed.
To limit the storage consumed by snapshots, the VNXe system allows the creation of
a protection reserve that allocates a specific quantity of resources for snapshot
operations.


Replication
The ability to quickly recover data and access from a catastrophic failure at a
company site is crucial to business operations. The decreasing cost of disk storage
makes the use of replication technologies more attractive for enabling real-time
backup and recovery. Application images can instantly be transferred between
servers and between sites. It is particularly useful for organizations that have the
combination of a remote office or branch office (ROBO) network scheme
implemented. Data housed at the primary site can easily be copied and accessed via
replicas at another site.
Replication is a process in which storage data is duplicated either locally or to a
remote network device. It produces a read-only, point-in-time copy of source storage
data and periodically updates the copy, keeping it consistent with the source data. In
case the main storage backup system fails, storage replication provides an enhanced
level of redundancy. This minimizes the downtime-associated costs of a system
failure and simplifies the recovery process for a natural or human-caused disaster.
VNXe replication provides asynchronous replication tools for creating point-in-time
copies of storage resources. This is a complete copy of the data, unlike a snapshot of
the data, in which only the changes to the data are saved.
There are two types of replication:
• Local — Local replication occurs within the same VNXe system.
• Remote — Remote replication occurs between the source VNXe system and
the remote VNXe, VNX, or Celerra system.
Once a storage resource has been created, a replication session can be made to
either its peer storage processor or to a remote system. The replication session can
be initiated via the options at the end of the storage provisioning wizard (shown in
Figure 7).

Figure 7 Configure a replication session at the end of the wizard


As of release VNXe OE 2.2.x, replication sessions for Generic iSCSI storage resources
can be established within Unisphere.2 Once the iSCSI storage resource is created,
options are presented at the end of the Generic Storage Wizard (shown in Figure 8).

Figure 8 Configure iSCSI replication session at the end of the wizard

In addition, there is the option to configure a local or remote replication session at a
later time by navigating to the Details page of the storage resource (shown in Figure
9).

Figure 9 Configure a replication session in the Details page

Replication lets the administrator automatically maintain a complete second copy of
the storage resource on the local system. This local copy is a complete copy of the
data, unlike a snapshot of the data, in which only changes to the data are saved.

For Generic iSCSI storage replication, Unisphere ensure the mapping between source and
destination VNXe systems. In certain cases, new virtual disks may have been added the source
VNXe system since setting up the replication session or the VNXe system may not have been
able to set up replication sessions to all the individual virtual disks. In these cases, warning
messages are displayed in Unisphere notifying users that an update is needed. The session
status will change to “Update Needed”, prompting the user to take action. Administrators also
have the option to delete the replication session from the Details page of the iSCSI storage
resource.

2
After the replication session has been created, you will need to discover the session and set up replication from Replication
Manager.


Managing replication sessions
Administrators manage replication sessions for VNXe for different storage resources
in Unisphere or Replication Manager.
Administrators manage file-level replication entirely within the VNXe environment.
VNXe supports the following types of storage resources for NAS replication:
 Shared folder - Shared folder replication produces a read-only, point-in-time copy of a
source production file system at a destination and periodically updates this copy, making it
consistent with the source file system.
 VMware NFS datastore - VMware replication supports NFS datastores. The replication
session creates a point-in-time copy of VMware data and copies it to the destination. Only
the data in the datastore is replicated to the destination, not the datastore itself.

For block-level (or iSCSI) replication, administrators use Replication Manager to
create, schedule, and manage replications.
VNXe supports the following types of storage resources for iSCSI replication:

 Microsoft Exchange

 VMware VMFS datastore

 Microsoft Hyper-V

 Generic iSCSI

Administrators can use Replication Manager to replicate data from a storage resource to the
local system or a remote system. During replication, Replication Manager creates a snapshot of
the storage resource.

Synchronization Frequency
In a VNXe system, for file replication, administrators can control the frequency at
which the source and destination systems are synchronized. The value can be set
between 5 and 1,440 minutes (24 hours). The default value is 60 minutes, or 1 hour
as shown in Figure 10. Settings greater than 6 hours will result in a warning to the
user that they should increase their Protection Reserve storage amount to a size
equal to 10 percent of the application’s size. The default 5 percent reserved from
protection storage (given no protection schedule was chosen) will otherwise be
sufficient for settings of 6 hours or less.


Figure 10 Recovery point objective (RPO) for a replication session

Administrators can automate the synchronization of replication sessions by using
the scheduling mechanism in Replication Manager. Replication sessions are set up as
a “manual refresh”. To meet an organization’s targeted RPO, an administrator needs
to schedule or manually run a job.

Failover and failback operations
Once a replication connection has been established between the source and
destination system, the following operations can be executed on the replicated data
sets:
• Failover – In a failover scenario, the production site becomes unavailable and
inaccessible, typically as the result of a disaster or unexpected outage. In
response, the user can execute a failover from the destination system. The
execution of a replication failover is not an automatic occurrence—it requires
manual execution. A failover operation is asynchronous and will result in data
loss if the data has not been synchronized between the source and destination
prior to executing the failover. The "Sync Now" function can be used, if possible,
to synchronize the production with the destination prior to executing failover to
avoid losing data. During the failover process, read/write access is provided to
the destination application. When the production application becomes
reachable, only read operations are allowed. After the production site has been
restored to service, the original replication session can be restarted by executing
a failback on the production application.
• Switchover – The switchover feature is typically used for disaster scenario testing
or data migrations. The switchover differs from the failover in that it synchronizes
the production application with the destination using the differential snapshot
from the source. Switchover stops the replication session and does not restart
the replication session. This option should be used if the source site is available
but administrators want to activate the destination as read/write. This command
should be executed from the source system only. This command pauses
replication, mounts the source object as read-only, and mounts the destination
object as read/write so that it can act as the new source object.


• Failback – Following a switchover or failover, the user can execute a failback to
restore the source as the read/write production application and to resume the
replication session. Failback can only be initiated from the production side. The
failback is performed from the Replication tab on the production application.
Failback resumes the replication session without losing the data written to the
destination while in a failed over or switched over state. It does this by
synchronizing the applications as part of the failover process.
A local replication is initiated by clicking System > System Replication in the
menu taskbar, selecting a replication session and by clicking the Failover button
at the bottom of the screen.
If you initiate the local replication on the source VNXe system, the Failover dialog box
shown in Figure 11 appears. You can select Sync Before Failover to start a switchover,
or select the Failover Without Sync option to start a failover. However, if you initiate
the local replication on the destination VNXe system, the Failover dialog box only
allows you to initiate a failover operation; it does not allow you to initiate a
switchover.

Figure 11 Remote failover dialog box when initiated on the source system

A remote replication is initiated by clicking System > System Replication in the menu
taskbar, selecting a replication session, and by clicking the Failover button at the
bottom of the screen. If an administrator initiates a remote replication on the source
VNXe system, the Failover dialog box allows them to initiate a switchover operation. If
the administrator initiates a remote replication on the destination VNXe system, the
Failover dialog box allows them to initiate a failover operation.


For block-level replication, an administrator manually performs failover and failback
operations using the Failover option in Replication Manager. Figure 12 displays a
failover of a replication session from VNX to VNXe.

Figure 12 Failing over a replication session

Once the failover is complete, replication can be started manually, or you can wait
until the next scheduled replication job runs.
The steps for the failback of a replication session are similar to the steps for the
failover.
For additional information about how to configure and use Replication Manager, refer
to Replicating VNXe iSCSI to VNX using Replication Manager 5.3.2 – Technical Notes
on EMC Online Support (https://support.emc.com) > VNXe Product Page.

Backup and recovery
The inability to recover company data after a critical failure can put an entire company
at risk, with catastrophic consequences for employees, shareholders, and customers
alike. In a typical data center, backups need to be performed on multiple application
servers and successful backups are critical to the recoverability of data and systems
enabling the business to run.
NDMP backup functionality in VNXe systems helps simplify backup and restore
operations in a customer environment. VNXe systems support NDMP v2-v4 over the
network; two-way NDMP backup configuration (commonly referred to as direct-attach
backup) is not supported. Instead, administrators configure a three-way
heterogeneous backup where the tape drives are connected to a media server, also
referred to as a Data Management Application (DMA) server, and the VNXe system


communicates with this media server over the network (see Figure 13). The following
outlines the workflow of this NDMP design:
1. On the VNXe, enable NDMP and set a password for the NDMP account. The
NDMP account credentials on the backup solution server and VNXe system
must match.
2. The backup administrator requests data to be backed up.
3. The request is sent to the storage processor.
4. From the storage processor’s configuration, the VNXe system forwards data for
backup to a DMA server.
5. The data is fed through a non-production network between the storage
processor and DMA server.
From there, the data is sent from the DMA server to a tape device to get written
onto tape.

Figure 13 Three-way heterogeneous backup configuration

With this implementation, VNXe systems store the application data at a central
location, where the data can be backed up, and restored if required. Consequently,
other storage systems can communicate with this DMA server and utilize its
resources.
The following backup and recovery products are supported by VNXe systems to
achieve the tasks above:
• EMC NetWorker®
• EMC NetWorker® FastStart
• EMC Avamar 6.0


• EMC DataDomain 5.03
• CommVault Simpana
• Symantec Backup Exec
• Symantec NetBackup with NDMP

For additional information, refer to the EMC Simple Support Matrix for EMC VNXe
Series on EMC Online Support (https://support.emc.com) > VNXe Product Page.

Conclusion
System and data availability is a top-most priority for customers. Outages are costly
to businesses if not resolved immediately. This is particularly the case with small to
medium size businesses. VNXe systems can ease these customers’ concerns and
increase the availability of their storage.
VNXe systems enable administrators to protect data against localized failures,
outages, and disasters through snapshots, replication, and NDMP backups. With
snapshots, end users can recover files or directories deleted from a previous point in
time from their local desktops. Snapshots are easily maintained via protection
schedules. Administrators can also create a manual snapshot when appropriate,
making it much easier to fulfill restore requests.
Data and application consistency via replication ensures that administrators will be
able to recover and restart the application from the copy in the event of a service
interruption. Replicating data remotely ensures disaster recovery protection for
production applications. Further, these replicas can be repurposed for backup
acceleration and restoration of data, or to simplify and automate data refreshes for
testing and reporting. Implementing these measures in combination significantly
decreases costs and alleviates staff resources.

NDMP functionality offers you the flexibility to back up data using different
combinations of compliant network-attached file servers, backup devices (such as
tape drives), and NDMP-compliant management applications. In addition, it provides
centralized control of company-wide data backup management.

3
EMC DataDomain 5.0 is supported in a configuration where the DataDomain device is connected to the LAN and acts as an
NDMP Tape Server.


References
The following can be found on EMC Online Support (https://support.emc.com) > VNXe
Product Page:
 EMC VNXe Storage Systems – A Detailed Review
 EMC Unisphere for VNXe: Next-Generation Storage Management – A Detailed
Review
 EMC Simple Support Matrix for EMC VNXe Series
 Replicating VNXe iSCSI to VNX using Replication Manager 5.3.2 – Technical Notes


White Paper: EMC VNXe Data Protection — A Detailed Review

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White Paper: EMC VNXe Data Protection — A Detailed Review