Advanced Infrastructure Design Course Flashcards
APSS
Automated Proactive Solution System Real-time health monitoring; provides admin notification and automated or user-initiated healing measures.
CommVault Next Generation Platform (elements)
- Open, standards-based infrastructure
- New recovery mandates
- Traditional backup increasingly unable to meet today’s demands
- Extensible analytics built in
- Access & collaboration
- Governance from inception
Common Technology Engine
Central platform of CommVault, comprised of following elements:
- Data Information & Access
- Storage (Disk, Tape, Cloud; deduplication, retention)
- Indexing (Metadata information, optional context indexing)
- Data Protection (File system, application agents)
- Administration (CommCell console, web, mobile)
- Management (Central control of all activity)
Content Store
Abstraction for all data protected in CommVault.
Storage layer retains & protects data (dedupe, archiving, hardware snapshots, encryption + disk/tape/cloud storage)
Indexing layer: Metadata indexes for object retreival/mgmt, and content indexes for end user + compliance searches.
Security layer: granular, role-based access control security
CommVault physical architecture
- CommServe server (central management, DR, job & config database)
- MediaAgent (responsible for data transfer)
- Indexing (distributed between MediaAgents and storage)
- Libraries (Disk or tape)
CommVault logical architecture
Clients (systems) using agents (CV software for specified data types) to protect Backup Sets of data defined by one or more Subclients.
Storage Policies are logical collections of protected data sharing common settings for physical data storage, data retention, and redundancy. Every Subclient must be assigned to a Storage Policy.
A Storage Policy Copy defines a specific data path used to store data, along with specific retention rules. CommVault attempts to create a primary copy of data from agents, and then perform Auxiliary Copies between Storage Policy Copies for redundancy and long term retention.
CORE
Copy Once Reuse Extensively - a concept CommVault software uses for designing the flow of backup data from a client to multiple Storage Policy Copies.
Three Dimensional Data Management
Concept that allows for data to be protected, copied, and managed locally according to the CORE concept.
- First Dimension: Primary backup of data from production, during normal windows.
- Second Dimension: Creating secondary copy of daty for off-site storage.
- Third dimension: Allows logical data management independent of location through use of subclients, allowing granular protection of data (e.g. only implementing long-term protection for specific folders).
Single vs. Multiple CommCells
(advantages, disadvantages)
Single CommCell:
- Advantages: Central Management, easy data restore across all sites.
- Disadvantages: All data management disrupted if central site & CommServe go off line.
Multi CommCell:
- Advantages: Autonomy & resiliency, allows individual IT groups to manage their environments independently.
- Disadvantages: Cross-site restore operations more complicated.
CommServe
Central management server for a CommCell, coordinates all CommVault activity. Server runs on Windows OS, and uses a Microsoft SQL database to store configuration data (clients, CommCell), and job metadata (without job indices).
CommServe High Availability options
- Virtualization: Running CommServe on a virtual machine with high-availability options such as failover. (Risk of bottlenecks, DR backups required for potential rebuild)
- Clustering: Deploying the CommServe in a Windows clustered configuration for high availability. (Not a DR solution; standby server at DR site required)
Hot & Cold Standby
A standby CommServe server has CommServe software preinstalled to allow it to be brought online quickly and use a Disaster Recovery metadata backup to restore a CommCell’s functionality.
- Cold standby servers only require a matching configuration and patch level to the production server, a license including the standby server IP as well as a recent copy of a full DR backup. However, more work is required to bring the server online.
- Hot standby servers require more preparation, including a virtual host name to be shared with the production server, and scheduled replication of database transaction logs from the production server.
- Standby servers must be patched to the same level as the production server. (Patch the production server first)
Media Agent design concerns
Scaling requirements:
- Deduplication DB size
- Index Cache (size, performance)
Placement requirements:
- Location
- Storage proximity
Other agent roles:
- Index engine
- Analytics
Version 11 indexing methods
Two indexing methods:
V1: standard before V11; index written with all job data. Supported by all agent types. Lists objects, chunks, and chunk offsets.
V2: Persistent index databases maintained for all objects in backup set; stored on primary Media Agent, backed up separately from job data. Supports synthetic full backups using multiple mount paths. Data protection jobs write logs of objects found.
Direct Attached Storage (DAS)
Production storage is directly attached to production server. Higher admin overhead, possibly lower quality disks compared to SAN/NAS.
