Networker

Re: [Networker] Data De-Duplication product info

2007-11-04 23:36:46
Subject: Re: [Networker] Data De-Duplication product info
From: Curtis Preston <cpreston AT GLASSHOUSE DOT COM>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 23:34:23 -0500
>Firstly, these will quickly be made redundant with Avamar integration
with >NetWorker.  

Not so fast, hoss. ;)  Those two categories of products are designed
with completely different datasets in mind.  Avamar (and its
competitors) are designed primarily to back up remote office data, and
the data of smaller data centers.  You would never use it to back up,
say, a multi-terabyte database.  The bigger your servers, the more these
products aren't going to keep up.  Dedupe disk targets, on the other
hand, are designed to take streams of data from your backup system and
dedupe them at line speed, allowing you to use them to back up just
about anything you're backing up today, while getting the benefits of
dedupe.

>I can't be sure, but I doubt that this will even be a licensed 
>feature, as Veritas already include this functionality for free with
>NetBackup - of course, NetBackup is generally a bit more expensive than

>NetWorker, so who knows for sure?  

TRUST ME.  EMC didn't pay $165 million for Avamar to give it away.  It's
an extra-price feature, both in NetBackup & NetWorker.  First, you need
to buy an Avamar/Puredisk/Asigra server even if you already have a
NetWorker/NetBackup/TSM server.  Then you need to buy the client
software and an appropriately-sized capacity-based license.  I don't
know who told you it was free here or with NetBackup, but they
definitely are misinformed.
 
>Secondly, you're adding a virtualisation layer between NetWorker and
the >disk.  Personally, I've never been particularly impressed with
NetWorker's >disk handling, given that it still treats them as tape
devices and given

Check out my response in the "VTL or disk cabinet backup" thread on this
topic.  Summary: I agree with you for small environments, but not for
large ones.

>Also, though this issue will remain in any case with dedup, if one
block on >disk is damaged, how many files is that likely to hit?  

A lot, which is why it should be RAID protected and replicated -- at a
minimum.  And/or you can store a copy on tape.

To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu and 
type "signoff networker" in the body of the email. Please write to 
networker-request AT listserv.temple DOT edu if you have any problems with this 
list. You can access the archives at 
http://listserv.temple.edu/archives/networker.html or
via RSS at http://listserv.temple.edu/cgi-bin/wa?RSS&L=NETWORKER