Note that, unless something's changed drastically since I last looked at it, if you set PureDisk up to do client-side dedupe, it is ALSO outside your NetBackup environment: you use the PD client and it sends data to the PD store (which can also be a storage-side dedupe storage unit / OpenStorage target / whatever, of course), and when you do restores, you don't do so through the usual NetBackup means. (At least, maybe, until a future NBU full version. But don't hold your breath.) This is, incidentally, what PureDisk (like Avamar) was originally designed to do well: remote-to-core backups with minimal bandwidth impact.

 

I don't, personally, think that's a make/break question about either product, but some operational environments may, and it's worth bearing in mind in any case. The futurity for both products appears to be that they'll be embedded in a more mature and robust backup system (Avamar into NetWorker), but, and please correct me if I'm wrong about this, each is currently a separate piece. If all you really want is *storage* side dedupe (you don't mind the network bandwidth part), you should probably think with your wallet when comparing either Avamar or PureDisk to things like DataDomain (and the others that do *logically* the same thing; there are enough vendors kicking around this conversation already without dragging more in to confuse things by opening the pre-write vs. post-pass dedupe can of worms).

 

(Also, I seem to recall some hand-waving about theoretical support for [NetBackup] OpenStorage in Avamar at EMC World 2008, but it's a bit hard to swallow given the presence of NetWorker, and I haven't heard much about it since, so I wouldn't run too far with that one if I were you.)

 

 

 

Scott Chapman

Senior Technical Specialist

Storage and Database Administration

ICBC - Victoria

Ph:  250.414.7650  Cell:  250.213.9295

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Cornely, David
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 9:35 AM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Anyone using avamar

Yes, and it works great.  The key (as with most IT things) is to understand how it works and to use it appropriately within the correct environment(s).

Since it de-duplicates client data before it leaves the client, it works especially well for virtual hosts that are likely sharing network resources.  The scaling path for the solution is very clear, simply add more nodes to your grid when needed.

Getting data offsite is also easy – you implement a remote grid and use IP-based replication.

 

I recommend to start you get EMC to provide a detailed presentation on the product so you can get a deeper understanding of the product.  If you use it in accordance with its design it will work as expected.

 

 

From: veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu [mailto:veritas-bu-bounces AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of Klebba, Don
Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 06:31
To: 'veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu'
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Anyone using avamar

 

We’re a netbackup shop running NBU 6.5.2a. We currently have some data domain appliances that we backup roughly

25% of our nightly backups to. We’re looking to go tapeless at some point in time and were considering getting larger

Data domain appliances to accomplish this. We’re also a EMC shop. Our EMC BURA guys have been pushing their Avamar

Solution to us. I must admit it sounds promising, but I’m a little skeptical at this solution.

 

                Has anyone had any experiences, either good or bad with Avamar?

 

 

Don Klebba
Quicken Loans
Storage Management Team
DonKlebba AT quickenloans DOT com
phone: (734)805-7791