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Location: The Dell PowerVault MD3000i
Discussion: backup MD3000i to tape
Keyword tags:
MD3000i backup
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 smoke455 |
backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 24 2008, 1:55 PM EDT we are getting an MD3000i to use as an iSCSI SAN (vmware, windows, linux, netware...) We spec'd it to have SAS drives for live data and SATA drives for snapshot backups. We need to have off-site backups of the SAN, but I'm not sure how to proceed and best utilize the snapshot features to offload to tape. Should I be looking for another server to hang a tape library onto to make backups of the snapshots - I'm new to using a SAN so I'm a bit lost/confused. Any help would be appreciated, Thanks Do you find this valuable? |
 SeanO'Brien |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 24 2008, 2:00 PM EDT Yea, that will work. Just present the LUNs to the backup server just like you do with your hosts. The backup server would have to be on the iSCSI private networks as well, thats really the only difference. For VMWare VM's you can do backups of the LUNs the same way or load the backup agent on those VMs and treat like a physical box. Do you find this valuable? |
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smoke455 |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 24 2008, 4:19 PM EDT Thanks for the reply so... (just so I'm clear) if I create a snapshot on the MD3000i of a LUN with ext3, NSS, and NTFS volumes on it - the Windows backup server could mount that snapshot and back it up to something like Arcserve? Do you find this valuable? |
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SeanO'Brien |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 28 2008, 4:19 PM EDT Smoke: I believe so. I've been separating the types of volumes by using a different LUN for the different partition types, so not sure how a backup server/software would see that but its sounds like it would work. I'm curious though, what configuration do you have where you are doing this? Is the same LUN presented to different physical machines running different OSes? Do you find this valuable? |
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smoke455 |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 29 2008, 9:36 AM EDT maybe I'm confused/confusing things... right now I'm using my own home-made iSCSI SAN using IET on a Linux box. I'm only hosting a single 640gb VMWare ESX volume. When I get the MD3000i we plan on moving the rest of our servers over to VMWare and the SAN. Then I'll have a 750gb volume for ESX, 1tb volume for NSS, and a 2tb NTFS volume running on the MD3000i. Currently I use Arcserve on a different server to backup each server via agents to disk and then export to tape. The increased amount of data we are going to see by the end of the year will make this impossible due to lack of backup disk storage and slow speed. So, if I can take snapshots on the SAN and treat those as the 'backup to disk' portion then I can just slap on a faster LTO4 library and export the snapshots to tape for off site backup/disaster recovery. but I really have no idea if that is possible. Do you find this valuable? |
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SeanO'Brien |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 29 2008, 12:10 PM EDT I got you... Yes, each of those volumes you mention should be a separate LUN on the MD3000i. Then you present each only to the host server you need to access that LUN. You will also need additional space in the form of another LUN(s) to send the snapshots too. I haven't done to much with snapshots but I know that it will work the way you want to use them. Then you present your 'snapshot' LUN(s) to your backup server. I know what you mean, not enough time in the day to backup everything to tape. We just went through a similar experience over the last year on different hardware and moved windows file storage to the MD3000i. Also using it for (2) VM LUNs presented to the same VM Host. Works great, but we don't have any spare room to send the snapshots to. Looking at getting an additional MD1000 in the next 3 - 6 months for that. Good Luck! 3 out of 3 found this valuable. Do you? |
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smoke455 |
RE: backup MD3000i to tape
Jul 29 2008, 12:55 PM EDT Thanks for the info! Do you find this valuable? |
