Protecting NAS Environments via NFS, CIFS, NDMP, and VTL

Deduplication Storage for NAS using Standard Interfaces

Challenges

Unlike most systems and storage environments, NAS systems, or filers, do not allow integration of standard backup software agents on the storage system itself.

Standard backup software can use one of three methods to back up filers:

• Use NFS or CIFS to capture the backup data
• Use Network Data Management Protocol (NDMP)
• Use Virtual Tape to capture the backup data

Solutions

Data Domain nearline storage systems can work well in these environments.

Using NFS or CIFS from a Backup Client to Capture NAS Data

One common method to capture filer data for backup is to use NFS or CIFS. This requires a backup client to run on a server system that can mount the filer. It will see the data as one more directory to back up. This configuration is very easy to set up with your existing backup software and can be very effective in many circumstances.

Backup software reads files using a well-known file access protocol such as NFS or CIFS; this data is moved to a media server and stored to a Data Domain system using NFS or CIFS from the media server.

If tape copy is needed for archival or compliance purposes, the backup data can be duplicated from the Data Domain system to tape, all driven by your specified backup software policies.

A recovery operation from the Data Domain system is simple and straightforward — like any other recovery using the backup software. In data movement terms, the process is reversed; the data is restored back on the filer by the backup software client using NFS or CIFS.

NDMP Integrated with Standard Backup Software

NDMP is a well-known protocol used as a standard network interface for managing backup control and data movement from filers. In many cases, it can offer speed and multi-protocol access control preservation in backing up filers.

Increasingly, backup software vendors are optimizing for disk-based backup by supporting movement of NDMP data streams to file type devices, in addition to tape devices, as in the following diagram:

The basic operation of the solution is similar to the previous example except the backup application accesses the filer date using NDMP.

Note: Initial NDMP implementations were defined to support tape libraries. As such, there are some cases where the backup software vendor has not yet implemented movement of NDMP data to a file type device such as Data Domain’s nearline storage systems.

Using VTL to Capture NAS Data

Backup software vendors are optimizing for disk-based backup to a Virtual Tape Library by supporting movement of tape streams to a virtual tape library and type devices over Fibre Channel.