Cloud Storage

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Overview

Prerequisites

Cloud as a Direct Storage Target

Cloud Gateway

Configurable Properties

Other Operations

Considerations

Troubleshooting


Overview

Cloud Storage enables you to configure and use online storage devices — cloud storage devices — as storage targets. Cloud Storage reduces the need to maintain hardware resources such as tape or magnetic storage devices at onsite locations. It also provides the ability to easily increase your storage capacity as and when it is required. Cloud Storage provides centralized data access, better failover capabilities and reduces the day-to-day storage administration tasks.

As the data gets transferred over the network, protecting the integrity of data is an important aspect of any cloud storage implementation. Cloud Storage protects the integrity of the data using the following features:

The deduplication feature enables you to use the network bandwidth efficiently. Deduplication identifies and eliminates the redundant data in the backup, thereby reducing not only the bandwidth required for data transfer but also the volume of data stored in the cloud. See Cloud Gateway for the deduplication enabled cloud storage implementation.

See MediaAgents - Supported Features, Agents and Devices for MediaAgents that support Cloud Storage. See Cloud Storage - Support for the list of supported cloud storage vendors. Cloud Storage is supported by backup agents and migration agents.

Cloud storage libraries and devices can be identified in the CommCell Browser with the icon.

Cloud Storage can be set up in two ways: Cloud as a Direct Storage Target and Cloud Gateway. The following sections explain the setup and implementation.


Prerequisites

Purchase your cloud storage account and acquire the access credentials. A list of the supported cloud storage vendors and access to their website containing account purchase information can be accessed from Cloud Storage - Support.


Cloud as a Direct Storage Target

In the direct cloud setup, the client computers are connected to the cloud library through the MediaAgent computer. During a data protection operation, the MediaAgent sends the client data directly to the cloud storage.

The diagram provides a sample direct cloud setup.

License Requirements

Cloud Storage license is required for each MediaAgent that uses cloud storage libraries for data protection operations. This license is consumed when a cloud storage device is configured in the CommCell.

This feature requires a Feature License to be available in the CommServe® Server.

Review general license requirements included in License Administration. Also, View All Licenses provides step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information.

Set up Direct Cloud

From the Library and Drive Configuration window, add the cloud storage hardware as a new cloud device. Provide the access credentials as required. Then configure a new cloud storage magnetic library using the cloud device.

Use the following procedures to configure a direct cloud setup:

Once configured the cloud storage library operates like a regular magnetic library.


Cloud Gateway

Cloud Gateway setup is a cloud storage implementation that provides the following key features:
  • A local gateway to cloud storage
  • Data deduplication

In the gateway setup, a UNC path is designated as the Cloud Gateway. Individual clients send in their deduplicated backups to this UNC path. The deduplicated data is then moved to the Cloud Storage using Silo Storage. The cloud library is designated as the silo storage destination and data is migrated using convenient schedules.

The diagram provides a sample cloud gateway setup.

Cloud Gateway uses the Deduplication and Silo Storage features. Please refer to the corresponding documents more information on these features.

License Requirements

This following licenses are required for this configuration:

  1. Cloud Storage license is required on all MediaAgents that operate the cloud storage libraries.
  2. Block Level De-Duplication for data deduplication. This license is required on MediaAgents hosting the Deduplication Store.
  3. Tape De-Duplication license for Silo Storage. This license is required on MediaAgents hosting the Deduplication Store.

This feature requires a Feature License to be available in the CommServe® Server.

Review general license requirements included in License Administration. Also, View All Licenses provides step-by-step instructions on how to view the license information.

Set Up Cloud Gateway

Use the following sequence to configure the cloud gateway setup:

  1. Add the cloud storage device and configure the cloud storage library. Use the following procedures:
  2. Create the deduplication enabled Storage Policy Copy. See Enable Deduplication for a Primary Copy for instructions.

    Auxiliary copies can also be directed to cloud libraries. See Enable Deduplication for a Secondary Copy for instructions.

  3. Enable Silo Storage on the Storage Policy Copy (or Copies) and select the path to Cloud Storage for the Silo data path. See Enable Silo Storage for instructions.

    You will have to configure the necessary Silo Storage parameters. See Silo Storage for more discussions and recommendations.

  4. Configure the client backups to use the Storage Policy Copy for data protection operations.
  5. Start or Schedule the data protection operations.

Considerations

Magnetic Volumes

In the cloud gateway setup, to efficiently move data to and from cloud storage using silo storage, the default size of magnetic volumes is set to 100 MB.


Configurable Properties

The following configuration options are available:

  1. You can add a new MediaAgent to control the cloud storage library. You can add more MediaAgents for GridStor settings or restore purposes. In a Cloud Storage setup, you can add a MediaAgent from a geographically different area than the one from which the data protection is run, and restore the data to that MediaAgent. See Add a New MediaAgent to an Existing Cloud Device for instructions.
  2. You can configure the mount path allocation policy defining the space allocation parameters and writer assignments. See Configure Mount Path Allocation Policy for step-by-step instructions.
  3. You can configure the timeout parameter that determines how long a job waits for a status response after an operation is requested. See Modify the Mount and Unmount Timeouts for Magnetic Libraries for step-by-step instructions.
  4. You can modify the device alias name of the cloud storage device. See View or Modify the Device Properties for Magnetic Libraries with Static Mount Paths for step-by-step instructions.
  5. You can enable/disable the library, or enable/disable a mount path associated with the library. See Enable or Disable a Magnetic Library and Enable or Disable a Mount Path for step-by-step instructions.

Other Operations

View the Contents of a Mount Path

You can view the contents of a specific mount path. This feature can be used to view a list of data protection operations residing in the mount path. All the details associated with the data protection operation(s) available in the media are displayed. This includes the following:

See View the Contents of a Mount Path for step-by-step instructions.

View the Mount Path Offline Reason

The status of the magnetic library indicates whether the library is online or offline, and if offline, the reason for the offline status. See View the Magnetic Library Offline Reason for step-by-step instructions.

Delete the Contents of a Mount Path

The delete contents option can be used to logically delete the contents of a mount path.

This operation deletes the data from the CommServe database. Note that this operation does not free-up the disk space in the mount path. A Data Aging operation must be run subsequently to free-up the disk space.

This option can be used to make media available to complete an important data protection job when there is no free-space available in the library.

CAUTION

Extreme caution should be exercised while using this option as once deleted, the contents of the mount path will not be available for data recovery operations.

The Delete Contents operation is recorded in the Audit Trail.

See Delete the Contents of a Mount Path for step-by-step instructions.


Considerations

Review the following considerations when using Cloud Storage:

General

A cloud storage library cannot be configured with devices that are attached to two different MediaAgents. All devices in a library must belong to the same MediaAgent.

Alternate Data Path

Cloud storage data paths are supported as alternate data paths in GridStor settings.

However, note that data paths from deduplicated Storage Policy Copies cannot be configured as alternate data paths to cloud storage data paths, and vice versa.

Deduplication

Deduplication on cloud storage backups is supported with the Cloud Gateway setup.


Troubleshooting

Cloud Storage Explorer tool provides the ability to connect to the cloud library and explore the contents. You can use this tool if you wish to verify the contents of your backup data on the cloud.

This tool can also be used to verify the connectivity to the online storage. If a cloud library cannot be reached, then the connection status is displayed on the tool's status bar.

Cloud Storage Explorer tool can be accessed from the <software_installation_folder>/Base directory.


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