CommCell® Architecture Overview
Introduction
Client Agents
Common Technology Engine
CommCell® Console
Content Indexing and Search
CommCell Installations
The software provides a powerful set of storage management tools that
help you move and manage your critical data. These tools enable you to store
and retrieve data associated with computer systems in your enterprise.
The system consists of integrated software modules which can be grouped
together in a CommCell® configuration. Each CommCell configuration
consists of the following main components:
- One or more of the following Client Agents:
- iDataAgents that
perform the backup and restore operations
- Archive Management Agents which includes agents for migration
archiving and recovery operations and the Compliance Archiver agents
- Quick Recovery® (QR) agents that create and recover
QR™ volumes
- ContinuousDataReplicator to perform data replication from a
source Client to a destination Client
- The Common Technology Engine (CTE) components consisting of:
- One CommServe® server
- One or more MediaAgents
- Storage Resource Manager (SRM) which includes SRM Server and SRM
Agents for analyzing and reporting of information on local storage resources.
- Once installed and configured, these CommCell® elements
can be controlled and monitored from a single unified CommCell®
Console.
- Data in the entire CommCell - both stored and online data - can
be searched for data discovery and other purposes using the Content
Indexing and Search component.
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Client Agents are software modules that perform data protection and data recovery
operations for specific operating systems or applications. Multiple agents may be
used to protect all types of data residing on a computer. The following sections
provide a brief description of each of these Client Agents.
iDataAgents are software modules that
are used for backing up and restoring data. The system provides a variety of
iDataAgents, each one designed to handle
a different kind of data. If a given computer has two or more types of data, it
requires one iDataAgent for each data
type. For example, to secure all the data on a computer where a Microsoft Exchange
Server resides, you would need the following iDataAgents:
- One Windows File System iDataAgent
to back up the computer’s file system.
- One Microsoft Exchange Database iDataAgent
to back up the database.
In the CommCell® Console, such a configuration would appear as two
iDataAgents on a client computer.
This includes 2 types of Agents. They are:
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Migration Archiver Agents are software modules that are responsible for periodically
moving unused or infrequently used data on their host computers to secondary
storage, thereby reducing the size of data on the primary storage. The system
provides several Agents, each one designed to handle a different kind of data.
Migration Archiver Agents reduce the duration of backup windows by reducing
the amount of data to be backed up by an iDataAgent.
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Compliance Archiver Agents are software modules that are designed for long
term storage and indexing of data to meet security and compliance standards.
The primary function of Compliance Archiver Agents is to preserve data outside
of the operational environment. Compliance Archiver removes the data from the
source client once it has been archived and/or indexed. In this way, large amounts
of data can be stored, for example, and reviewed at a later time.
Quick Recovery® agents are software modules that use the snapshot
technology to create Quick Recovery (QR) volumes on magnetic disks. These QR™
volumes can be easily recovered in minutes. Quick Recovery Agent integrates with
major storage-intensive applications, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Exchange
and Oracle, to ensure that data objects are properly synchronized and easily recovered.
Quick Recovery Agents augment the traditional backup and restore operations of an
iDataAgent by allowing the user to create
frequent images of the data which provides faster application recovery, when needed;
while iDataAgents can be used to perform
the traditional backup and restore operations of these images.
ContinuousDataReplicator (CDR) agents are software modules that provide
protection of application data and file systems, by replicating data from a
source computer to a destination computer in nearly real-time. High availability
of protected data in a consistent state is accomplished through the creation of
Recovery Points, using snapshots created on the destination computer,
which can be mounted, made available as shares, or recovered using Copyback. In
addition, backups can be made from the snapshots of file system data or application
data in a consistent state for point-in-time recovery.
Storage Resource Management (SRM)
SRM provides the ability to discover, identify, and track available storage resources
such as disks, file systems, and network shares to provide detailed analysis in
the form of reports and summaries. SRM software consists of the SRM Server which
provides the reporting engine that obtains the data from the various SRM Agents
which are client agents that collect data from the various operating systems and
applications.
Common Technology Engine consists of software modules that provide the necessary
tools to manage and administer the Client Agents and also manage the storage
media associated with the CommCell® configuration. The following
sections describe the components of the Common Technology Engine.
The CommServe® Server ties the CommCell® components
together; it is the coordinator and administrator of the CommCell component.
The CommServe server communicates with all agents in the CommCell to initiate
data protection, management and recovery operations. Similarly, it communicates
with MediaAgents when the media subsystem requires management. The CommServe
server maintains a database containing all the information relating to the
CommCell configuration. In addition, it provides several tools to administer
and manage the CommCell components.
The MediaAgent transfers data between the client computer(s) and the
storage media. Each MediaAgent communicates locally or remotely to one or
more storage devices, which contains the storage media. The system provides
support for a wide variety of storage devices.
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The CommCell Console is the graphical user interface that allows you to control
and manage CommCell element. The CommCell Console can be run in two ways:
- As a stand-alone application, which can be installed directly on any computer
that can communicate with the CommServe® storage manager.
- As a remote web-based application using Java Web Start, which allows you
to remotely access the CommCell Console using the web browser.
Content Indexing and Search provides the ability to search and perform data discovery
operations in your CommCell group. This powerful component provides the capability
to search both online and stored data. It also allows Administrators, Compliance
Officers and end-users to search and restore data from several applications like
File System, Exchange, SharePoint, Lotus Notes, etc. in the CommCell configuration.
The search and restore operations can be performed using either the CommCell
Console or the Web-Based Search Console which are in-turn controlled by a robust
and impermeable security model.
The entire software is modular and can reside on the same and/or separate
computers depending on your needs. Some administrators may have a dedicated
CommServe computer and a dedicated MediaAgent computer. Others may want
to back up the file system data on the CommServe server and therefore install
the client software on the CommServe computer as well. Still others may
use the same computer to serve as the CommServe, MediaAgent, and
a client. The software supports any and all of these configurations.
The illustration provides an example of CommCell Architecture.
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