Backup Infrastructure Suggestions

[wa15]

Hey Guys,

We are in the process of purchasing a new Equallogic Array and moving to 10Gbe iSCSI from our existing SAS setup for backup storage. I am hoping to also use this opportunity to make Veeam a VM on a standalone ESXi box that is going to have non-production VMs. I would like some feedback on the 2 topologies I am considering. http://imgur.com/T5K316j

Option A relies less on the Redundant Core 10Gbe switches and carries the backup write traffic to the server. Whereas Option B also pushes the write traffic through the Core 10Gbe switches. Either option will somewhat "mix" our backup and production networks, which is not an issue performance wise since we have plenty of capacity, but I am trying to think if there are other things I should keep in mind.

Any thoughts/suggestions will be appreciated.

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Farshid,

Since mixing production and backup traffic is not an issue here, then either of the options should look good. You will know more on the setup once you run the backup job and detect where the bottleneck is.

Thanks!

[Delo123]

Do you want to use the equallogic as a backup repository? Why not go with DAS disks or a jbod connected to your veeam proxy?? Should be much cheaper and quicker!

[wa15]

@Vitaliy, thanks for the confirmation.

@Delo123, thanks for the reply. We have a DAS setup right now, with a couple of SAS Dell MD storage arrays. To be honest, I just find iSCSI to be simpler to implement and support. With DAS, in case of Dell's at least, I have to worry about the PERC compatibility with the server, storage array, operating system and firmware on the PERC and storage array. I also have to make sure the the DAS storage array supports the OS and the physical server itself. And we have a pretty heavy involvement with iSCSI in our environment so it's nice to standardize on that. So these 2 points are the primary reason I chose to move to iSCSI. But I am open to feedback!

[Delo123]

What will be your primary storage? I do not hope you want to have production and backups on the same san? Other than that, if you feel better going with ISCSI, why not Not sure if it really easier, in case of Dell, if you configure it in their configurator they will make sure you get the right controller etc... Also using iscsi of course need some additonal ports, figure out mtu etc... But whatever you choose your 10Gbit will almost certainly not be your bottleneck One big disadvantage i see is you will not get dedupe accross your backups, or are you planning to run dedupe on your vm?

[wa15]

Primary storage is Nimble and a separate Dell MD storage. Of course production and backup storage will be completely separate. Only common point being the redundant 10Gb switches they will travel through. For dedupe we will utilize Windows 2012 deduplication if need be. Were you referring to deduplication from the storage array itself?

[Delo123]

Ah ok... the topology didn't show

No, I meant Windows Dedupe, as Dell's will not have dedupe and even if it had I would assume it would be to slow
Remember to format the volumes with /L on the repository

Ps. I would go for option B so a) you have some buffering in your switches instead directly connected to equallogic and b) your fully redundant and bandwith can be used for whatever connection needs it.

[wa15]

Thanks, Option B is also what I am leaning towards!