NetApp Altavault

[csinetops]

Hello-

We are undergoing a backup hardware refresh and are looking at picking up a NetApp AltaVault. This will allow us to ditch tapes as the AltaVault will stream our long term retention out to Azure.

I have read through the AltaVault/Veeam config guide but a few points are confusing so I have a few questions on best practice:

- Should the AltaVault be used as a primary target. I would assume NO as its a dedupe appliance but the Netapp SE made it sound like you could use it as your primary target. The config guide cautions against it but then goes on to set up a backup job with the AltaVault as the primary target??

- If we did use it as the primary target I'd assume we would turn Veeam dedupe and compression off and let AltaVault work its magic?

- We turn synthetic full's off and run active full's? Only down side I see here is huge increase in load on the VMware infrastructure.

I'm leaning towards using the AltaVault as a secondary target. Basically Veeam-->current Netapp backup disk (FAS-2240-4)-->Veeam backup copy job to the AltaVault-->Azure long term retention. If I do this I can put the AltaVault in our IDF closet to separate it from the datacenter by about 300 feet. In the event of a flood or whatever, we could restore from the AltaVault in the IDF. If we lose the building I can fire up AltaVault in the cloud or our TX facility.

Any input would be appreciated. Oh and in case anyone is wondering why AltaVault? We are closely partnered with Netapp and can get one deeply discounted.

[Gostev]

Hello, have you seen this video walk-through?

[csinetops]

I haven't, thank you.

[mongie]

Just make sure your Internet connection is fast enough...

[csinetops]

Good point! The NetApp engineers take that data during the initial call to determine if your speed is fast enough. We'll see what they say...

[csinetops]

I have one more topic that I am struggling to wrap my head around, retention policies on the AltaVault/Azure. The NetApp SE's answer doesn't make sense to me.

We want to keep 3 weeks of backups on the AltaVault and 7 years of Monthly backups in the cloud. The SE states that the Veeam backup copy job would be set to retain that amount of monthlies. So in essence we would need to keep 3 weeks on the AltaVault plus all the weeklies. That's a TON of data for us.

His response doesn't make sense as that's the reason to get a hybrid device. To have a short term local duplicated and compressed cache and use the cloud for long term retention. Can someone from Veeam explain how Veeam retention really works with NetApp's AltaVault?

I have read through the AltaVault/Veeam guides, watched the videos etc, they are great setup guides but none go into long term retention detail.

Thanks!

[foggy]

You would need to have a separate monthly backup copy job pointing to the cloud repository, where it will keep monthly backups. Basically, if you need to keep weeklies and monthlies at different locations, you need different jobs for them, since only one target can be specified in the job.