First post in a long while so be gentle...
After years of pain we're finally about to move from the disaster that is Symantec BackupExec to Veeam
Our next challenge revolves around scoping the hardware to back this setup.
At the moment we have two data-centres, the primary hosting around 250 VMs, the secondary hosting around 50.
Both have identical setups - a 3Par F400 connected to a c7000 populated with 10 BL460 G7s via FC - all storage is replicated.
A full backup is usually around the 55TB mark...
At the moment there is a push for two StoreOnce 4700 appliances replicated to each other as backup targets to a Veeam service.
We already have an MSL4048 with 6 drives which will be used for long-term offline storage. I currently have monthly backups in mind for this tier ?
After various chats and a browse through these forums I'm not convinced this is the best solution... These are my main concerns -
Restore performance from a de-duplicated volume (we regularly restore individual items from chunkyish file servers and an Exchange setup).
I want to keep backup I/O from our blade chassis over FC. HP have recommended VTL, but from research, I don't think this will work with Veeam ? That requires we present 4700 storage to the Veeam proxy via CIFS/NFS both connected via 10Gbe. Then I'm assuming the storage I/O from c7000 to veeam will stay over FC ?
After listening to Luca's ultimate storage architecture webinar, a tiered approach is starting to make sense to me, although I'd like to keep this setup as simple as possible.
So I'm thinking along the lines of a D2600 or a D6000 attached to the Veeam server for tier 1 backup storage. This then needs to be moved off-site to the other data centre via a copy operation (to the tier 2 target ???).
Then after X days this gets moved to the tier 2 target which includes de-duplication. Is a 4700 a bit overkill here as a tier 2 target? Would a separate drive presented from the same D2600/6000 with Windows De-dup enabled be enough ?
I'm assuming backup performance of a DAS setup will be at least equal if not better than backups to a 4700 via CIFS over 10Gbe?
Then our monthly's or backups we want to remove from tier 2 go to tape for off-site/off-line backups via a copy job.
I'm concerned though that this is starting to sound messy and complicated.
While this is going on we're still looking to keep BackupExec for our physical estate. Backing up over Ethernet to the same tier 1/2/3 storage.
Any tips greatly appreciated !
Thanks!