1
Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0
with NDMP 4.0 Feature and
Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5
Optimize tiered storage with a single point
of management
Highlights
• Capture the benefits of
tape caching and NetBackup
vaulting by enabling Sun
StorageTek VTL Plus NDMP
• Simplify data management
through a single point of control
• Simplify disaster recovery by
performing full restores directly
from physical tape
• Manage data lifecycles efficiently
through assigning specific
retention policy for each copy
• Improve ROI on existing tape
investments by gaining higher
utilization of physical tape drives
and tape cartridges and lowering
management and energy costs due
to lower hardware requirements
• Integrate Sun StorageTek
Automated Cartridge System
Library Software (ACSLS Manager)
software to centralize tape library
management to further lower cost
of storage
The challenge The drawbacks are in the transparency
Due to the extreme growth of fixed and multiple points of management
content, compliance, and archive associated with tape caching and the
data, storage requirements are quickly performance degradation that can occur
evolving beyond traditional backup and in the two-step process of data migration
recovery requirements. The situation through vaulting.
requires better methods to deploy and
manage tiered storage solutions. An Now the VTL Plus 2.0 offers the Network
integrated virtual tape library optimizes Data Management Protocol (NDMP) 4.0
the integration of disk array technology feature. When the feature is enabled, it
as a front-end to tape drives and auto- becomes the best practice method for
mated tape libraries. The typical virtual data movement between tiers of storage
tape library is a disk array that emulates duplication. The initial performance of
multiple virtual tape drives and libraries NDMP duplications is similar to tape
but doesn’t serve as the integration point caching performance. However, when
with physical tape resources. data restoration is required for a copy on
physical tape, the backup application can
The Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library restore directly from physical tape. This
Plus 2.0 (VTL Plus) is available in a range method eliminates the impact to restore
of capacity and performance levels to performance associated with tape cache
deliver the benefits of virtualization. when reclaiming data to the VTL Plus.
Until now, however, the methods for
duplicating data from the VTL Plus disk This easy-to-implement-and-manage
solution, in which NetBackup™ provides a
cache to physical tape were restricted to
tape caching and Symantec’s Veritas single point of management, delivers the
The Sun VTL Plus 2.0 with NDMP 4.0 feature enables single-point
management for data movement to effectively perform data protection,
lifecycle management, and disaster recovery—with no change to
existing processes and improved ROI of existing tape solutions.
NetBackup vaulting. Each of these meth- benefits of tape caching and vaulting and
ods provide both benefits and drawbacks. eliminates the drawbacks. At the same
time, it requires no changes to existing
The benefits are the capability to
processes, reduces management time
migrate or copy data to physical tape.
and costs, and improves the ROI of
existing tape solutions.
Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief
2
Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0
with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5

Tape caching and vaulting • Data migration can be from virtual to

A review of the benefits and drawbacks of tape caching and NetBackup vaulting provides physical, physical to virtual, and
a context for VTL Plus 2.0 with the NDMP 4.0 feature. physical to physical
Benefits Drawbacks • Physical tape is utilized more efficiently,
Tape VTL moves the data; • NetBackup catalog not updated with number and loca- exposing opportunities for technology
caching NetBackup media tion of virtual or physical copies made by the VTL Plus. refresh and consolidation
servers are free to • Under utilization of physical tapes due to difficulty
run normal matching the size of virtual tape cartridges to physical • Data lifecycles (physical and virtual) are
operations. tapes due to use of compression. managed by NetBackup
NetBackup Vaulting server • Inefficient use of CPU and network resources because the • Disaster recovery process is streamlined
vaulting manages duplication vaulting server is the data mover. through enabling full restoration from
of virtual tapes; • Additional hardware may be required.
physical tape
catalog is kept • The two-step process (retrieve and write) results in
current. performance impact. • Integration with Sun StorageTek ACSLS
Manager software enables centralized
management of tape libraries

Catalog coherency and physical

Sun VTL as Data Mover
Features and benefits of NDMP 4.0
The VTL Plus with NDMP 4.0 simplifies
data movement, lifecycle management,
and disaster recovery. NetBackup can
manage the physical devices attached to
the VTL Plus and perform any operation as
if the device is directly attached to a
media server. Multiple copies of data can
be easily maintained, and the VTL Plus
disk cache is better utilized.
The top benefits of using the Sun VTL with
NDMP 4.0 include the following:
• NetBackup acts as a single point of
management and keeps a record of all
copies in the catalog
• Data is moved by the VTL Plus, which
offloads tasks from the NetBackup
media server workload
media migration
An administrator uses the NetBackup
Administration Console to control all
copies of a backup. After the data is on
virtual tape, the NetBackup server sends a
request to the VTL Plus to duplicate a
virtual volume to a physical volume.
Data doesn’t have to travel back to the
NetBackup media server before it is
copied to physical tape because the VTL
Plus moves the data, alleviating the
potential need for additional hardware
that may result from using NetBackup
vaulting.
Since the VTL Plus migrates data from one
physical tape format to another, there is
little to no impact to the backup window
during a migration or upgrade. With
NetBackup managing the physical devices
attached to the VTL Plus, all operations
that require reads and writes during
duplication occur off the NetBackup
media server.

Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief

3
Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0
with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5
The physical tape environment
The NDMP 4.0 feature also saves time
related to managing the physical tape
environment. For example, the adminis-
trator can use the policy-based tape
stacking capability to migrate virtual
tape data volumes of one tape drive type
such as LTO 1 to another tape drive type.
NetBackup duplicates the backup images
regardless of the written-to original tape
format. Essentially any tape format
(virtual or physical) can be duplicated to
any other format (virtual or physical).
In addition, NDMP makes the upgrade of
newer physical tape technology easier
because it’s a back-end process. Physical
tapes can be migrated into the VTL Plus,
and then the data can be reclaimed to a
new physical drive type such as LTO 4.
The VTL Plus can also act as a duplication
engine to create copies from one physical
tape to another physical tape. Since the
VTL Plus moves the data, it reduces the
load placed on the NetBackup server.
Since NetBackup sees and controls the
tape resources—virtual and physical—
it is aware of all copies.
Lifecycle management
Data lifecycle management is efficient and
easy to administer with VTL Plus and the
NDMP feature because each individual
duplicate can be given its own specific
retention period by NetBackup. For exam-
ple, a backup written to virtual tape can
be retained for four weeks and a physical
duplicate can be retained for 10 years.
After a virtual tape has been expired, it
can be used immediately for another
backup, reusing the disk cache. If tape
capacity on demand is enabled on the VTL
Plus, the disk cache can be reclaimed
through the NetBackup Administration
Console.
Disaster recovery
In the event the VTL Plus is unavailable to
perform a restore operation and physical
tape is available, NetBackup can be con-
figured to restore directly from physical
tape to expedite disaster recovery. This
type of restore is accomplished by zoning
a physical drive directly to a media server.
As a best practice, performing full restore
from physical tape tends to deliver better
performance compared to a disk-based
appliance. This is because the aggregate
bandwidth of dedicated tape drives deliv-
ers concurrent retrieval off of tape sets.
In comparison, internal path contention
within the appliance, coupled with data
location, can impede optimal perform-
ance during a full restore.
Centralized, multi-platform library
management with ACSLS Manager
software
Sun StorageTek ACSLS Manager software
integrates with the VTL Plus 2.0 to enable
centralized management of tape
libraries. In heterogeneous environments,
disparate libraries can be collapsed to one
centralized library or string of libraries
accessed from a single point of control.
ACSLS Manager software supports popular
tape management systems and most
StorageTek libraries, and it interoperates
with major operating systems and
Hierarchical Storage Management (HSM)
applications. The use of ACSLS Manager
software simplifies administration of
media movement and thereby helps to
increase media and tape drive utilization.
Veritas NetBackup 6.5—next-generation
data protection
Hardware-agnostic, scalable NetBackup
6.5 provides a unified data protection
solution with centralized and real-time
management of disk- and tape-based
storage. NetBackup supports all major
operating platforms and enables online
and granular recovery of databases and
applications.
Sun Microsystems: Solution Brief
4
Sun StorageTek™ Virtual Tape Library Plus 2.0
with NDMP 4.0 Feature and Veritas NetBackup™ 6.5

Optimization of tiered storage and Engage the storage experts

existing tape investments
Sun StorageTek Virtual Tape Library Plus
2.0 systems with NDMP 4.0, together with
Veritas NetBackup 6.5, optimize the
deployment of tiered storage applications.
NDMP, the integration point, enables
NetBackup to be the single point of
management and the VTL Plus to be the
data mover. The net effect is that the
system administrator can more effectively
manage the complete lifecycle of virtual
and physical tape copies.
In addition, the integrated VTL Plus solu-
tion can improve the ROI of traditional
tape investments by improving tape drive
and library reliability, efficiency, and I/O
performance because many requests are
sent to the disk buffer, and by lowering
management and energy costs due to
lower hardware requirements.
Sun service professionals can help you
address storage challenges by delivering
services and solutions that optimize and
manage storage performance over the life
of your data. Our implementation services
address utilization, availability, capability
planning, and management efficiency,
helping you quickly realize the benefits
from your investment.
With Sun Professional Services, our
storage industry veterans can pinpoint
ways to better allocate and consolidate
data across a tiered storage architecture,
which is a critical component of effective
virtualization.

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