Welcome to … “Policies & Plans”, presented by Worldwide Technical Services

Enablement.

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Policies & Plans

For Technical Presales Professionals

Worldwide Technical Services Enablement

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In this module you will learn about the benefits of a policy driven architecture
and how it differentiates Commvault® software over its competitors. This
information is important, firstly it will help you to convey these benefits to your
customers and secondly it will help you provide more accurate solution design.

Learning Goals

Understand
• Learn about the benefits of a policy driven architecture
• Gain knowledge of basic policy design to effectively protect and manage the client’s
data
• Use of Plans to simplify data protection

Design
• Leverage information collected through solution discovery to establish basic policy
design
• Utilize policy design in order to provide more accurate sizing and placement decisions
of core Commvault® components

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One of the aspects that differentiates Commvault® software from other
platforms is its policy driven architecture. On the surface, this may sound like
typical marketing, but there is deep technical value associated with this concept.

{CLICK} Comparatively, many solutions are managed by jobs, where a “job” is

tied to retention, time of operation, and can span multiple clients. This gets
messy because there is no inherent relationship for many of the characteristics
of a “job” in this situation. After all, how does the time of the job have any
bearing on where the data should be stored?

{CLICK} Instead, we look at the most granular unit of operation in a

CommCell®, the subclient, and enact different policies based on functions which
get tied back to a quantity of subclients. For example, schedule policies dictate
when operations occur, storage policies determine where the data goes and
how long it is retained, and subclient policies determine what content is to be
protected and excluded. Subclients, clients, and client computer groups can
then be tied to these policies.

Benefits of a policy driven architecture

Job A Job B Job C

30 day retention 90 day retention 90 day retention
9PM-5AM Window 9PM-5AM Window 10PM-5AM Window
Target Disk Device A Target Disk Device B Target Disk Device B

Default

Finance

Schedule Policy Subclient Policy Storage Policy

When? What? Where?

How Long?

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So what is the advantage? There are many. First, the granularity of these
different policies provides a very manageable solution. It also provides fewer
points of administration. Take a scenario where we have 100 client machines,
each will an independent full backup schedule and an incremental schedule.
That’s 200 schedules to manage in the environment, and most of these
operations likely occur at the same time. Putting all those machines into a
single schedule policy means a lot less work when the backup times need to
change. It also means more consistency. In the same situation, when users
begin staying in the office later and the backup window needs to be reduced, it
is much more likely that schedules are missed or changed incorrectly when 200
have to be modified.

Benefits of a policy driven architecture

Default Default

D:\Finance

9PM Schedule 10PM Schedule Default Subclient 30 day Storage 90 day Storage
Policy Policy

Schedule Policy Subclient Policy Storage Policy

When? What? Where?

How Long?

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At the heart of Commvault® software’s policies is the storage policy. You can
think of a storage policy as a set of rules, it determines where protected data is
stored, how many copies are made, and how long each is retained. It is also
used to define certain storage and transmission related parameters, such as
encryption, compression, and deduplication.

{CLICK} This is a visual depiction of a storage policy, let’s look at what it is

telling us. Fileserver01 has a default subclient. A subclient is a logical container
that defines the specific production data for that particular client, such as
drives, folders, files, databases, and mailboxes. You can create additional user-
defined subclients to assign content and how it will be protected.

{CLICK} When this default subclient is protected, the data stream is sent to the
Media Agent, labelled MA01, which creates a primary-copy called “Onsite Disk”
to a disk library named CVDiskLib01, this copy has a defined retention of 14
days and 2 cycles.

{CLICK}Once this is complete, a secondary copy named “Offsite Tape” can be

created to a library called Tape Library. This copy will have a 365 day, 12 cycle
retention.

{CLICK} If you would like to learn more subclients and how they are used
please refer to the Commvault documentation online.

Storage policy

• Where is it going • How is it getting there • How long is it going to stay

• Map client data to service levels

• Defines the data paths (MediaAgent and Storage)
• Set # of copies and destination
• Set retention of copies
• Storage/transmission parameters (e.g. encryption, deduplication)

FileServer01 MA01
CVDiskLib01

Default Storage Policy

Tape Library

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We’ll look at Storage policies in more detail momentarily but using a data
profiling example from earlier, you’ll see how important it is to gather this
information if possible, even in the early stages of your designs.

In this example you will notice that the customer has four distinct data-sets
with subtly different criteria and requirements. As each data-set requires, at a
minimum, a different retention period it would need to be directed to its own
unique storage policy {CLICK} the names of the policies shown here are just
examples.

This mapping of data profiles to policies will also assist you with the sizing of
infrastructure components later on and, should you be successful in your sales
campaign, will aid any further detailed design, right through to solution
deployment.

Profiles to Policies

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Plans, configured through the Commvault® Command Center, are used to
simplify and streamline the configuration and administration of data protection.
Plans utilize a set of optimized default parameters and settings that provide a
suitable configuration for most users. Individual policies can still be used for
more advanced configuration requirements. {CLICK} In a plan you define what
to backup, where to backup your data, how often to run the backup job and
how long to retain the data.

{CLICK} There are plan types that include the data protection parameters that
apply to the type of data you want to protect.

Base plans act as templates to create what are known as, derived
plans.

.. You can also set Default plans that can be automatically assigned to
new Servers to ensure your data is protected.

{CLICK} Plans are mapped to service levels, after the backup frequency and the
backup window are defined, Commvault uses automatic scheduling and
dynamic priorities to achieve your defined RPOs.

{CLICK} Finally, more comprehensive plans can be created for certain use
cases, for example if a customer wants their data to be managed in a very
specific way.

Plans

• What to backup • Where to backup to • How often to backup • How long is it kept

• Defined by data type

• Map to service levels (RPO) Laptop
Database Virtualization
Plan
• Set schedules Snap
Plan Plan
Data storage pool:
Server Allowed features Exchange Storage:
Plan Mailbox
• Set retention Log storage pool: Plan Network resources

Storage Plan
RPO:

RPO: SLA: Storage:

Custom Backup copy schedule: Log SLA: RPO: Alerts Archive mailbox types:

Plan Storage pool Options Advanced archive

options:
Super Custom Settings: Backup content
Archive messages:

Advanced cleanup
options:

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If we look a little closer under the hood, a data protection plan is used to
automatically configure several key CommCell® policies and properties, related
to the various data profiles.

{CLICK} This includes the Storage target or pool,

{CLICK} data retention,
{CLICK} SLA and backup schedule,
{CLICK} content to protect,
{CLICK} and offsite copy configuration.

{CLICK} As you can see, data protection plans automatically create and link
together a number of the individual policies we discussed earlier… including a
storage policy, schedule policy and Subclient policy.

Data protection plans

Data Protection Plan

Retention of
backup data

SLA & Backup

frequency

Content to
Primary Secondary C:\ protect
Storage Storage
Target Target
E:\

Storage Policy Subclient Policy Schedule Policy

Where? What? When?
How Long?

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Let’s discuss some common scenarios when multiple storage policies are
required or when a single storage policy can be used.

Probably the most frequent need for multiple Storage Policies are systems that
require different retention periods. Note that we start with a nomenclature that
defines the norm: in this case, Standard SP. We can then name additional
Storage Policies by how they deviate from the norm.

In this case, the standard storage policy commits a primary copy to disk for 14
days and 2 cycles along with a secondary copy to tape for 365 days and 12
cycles. A second storage policy called “7 Year Storage Policy” commits the
primary copy in an identical fashion to the Standard Storage Policy, but the
secondary copy to tape is held for 2577 days and 84 cycles.

Different retention profiles

CVDiskLib01

Standard MA01
Storage Policy

Tape Library

CVDiskLib01

FileServer01 7 Year MA01

Storage Policy

Tape Library

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Another justification for additional storage policies is when data needs to be
sent to a different storage target. In this example, we have two different
libraries designated for the secondary data copies. The server FileServer01 is
running backup jobs to disk first and then to a cloud storage target, as opposed
to the Standard SP policy which runs jobs to disk and then to the LTO-8 tape
library.

Different target(s)

CVDiskLib01

Standard MA01
Storage Policy

LTO-8 Tape

CVDiskLib01

FileServer01 LTO-6 MA01

Storage Policy

Cloud Library

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Similar to the firewall example, sometimes different sets of data cannot be on
the same physical media. This is often true in MSP and legal environments.
The example above describes an ethical wall established to segregate access to
data of Client B from the rest of the environment’s data. This use case
specifically applies to removable media, and as a piece of removable media can
only be assigned data from a single Storage Policy Copy at a time, Client B data
could never sit on a tape with anything else.

Segregation of media

Standard
Storage Policy

Ethical Wall
MA01

Client B
Storage Policy
FileServer01

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Sometimes you will want to specify a specific transmission path of data to the
storage target. In this example we have two different networks, where both
client groups and their respective MediaAgents are separated by a firewall,
however in this situation we only need to use one storage policy. In this case
the media usage will be lower, which could be more desirable if using removable
media.

GridStor®technology allows you to configure alternate data paths for a single

storage policy copy. You can define alternate data paths and a default data path
in each storage policy copy to ensure the success of backup and other
operations that use the storage policy. GridStor® provides automatic failover to
an alternate data path if one of the components in the default data path is not
available. In addition GridStor® also provides Load-balancing (round-robin)
between alternate data paths, which provides evenly-distributed backup
operations among available resources.

Alternate Data Paths - GridStor® technology

MA01
Domain 1: Client Group 1

CVDiskLib01 Tape
Library

Standard
Storage Policy

MA02

Domain 2: Client Group 2

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Reference Copy and Case Manager are two other example use cases for
creating additional storage policies. In this situation a subsection of data already
captured in an existing storage policy is copied and retained by a separate
storage policy. In most use cases, there is no point in sending another copy of
data back into the original storage policy. Therefore, creating a second storage
policy will be required when using these features.

Reference copy and Case Manager

Standard
Storage Policy

CVDiskLib01

Reference Copy
/ Case Manager
Storage Policy
MA01

CVDiskLib01

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One final configuration to be aware of is the {CLICK} Global Deduplication
Policy. A Global deduplication policy provides for more efficient deduplication
ratios while providing scalability and flexibility for different data protection
requirements. For example, {CLICK} you can use a Global deduplication policy
when Storage Policy copies have different retention rules but share the same
data paths, it can also be used to remove redundant data across remote sites
that copy data back to a central data center.

A global deduplication policy works by linking storage policy copies to a single

DDB {CLICK} and store to centrally manage deduplicated data. Linking storage
policy copies allows data to be managed independently by a specific data
storage policy, while maintaining a more efficient deduplication ratio. Each
policy can manage specific subclient content and independently manage
retention and additional copies.

Global deduplication storage policies

Remote Site 1

Storage Policy A
Storage
Policy D

Storage Policy B

D:\DDB\Global Dedupe Policy

Remote Site 2

Storage Storage Policy C

Policy E

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So, given the following drawing, assuming a single retention, and not taking
into account global deduplication or DR Storage policies, how many storage
policies are needed at a minimum?

The answer is a minimum of 2. Let’s walk through them.

{CLICK} The first one is for the remote office. The primary copy will facilitate
all the production servers in this office. It’s primary copy will go to the local
disk target and a secondary copy will be sent to the disk target in Data Center.

{CLICK} The other one is for the production servers in the Data Center and the
small remote office. Its primary copy is sent to the local disk library in the Data
Center with a secondary copy heading offsite to the DR Site’s disk library.

Knowledge check
How many Storage Policies are required?
(Small) Remote Office Data Center

Remote Office
Standard

Remote Office DR Site

Data Center
Standard

Assume one standard for retention and DR copies

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In this module you learned about the benefits of Commvault®software’s policy
based architecture and how collecting data profiles can assist with basic
Commvault® storage policy design.
{CLICK} You also heard about storage policy justifications and how they can be
applied to your solutions. Finally you heard how Plans are used to simplify data
protection administration through the Commvault Command Center.

Wrap-up

• Benefits of a Policy Driven Architecture

• Basic Policy Design to effectively protect and manage the client’s data
• Linking data profiles to policies
• Use of Plans to simplify data protection
• Storage policy considerations and justifications

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Thank you.

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