Low Cost, High Speed Backup

The ™ X4500 server and

Veritas NetBackup software < Today, massive volumes of data must be retained online and managed effectively in order to be kept readily accessible and available. Traditional data storage technologies can be prohibitively expensive, and IT professionals are struggling to maintain corporate data while keeping within budgets. Sun offers the Sun Fire™ X4500 server with massive storage capacity and state-of-the-art server technology. The combination of Veritas NetBackup by Symantec software and Sun Fire X4500 servers provides high-performance, enterprise-class compute power and high density storage at a very low cost per gigabyte.

Veritas NetBackup by Symantec software Solution components running on Sun Fire™ X4500 servers Key components of the solution include: The high-performance solution consists of the • The Veritas NetBackup Master Server — A Veritas Netbackup by Symantec software, a SPARC®, x64, or x86 host server running Sun Fire™ X4500 server and the Solaris™ 10 the Solaris 10 OS, and the Veritas Highlights (OS). The Sun and Veritas NetBackup software version 6.5. The Veritas

• Secure valuable enterprise data NetBackup solution integrates state-of-the-art NetBackup Master server maintains control with a revolutionary high- server and storage features, providing and scheduling over other Veritas performance, low-cost backup extremely high data throughput at a low cost NetBackup hosts in the configuration, as solution utilizing Sun Fire™ X4500 per gigabyte. well as licensing information and backup servers and the Veritas schedules and definitions of other Veritas NetBackup software Combining a high density data server with NetBackup clients and NetBackup Media • Reduce the amount of datacenter advanced file system and volume manager Servers. floor space consumed, save on capabilities, the solution offers two to five • The Veritas NetBackup Media Server — A disk storage costs, and cut power times the density of traditional storage Sun Fire X4500 server running the Solaris consumption at the same time systems at half the cost, and significant space 10 OS and the Veritas NetBackup software. • Scale and protect data on and power savings. Indeed, the Solaris 10 OS The Veritas NetBackup Media Server networked servers and workstations across the includes a leading-edge file system that controls the resources used in storing data enterprise provides a dramatic advance in data and utilizes Solaris ZFS to scale disk backup • Take advantage of Solaris™ ZFS for management with an innovative approach to resources to petabytes on Sun Fire X4500 ease of administration, software data integrity. As a result, datacenter servers. RAID functionality, and massive managers can cut the cost of disk storage in • An optional tape library system can be used capacity half, save 50 percent of datacenter floor for cloning, staging, or archiving data. • Utilize features of the powerful space, and provide high-speed simultaneous Solaris 10 Operating System for backups for multiple users with the highest Clients can be UNIX®, Windows, Linux, or additional performance, stability, level of data protection. NetWare platforms running the Veritas scalability, security, and data NetBackup Client software. Client backup integrity schedules are maintained on the Veritas • Benefit from best practices NetBackup Master Server or manual backups devised by Sun engineers for can be performed as needed. Agents are solution deployment available for integration with IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, and Sybase environments. 2 Low Cost, High Speed Backup sun.com

New tools provide observability into systems Veritas NetBackup by Symantec software even while running in production. Solaris With disk-based data protection for any Dynamic Tracing makes it possible to architecture or device, the Veritas NetBackup troubleshoot system problems in real time. software provides end-to-end backup Predictive Self Healing technology can help capabilities across heterogeneous platforms. A quickly identify and resolve hardware issues single console offers centralized, Web-based Figure 1. The Sun Fire X4500 server provides for greater stability and increased availability. management of backup and recovery massive storage in a small footprint. With advanced security features such as operations. Veritas NetBackup integrates data Process and User Rights Management and a protection for environments such as the Sun Fire™ X4500 servers cryptographic framework, IT managers can Solaris OS, UNIX, Windows, Linux, NetWare, Combining the remarkable performance of a institute powerful system protections and and VMWare. Offering virtually unlimited four-way x64 server with 24 TB of disk storage successfully enforce security policies. scalability, the Sun and Veritas NetBackup in a mere 4U of rack space, Sun Fire X4500 solution provides backups for small servers offer the highest storage density The Solaris ZFS file system departments to large enterprise datacenters. available in such a small footprint. Powered by Key to the solution is the Solaris ZFS file fast, energy efficient, dual-core AMD Opteron® system. With advanced data security and Best practices in solution deployment processors, the systems deliver optimal data protection features, Solaris ZFS offers a Based on extensive experience, Sun engineers throughput at half the cost of traditional dramatic advance in data management with devised a set of best practices to facilitate the solutions. Sun Fire X4500 servers run virtually an innovative approach to data integrity. One deployment and operation of the Sun and any operating system including the Solaris 10 vital feature is the use of end-to-end 64-bit Veritas NetBackup solution. OS, Linux, and Windows environments. With checksums on data to safeguard against silent enterprise server reliability, availability, and data corruption. When the data is read, the Networks serviceability features, Sun Fire X4500 servers checksum is verified to ensure that the data A dedicated network for backup traffic is incorporate redundant, hot-swappable the application wrote is the data that is recommended to minimize bandwidth components for increased uptime. The servers returned. consumption on the production LAN. The also offer unprecedented data integrity and network interface on Sun Fire X4500 servers dramatically simplified administration with the Another feature of Solaris ZFS redefines file provides up to four physical Gigabit Ethernet Solaris 10 OS and Solaris ZFS. systems as virtualized storage pools called connections to four separate subnets at the zpools , making it easy to expand or contract same time. The ports can also be combined for The Solaris™ 10 Operating System file systems simply by adding or removing improved throughput to a single subnet. A The result of significant research and more disk drives. The pooled storage model 10 Gigabit Ethernet network interface card can development investments, the Solaris 10 OS eliminates the concept of storage volumes and be installed in the Sun Fire X4500 Peripheral offers innovative performance, stability, and issues of partitioning and provisioning, Component Interconnect Extended (PCI-X) security features. Supported on more than 900 enabling the easy reallocation of resources expansion slot for use with a 10 Gigabit x86, x64, and SPARC platforms, the Solaris 10 and streamlining storage administration. With Ethernet network for even greater bandwidth. OS continues to shatter performance records virtually unlimited capacity, file systems can while boosting system uptime. An optimized draw as much or as little disk space from a Disks TCP/IP stack facilitates high-performance zpool when needed. System administration is Software RAID is used in Sun Fire X4500 servers networking and supports advanced network also simplified by removing the need for a to provide data protection in the event a drive computing protocols. volume manager. As a result, complicated failure occurs. Solaris ZFS includes RAID-Z and storage management tasks are automated and RAID-Z2, offering RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID 0+1, consolidated, reducing administrative RAID-5, and RAID-6 capabilities. While the overhead and accomplishing tasks quickly with default factory configuration for Sun Fire reduced errors and no system downtime. X4500 servers is 46 data disks with zero hot spares, spare drives should be used to help ensure high levels of data protection. 3 Low Cost, High Speed Backup sun.com

Each zpool configuration was tested four times, the first using just one Gigabit Ethernet port, the second using two ports, until all four Clients Gigabit Ethernet ports were used. In order to increase the number of Gigabit Ethernet ports used in the backup testing, the number of clients used was increased for each testing iteration, forcing the usage of the Gigabit Archive Ethernet ports to grow incrementally to meet Image demand. During the peak transfer period, the Duplication Sun Fire X4500 Server zpool iostat command was used to obtain Veritas NetBackup Media Server ten samples at five-second intervals to

Optional Tape Library determine the rate of data transfer to the Veritas NetBackup Archiving, Long Term, Off-Site Storage disks. Figure 3 illustrates an average of the ten Master Server samples. Tests were also performed with a 10 Figure 2. An architectural view of the Veritas NetBackup disk backup solution running on a Sun Gigabit Ethernet network. Fire X4500 server.

Gigabit Ethernet test results An optimal configuration balances speed, Sizing and configuration recommendations Test results show that the Sun Fire X4500 data protection, and disk capacity within the While no two businesses, environments, or server running the Veritas NetBackup software RAID sets on the server. For a best practices even workloads are ever the same, it can be and utilizing Solaris ZFS is capable of backing configuration that encompasses performance helpful to look at performance in a given up data at speeds exceeding 350 MB/second and reliability, Sun recommends configuring environment to understand how the Veritas over four separate Gigabit Ethernet ports. The Sun Fire X4500 servers with eight RAID-Z1 or NetBackup software running on a Sun Fire most important factors to consider when RAID-Z2 zpools of five disks each and six hot X4500 server might apply. One key factor in configuring zpools are maintaining data spares. In addition, the Sun Fire X4500 server maximizing performance is the configuration protection and availability, and the total ships with two mirrored operating system of Solaris ZFS zpools. amount of disk space available. drives and Solaris ZFS preinstalled. Furthermore, to help ensure sufficient storage The tests were performed with three different 10 Gigabit Ethernet test results capacity, calendar-based schedules or capacity zpool configurations: Using a Neterion Xframe II 10 Gigabit Ethernet triggers can be configured in the Veritas • RAID-Z1 with zero hot spares, the factory network interconnect card in a Sun Fire X4500 NetBackup software. default configuration server, Veritas NetBackup can move data over • A mirrored configuration of 23 disk pairs in a a 10 Gigabit Ethernet network between clients Tape Storage single zpool and the Sun Fire X4500 server. A 10 Gigabit Fibre Channel or SCSI connections are used to • A configuration of eight zpools consisting of Ethernet network offers high bandwidth I/O to connect optional tape library systems if five disks each, for a total of 40 disks with the system and faster back up speeds. By needed. While the Sun Fire X4500 server is six hot spares, the recommended best utilizing the recommended best practices used as the primary data cache, a tape library practices configuration Solaris ZFS zpool configuration, it is possible to can provide longer term storage. Data can be reach backup speeds over 500 MB per second. moved to tape after certain file system Each zpool configuration was tested using four The Sun Fire X4500 server enables IT staff to utilization or time thresholds are reached. The Solaris ZFS file systems. The Veritas NetBackup attain faster backup speeds through use of tape library can be attached to a completely software was configured to handle three 10 Gigabit Ethernet. separate NetBackup Media Server or the backup streams per file system. Six clients ran NetBackup Master Server itself. a total of 12 streams over four file systems, with three streams per file system for optimal load balancing. 4 Low Cost, High Speed Backup sun.com

Because every environment is different, With over two decades of industry experience, implementation factors such as the Sun demonstrates a proven record of flexible, Learn More configuration and size of zpools, the number scalable, innovative, and cost-effective All solution components, including Veritas and speed of Gigabit Ethernet ports, and the solutions that incorporate the latest NetBackup software, are available directly RAID level used can affect solution technologies and next generation processors. from Sun. To learn more, visit sun.com or performance. To find out how the Sun and Sun continues to pursue a commitment to contact a Sun representative. Veritas NetBackup solution can help in a provide leading-edge, high-performance particular environment, contact a Sun sales solutions that can be used by enterprises to representative to schedule an analysis. handle explosive data growth and the management challenges that result. Summary Sun understands that data is the lifeblood of the enterprise, and applies unique and innovative approaches to provide state-of-the- art server and storage solutions. The Sun and Veritas NetBackup solution combines massive data storage capacity and throughput with RAID Z1 Six Spares powerful AMD Opteron™ processors, enabling data storage and access in ways that are far 350 RAID Z1 superior to traditional storage in density, data No Spares throughput, speed, and cost. The addition of 300 Mirror the innovative Solaris ZFS file system results in No Spares a revolutionary integrated data backup and 250 storage solution.

200

150 M e

g 100 a b y t e s P

e 50 r S e c o n

d 0 One Two Three Four Number of Gigabit Ethernet Ports

Figure 3. A graph of the data transfer rates to disks.

Sun Microsystems, Inc. 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA Phone 1-650-960-1300 or 1-800-555-9SUN Web sun.com © 2007 , Inc. All rights reserved. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun logo, Solaris, StorageTek, and Sun Fire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All SPARC trademarks are used under license and are trademarks or registered trademarks of SPARC International, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. Products bearing SPARC trademarks are based upon an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc. UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, exclusively licensed through X/Open Company, Ltd. AMD Opteron is a trademark or registered trademark of . Information subject to change without notice. Printed in USA SunWIN# 518187 Lit# SYSB13559-0 12/07