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EDUCATION SERVICES

V11 Walkthrough Guide


Updated September, 28th 2015

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Legal Notices

Information in this document, including URL and other website references, represents the current view of Commvault Systems,
Inc. as of the date of publication and is subject to change without notice to you.

Descriptions or references to third party products, services or websites are provided only as a convenience to you and should not
be considered an endorsement by Commvault. Commvault makes no representations or warranties, express or implied, as to any
third party products, services or websites.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Unless
otherwise noted, the example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and
events depicted herein are fictitious.
Complying with all applicable copyright laws is the responsibility of the user. This document is intended for distribution to and
use only by Commvault customers. Use or distribution of this document by any other persons is prohibited without the express
written permission of Commvault. Without limiting the rights under copyright, no part of this document may be reproduced,
stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical,
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Commvault may have patents, patent applications, trademarks, copyrights, or other intellectual property rights covering subject
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COMMVAULT MAKES NO WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS
DOCUMENT.
©1999-2015 Commvault Systems, Inc. All rights reserved

Commvault, Commvault and logo, the “C” logo, Commvault Systems, Solving Forward, SIM, Singular Information Management,
Simpana, Commvault Galaxy, Unified Data Management, QiNetix, Quick Recovery, QR, CommNet, GridStor, Vault Tracker,
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Manual. You may not sell, resell, sublicense, rent, loan or lease the Manual to another party, transfer or assign your rights to use
the Manual or otherwise exploit or use the Manual for any purpose other than for your personal use and reference. The Manual
is provided "AS IS" without a warranty of any kind and the information provided herein is subject to change without notice.

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Table of Contents
Contents
Legal Notices ......................................................................................................................................................... 2
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 3
Commvault Version 11 SP1 Highlights: .................................................................................................................... 6
CommCell Security Enhancements .......................................................................................................................... 7
Role Based security ............................................................................................................................................ 7
Roles when Upgrading from Previous Commvault Versions ................................................................................ 9
User Quotas ..................................................................................................................................................... 10
Indexing ............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Traditional Indexing (V1) .................................................................................................................................. 11
Commvault V2 Indexing.................................................................................................................................... 11
How v2 Indexing Works ................................................................................................................................ 12
Index Resiliency and Protection ..................................................................................................................... 12
Multiple MediaAgents and Shared Libraries ..................................................................................................... 15
Data Aging ................................................................................................................................................... 15
Data Recovery .............................................................................................................................................. 15
Storage ............................................................................................................................................................... 16
Disk libraries .................................................................................................................................................... 16
Library Properties.......................................................................................................................................... 16
Validate Mount Paths .................................................................................................................................... 17
Tape Library .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Scratch Pool Media Selection Rules ................................................................................................................ 18
Deduplication ...................................................................................................................................................... 19
Content Aware Deduplication ............................................................................................................................ 19
Deduplication Database .................................................................................................................................... 20
In Memory Deduplication Database ................................................................................................................ 20
DDB Backup performance enhancements ....................................................................................................... 21
Deduplication Database Resiliency ................................................................................................................. 22
Deduplication Policy Creation ............................................................................................................................ 23
Data Aging and Pruning .................................................................................................................................... 25
Pruning activity control .................................................................................................................................. 25
Data Verification............................................................................................................................................... 26
Storage Policies ................................................................................................................................................... 27

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Miscellaneous Changes ..................................................................................................................................... 27


Global Secondary Copy Policies ......................................................................................................................... 27
Secondary Synchronous and Selective Copies .................................................................................................... 29
Copy Based Encryption Enhancements............................................................................................................... 30
Client Management .............................................................................................................................................. 31
Client Properties Changes ................................................................................................................................. 31
Subclients ........................................................................................................................................................ 32
Subclient Miscellaneous Changes ................................................................................................................... 32
Subclient Content and Exclusivity ................................................................................................................... 32
Virtual Server Agent ............................................................................................................................................. 33
Miscellaneous VSA Changes .............................................................................................................................. 33
Virtual Server Agent Roles ................................................................................................................................ 33
Virtual Machine Backup Process ........................................................................................................................ 34
Subclient Data Readers ................................................................................................................................. 34
DataStore Distribution ................................................................................................................................... 34
VM and VSA Proxy Distribution Rules ............................................................................................................. 34
Stream Allocation and Proxy Throttling ........................................................................................................... 35
Data Movement ................................................................................................................................................... 36
Client Job Throttling ...................................................................................................................................... 36
Application Protection ....................................................................................................................................... 37
Miscellaneous Changes .................................................................................................................................. 37
Automatic Log Backups for Oracle, SQL, and DB2 ........................................................................................... 37
Multi-streamed Exchange database backups ................................................................................................... 38
Auxiliary Copy Enhancements ........................................................................................................................... 39
Scalable Resource Allocation .......................................................................................................................... 39
Data Recovery ................................................................................................................................................. 40
Browse Data Using Pie Chart View ................................................................................................................. 40

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This document contains up-to-date information as of:

Commvault V11 SP1

This document is provided as part of the Education Services V11 Features vILT
and eLearning course and will be updated with each major service pack release.

Log on to http://ea.commvault.com to download the latest version of this


document.

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Commvault Version 11 SP1 Highlights:


 Deduplication:
o In memory deduplication for improved performance
o Partition deduplication with up to four partitions
o Incremental data verification
o Granular control on physical pruning processes
 Indexing for File System Agents:
o Reduce size of index database
o Faster indexing operations
o Fast browse and find operations
 Storage Policy:
o Global secondary copy to consolidate data to tape media
o Switch between synchronous and selective copy
o More secondary copy encryption options
 CommCell Security:
o Role based security for greater granular control of access and user roles
o User quotas for file system data
 Disk and Tape Library:
o Validate mount path performance
o Better organized library and mount path property settings
o View library schedules
 Virtual Server Agent:
o Dynamic VM distribution logic using coordinator and data mover proxies
o VMware® selection rules including: power state, notes, and custom attributes
o Increase extent size to 2048 for improved backup and restore performance

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CommCell Security Enhancements


Role Based security
Role based security transcends limitations of traditional user and user group security by separating the user or group
from permissions.

Role based security is based on three components:


 User or user group – can be a local CommCell user / user group or domain user / user group
 Role – defines a set of permissions not tied to any user or user group
 Entity – the component that joins the user / user group with the associated role
The separation of user / user group (who), role (permissions), and entity (what) allows a user or user group to have
different permissions depending on what their role is for a specific entity.

Example: a user requires backup and recovery permissions for a file server. The same user requires restore only
permissions for a mail server. The user is associated with the file server entity and assigned the backup and recovery
role. The same user is assigned to the mail server entity with the recovery role.

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Create a Role

Configure Role Based Security for an Entity

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Roles when Upgrading from Previous Commvault Versions


Prior to Commvault version 11, all permissions (formerly called capabilities) were associated with a CommCell user
group. When upgrading Commvault software, a role will be created for each user group and permissions will be
assigned to the role based on the capabilities of the old user group. For each user group, a role will automatically be
created prefixed with <UserGroupName>_Role. These roles will automatically be assigned to entities along with the
user groups.

View System Created Roles after Upgrade from Previous Commvault Version

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User Quotas
Domain users can have data protection quotas enforced for file based backups. Quotas can be set at the group or user
level. If quotas are set at the group level, they can be overridden at the user level.

How user quotas works:


 When a user reaches 90% of their defined quotas, a warning Email will be sent to the user.
 When a user reaches 110% of quota, backups will not run for systems owned by the client.
 To fall below these thresholds, the user either has to delete data or the Commvault administrator has to
increase the user’s quota.

Configure User Quotas

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Indexing
Commvault® software uses a distributed indexing structure that provides for enterprise level scalability and automated
index management. This works by using the CommServe database to only retain job based metadata such as chunk
information, which keeps the database relatively small. Detailed index information such as details of protected objects
is kept on the MediaAgent managing the job.

Job summary data maintained in the CommServe database keeps track of all data chunks being written to media. As
each chunk completes it is logged in the CommServe database. This information also tracks the media used to store
the chunks.

Traditional Indexing (V1)


Detailed index information for jobs is maintained in the MediaAgent’s Index Cache. This information will contain each
object, what chunk the data is in, and the chunk offset defining the exact location of the data within the chunk. The
index files are stored in the index cache and after the data is protected to media, an archive index operation is
conducted to write the index to media. This method automatically protects the index information eliminating the need
to perform separate index backup operations. The archived index can also be used if the index cache is not available,
when restoring the data at alternate locations, or if the indexes have been pruned from the index cache location.

Commvault V2 Indexing
Commvault version 11 introduces the next generation indexing called indexing V2. It provides improved performance
and resiliency, while shrinking the size of index files in cache and in storage.

V2 indexing works by using a persistent index database maintained at the backup set level. During subclient data
protection jobs, log files are generated with all protected objects. The logs will be played into the index database.

Note: Commvault V11 SP1 currently supports V2 indexing method for file system agents. New
agent installation will use V2 indexing and existing file system agents, if upgrading from a previous
software version, V1 indexing will continue to be used.

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How v2 Indexing Works


Indexing data is located in a persistent index database. One index database will maintain records for all objects within
a backup set, so all subclients within the same backup set will write to the same index database. The database is
created and maintained on the data mover MediaAgent once the initial protection job of a subclient within a backup
set completes. Index databases are located in the index cache location on the MediaAgent.

During data protection jobs, log files are generated with records of protected objects. The maximum size of a log will
be 10,000 objects or a complete chunk. Once a Log is filled or a new chunk is started, a new Log file is created and
the closed Log will be written to the index database. By writing index logs to the database while the job is still
running, the indexing operations of the job runs independent of the actual job allowing a job to complete even if log
operations are still committing information to the database.

At the conclusion of each job, the log files are written to storage along with the job. This is an important distinction
from traditional indexing which would copy the entire index to storage. By copying just logs to storage, indexes
require significantly less space in storage which is a big benefit when protecting large file servers. Since the index
database is not copied to storage at the conclusion of each job, a special IndexBackup subclient is used to protect
index databases.

Index Resiliency and Protection


During data protection jobs, logs are committed to the index database and are also kept in the index cache. In the
event that an index database is lost or becomes corrupt, a backup copy of the index database is restored from media
and the log files in the index cache are replayed to the database. If the index cache location is lost, the database and
logs are restored from media and the logs will be replayed into the database. These recovery methods provide
complete resiliency for index recovery.

The index databases are protected with a system created subclient on the MediaAgent called IndexBackup. An index
backup operation is scheduled to run every eight hours. During the backup operation, index databases are checked to
determine if they qualify for protection. The two primary criteria to determine if a database qualifies for protection is
10 million changes or 30 days since the last backup.

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If the index database qualifies, three actions will occur:

1. A database checkpoint will occur

2. The database will be compacted

3. The database will be backed up to the storage policy associated with the IndexBackup subclient

Database Checkpoint

Checkpoints are used to indicate a point-in-time in which a database was backed up. Once the database is protected
to storage, any logs that are older than the checkpoint can be deleted from the index cache location.
Database Compaction

During data aging operations, deleted jobs are marked in the database as unrecoverable but objects associated with
the job remain in the database. The compaction operation deletes all aged objects and compacts the database.
Database Backup

Once the checkpoint and compaction occurs, the database will be backed up to the primary copy location of the
storage policy. Three copies of the database will be kept in storage and normal storage policy retention rules are
ignored.

During the index backup process, the database will be frozen and no browse or find operations can be run against the
database. Each database that qualifies for backup is protected sequentially minimizing the freeze time. Data protection
jobs will not be effected by the index backup.

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Index Database Recovery

In the event that an index database is lost or corrupt or if the entire index cache location is lost, indexes are
automatically recovered.

The index recovery process works as follows:

1. The index database is restored from storage.

2. If index logs more recent than the index database checkpoint are in the cache location, they will automatically
be replayed into the index database.

3. If index logs are not in the cache location, the logs will be restored from storage and replayed into the index
database.

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Multiple MediaAgents and Shared Libraries


When multiple MediaAgents are configured to use a shared library, the MediaAgent used for the first protection job of
a backup set is designated as the database hosting MediaAgent. During subsequent operations, if another MediaAgent
is designated as the data mover, it will not copy the database to its local cache. Instead, the data mover MediaAgent
will generate logs and ship them to the database hosting MediaAgent which are committed to the index database. If
the hosting MediaAgent is not available, data protection operations will continue uninterrupted. Once the hosting
MediaAgent is online, the logs will be shipped and committed to the index database.

Data Aging
During data aging operations, information for jobs that have exceeded retention are sent to the MediaAgent. The
index database’s job summary table will mark the jobs as unrecoverable. This results in accurate browse operations
and removes the need to restore previous indexes associated with specific jobs. During compaction operations, the
detailed information of objects within the index database are deleted.

Data Recovery
V2 indexing provides fast find and browse operations. When conducting find or browse operations, the MediaAgent
hosting the index database must be available.
Using V1 and V2 Indexing

MediaAgents can manage both V1 and V2 indexes. If a browse or find operation spans a period of time where
indexing was converted from V1 to V2, two separate operations will be required. A single find or browse job cannot
span index versions.

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Storage
Miscellaneous Changes:
 Schedules associated with libraries can be viewed from the library level.

Disk libraries
Library Properties
Several changes have been made in the library properties view.

Mount Path Tab


Mount path usage has explanations on how ‘Fill and Spill’ and ‘Spill and Fill’ operate. A new option to ‘Prefer mount
paths with more free space’ has been added to improve disk usage through even distribution of data across multiple
mount paths.

Space Management Tab


A new space management tab has been added in version 11. The ‘space thresholds’ settings and ‘thresholds for
managed disk space’ are now located in the space management tab.

View Disk Library Properties

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Validate Mount Paths


Mount path validation tests throughput speeds of library mount paths and is run from the CommCell console.

The validation operation is configured using the following parameters:


 MediaAgent
 File size
 Number of writers
 Block size
 Number of files

Run a Mount Path Validation Job

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Tape Library
Scratch Pool Media Selection Rules
Spare media selection criteria now includes the ‘use media based on capacity’ option. The setting can be configured to
fill lower capacity tapes first or higher capacity tapes first.

Configure Spare Media Selection Criteria

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Deduplication
Miscellaneous Changes:
 By default, 16 archive files will be maintained in each secondary table file resulting in smaller DDB size when
using longer retention settings.
 Global deduplication policies can be configured from the deduplication engine in storage resources.
 ‘Do not deduplicate against objects older than’ option is available in the settings tab.

Content Aware Deduplication


The concept of content aware deduplication is to identify what type of data is being protected and adjust how
deduplication is implemented. Consider a deduplication appliance that receives data from a backup application. The
appliance can’t detect files, databases, or metadata generated from the backup application. Commvault deduplication is
integrated into agents so it understands what is being protected. This provides significant space saving benefits and
results in faster backup, restore and synthetic full backup operations.

Object Based Content Aware Deduplication


Since most file objects are not equally divisible by a set block size, such as 128 KB, CommVault® Deduplication uses a
content aware approach to generate signatures. If an object that is 272 KB in size is deduplicated, it can be evenly
divisible by 128 KB with a remainder of 16 KB. In this case two 128 KB deduplication blocks will be hashed and compared.
The remaining 16 KB will be hashed in its entirety. In other words, Commvault® Deduplication will not add more data to
the deduplication buffer. The result is if the object containing the three deduplication blocks never changes, all three
blocks will always deduplicate against themselves.

Database and Log Content Aware Deduplication


Database application often provide built in compression which will compress blocks before Commvault generates
signatures on the blocks. The application level compression results in inconsistent blocks being deduplicated each time a
backup runs which results in poor deduplication ratios. Using Commvault compression during backups instead of
application compression, the application agent will detect the database backup and generate a signature on
uncompressed data. After the signature has been generated the block will then be compressed. This lead to improved
deduplication ratios.

Log files are constantly changing with new information added and old information truncated. Since the state of the data is
constantly changing, deduplication will provide no space saving benefits. During log backup jobs, the application agent
will detect the log backup and no signatures are generated, saving CPU and memory resources on the production system
and speeding up backups by eliminating signature lookups in the deduplication database.

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Deduplication Database
In Memory Deduplication Database
In memory deduplication provides significant performance and resiliency benefits. There are several components that
make up the in memory deduplication database: In memory logs and disk log.

In Memory Logs
In memory logs are linked to portions of the deduplication database and are dynamically added to memory by the
system. There are three memory logs; one active log, which records all database changes, a pending commit log, and
merge commit log. The active log will be record changes for 20 seconds. Once the active log is closed it becomes a
pending commit log and a new active log is started. While the active log receives changes and the pending commit log
closes, a merge commit log is committed to an on disk log. This circular clogging method ensures fast performance
without requiring significant memory or CPU resources.

DiskDB Log
The DiskDB log resides in the DDB location and receives updates from the memory logs. In addition to receiving changes
from the in memory logs, it is also used to commit records to the deduplication database. In the event of a MediaAgent
unplanned shutdown, the DiskDB log is used to bring the DDB to a consistent state.

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DDB Backup performance enhancements


VSS Cache Location
VSS cache location can be configured for the DDBBackup subclient. Moving the cache location to a separate drive will
improve backup performance.

Multiple stream backup


Since the deduplication database is a series of files, using multiple data readers with the ‘allow multiple data readers
within a drive or mount point’ option enabled will improve backup performance.

Application Read Size


The default application read size is 64KB. Increasing this setting will improve performance. Setting this number to 256 KB
or higher will improve DDB backup performance.

Configure Deduplication Subclient Settings

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Deduplication Database Resiliency


The deduplication database is highly resilient and reconstruct operations can rebuild the database to match the latest job
and chunk information maintained in the CommServe database.

There are three methods available to reconstruct the deduplication database:


Delta Reconstruction – In the event of an unclean DDB shutdown due to MediaAgent reboot or system crash, the
DiskDB logs can be used to bring the DDB to a consistent state.

Partial Database Reconstruction – If the deduplication database is lost or corrupt, a backup copy of the database is
restored and the database is reconstructed using chunk metadata.

Full Database Reconstruction – If the deduplication database is lost and no backup copy is available, the entire
database is reconstructed from chunk metadata.

Partial / Full Deduplication Database Reconstruct

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Deduplication Policy Creation


Several enhancement have been made for deduplication policies:

 Support of four partitions

 Configure Data interface Pairs (DIP) during the policy creation

 Configure client side disk cache

 Configure source side cache on MediaAgent

Create a Partitioned Global Deduplication Policy

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Client Side Disk Cache Settings

DASH Copy Cache Settings

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Data Aging and Pruning


Pruning activity control
Physical pruning can be controlled at the library level and using operation windows at the MediaAgent level.

Configure Operation Window for Physical Pruning

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Data Verification
Verification of Existing Jobs on Disk and Deduplication Database
Full verification for disk and DDB uses checksum data to verify block integrity by reading data chunks (Sfiles),
uncompressing, and decrypting, and using CRC information to validate block integrity. This option also verifies chunk
metadata using CRC checks. Any blocks failing the check will be marked in the DDB. New blocks generating the same
signature as a block marked bad are re-written to disk and a new signature entry is written to the DDB. This verification
method also verifies chunk integrity between the DDB and disk library.

Verification of Deduplication Database


The verification of the deduplication database option performs all of the same tasks as the verification of existing jobs on
disk and the deduplication database except metadata chunk validation.

Quick Verification of Deduplication Database


Quick verification option verifies chunk integrity between DDB and disk library.

Incremental Verification
Incremental data verification verifies data integrity for new jobs added since the last verification job. This option is
available when running ‘verification of deduplication database’ or ‘verification of existing jobs on disk and deduplication
database’ options. Since this method only verifies new jobs, full verification jobs should periodically be executed.

Configure DDB Verification Options

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Storage Policies
Miscellaneous Changes
 Default retention for a new storage policy primary copy is 15 days and 2 cycles.
 Default retention for a new secondary copy is 30 days and 4 cycles.
 Media refresh includes the option to mark refreshed media appendable for new data.
 Schedules associated with a storage policy can be viewed: right-click storage policy | view | schedules.
 Schedules associated with a storage policy copy can be viewed: right-click storage policy copy | view | schedules.

Global Secondary Copy Policies


Global Secondary copy policies allow multiple storage policy copies using a tape data path to be associated with a single
global secondary copy. This is based on the same concept as global deduplication policies, but global secondary copies
only apply to tape copies. If multiple secondary copies require the same retention and encryption settings, using a global
secondary copy reduces the number of tapes required during auxiliary copy operations and improves performance.

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Create a Global Secondary Copy

Assign a Secondary Copy to a Global Secondary Copy

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Secondary Synchronous and Selective Copies


Secondary copy types can be changed after they have been configured. Previously, the copy type, synchronous or
selective, could only be set during the initial secondary copy creation process.

Change a Secondary Copy Type

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Copy Based Encryption Enhancements


Encryption settings for secondary copies include the ability to decrypt data during auxiliary copy jobs. This is useful when
the secondary copy target is using built in encryption or deduplication. An option to ‘encrypt on network using selected
cipher’ can be used to encrypt data over the network during auxiliary copy jobs and decrypt the data before writing to
storage.

Configure Secondary Copy Encryption Settings

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Client Management
Miscellaneous Changes

 Manage array from client properties | advanced


 Enable / disable data interface pairs in client properties | advanced | job configuration

Client Properties Changes

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Subclients
Subclient Miscellaneous Changes
 Subclient properties advanced button hides advanced features
 Save as script option to generate XML input files
 Add subclient content using multi-line text box

Subclient Content and Exclusivity


By default, all content within a backup set is managed by the default subclient. If data is defined within a user defined
subclient, it is automatically excluded from the default subclient. However, if content is defined within multiple user
defined subclients that contain overlapping content, the data will be protected in each of the user defined subclients.

Example: a user defined subclient called ‘F:\ drive’ is managing all data on the F:\ drive. Another subclient is created
called ‘Word Docs’ defining ‘f:\**\*.DOCX’ as content. Both subclients will protect DOCX files.

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Virtual Server Agent


Miscellaneous VSA Changes
 Validation check during client / instance creation
 Subclient option to assign subclient’s VM contents to a client computer group
 Subclient option to auto-detect VM owner
 Automatically skip swap file for VMware and Hyper-V Windows VM backups
 VMware discovery / filter rules include: power state, notes, and custom attributes
 Default extent size for VMware backups using VSA is 2048

Virtual Server Agent Roles


Virtual Server Agent (VSA) proxies are defined at the instance level of the VSA pseudo client. The top listed VSA proxy
will be designated as the coordinator and all other proxies will be designated as data movers. The coordinator will be
responsible for communicating with the hypervisor to get information about VMs and distribute VM backups to data
mover proxies. Data mover proxies will communicate with the coordinator proxy and provide information on available
resources and job status. In the event that the coordinator proxy is unavailable, the next proxy in the list will assume
the role of coordinator. If a data mover proxy becomes unavailable, the coordinator proxy will assign jobs to other
available proxies.

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Virtual Machine Backup Process


When a VSA subclient backup starts, the coordinator will receive a list of all virtual machines listed in the subclient.
Based on a defined set of rules, the coordinator will create a dynamic VM queue to determine the order in which
virtual machines will be protected and which VSA proxies will back up each virtual machine.

Subclient Data Readers


The data readers setting in the advanced tab of the subclient defines the maximum number of streams used for the
backup. When the job starts, if there are more VMs than available streams, each VM will be allocated a single stream.
If there are more streams than VMs, the coordinator will automatically instruct the data mover proxy to use multiple
streams for the VM backups. Depending on the number of available streams, each virtual disk in the VM will be backed
up as a single stream. This process is dynamic so as a job progresses and more streams become available and less
VMs require protection, multiple streams can be used to protect individual VMs.

DataStore Distribution
If VMs within a subclient exist across multiple DataStores, the coordinator will assign VMs to proxies, one VM per
DataStore until the maximum stream count is reached. Each VM will be assigned to a different data mover proxy,
balancing stream loads across proxies based on proxy resources. This will distribute the load across multiple
DataStores which will improve backup performance and maintain a healthy DataStore state. In addition to the
subclient Data Readers setting, a hard limit can be set for the maximum number of concurrent VMs that can be
protected within a single DataStore using the nVolumeActivityLimit additional setting.

VM and VSA Proxy Distribution Rules


DataStore distribution is the primary rule that determines the order in which VMs will be backed up. Additional rules
that determine VM backup order are:

1. Number of proxies available to back up a VM. The fewer proxies available, the higher in the queue the
VM will be. This will also be dependent on transport mode. If the transport mode is set to Auto (default), SAN
will have highest priority, followed by HotAdd and then NDB mode. If a specific transport mode is defined in
the subclient, only proxies that are capable of protecting the VM can be used – this could affect the available
number of proxies which could result in a higher queue priority.
2. Number of virtual disks. VMs with more virtual disks will be higher in the queue.
3. Size of virtual machine. Larger VMs will be higher in the queue.

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Stream Allocation and Proxy Throttling


During backup operations, the coordinator proxy will gather information on each data mover proxy to determine the
default maximum stream count each proxy can handle. This will be based on the following:

 10 streams per CPU.


 1 stream per 100 MB available RAM.
When the coordinator assigns jobs to the data mover proxies, it will evenly distribute jobs until the default maximum
number of streams on a proxy is reached. Once the threshold is reached it will no longer assign additional jobs to the
proxy. If all proxies are handling the maximum number of streams and there are still streams available, the
coordinator will assign additional jobs to proxies using a round-robin method.

Throttling can be hard set on a per proxy basis using the following registry keys:

nStreamsPerCPU will limit the number of streams per CPU on the proxy.

nMemoryMBPerStream will set the required memory on the proxy for each stream.

nStreamLimit will set a limit on the total number of streams for a proxy.

bHardStreamLimit will set a hard stream limit across all proxies within the VSA instance.

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Data Movement
Client Job Throttling
The total number of concurrent jobs for a client can be throttled using the ‘enable job throttle’ option. This setting acts
as a governor controlling the number of jobs that can run regardless of stream settings or number of subclients. Job
throttling must first be enabled for the CommCell in ‘job management’ settings and then it must be configured in the
‘job control’ tab of the client properties.

Job throttling is used to set the maximum number of concurrent data protection jobs and the number of log backups.
There is an additional option to exclude jobs that run immediately from the job throttle.

Enable Client Job Throttling

Configure Client Job Throttling

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Application Protection
Miscellaneous Changes
 Run synthetic full jobs for de-configured clients. This is required to ensure proper retention and aging when
using subclient level retention.

Automatic Log Backups for Oracle, SQL, and DB2


Automatic schedules can be configured in schedule policies to backup log files for Oracle, Oracle RAC, and Microsoft
SQL based on the following:

 Oracle and Oracle RAC:


o Disk utilization reaches a specified percent
o Number of log files
 Microsoft SQL:
o Disk utilization reaches a specified percent
Job intervals determine the minimum and maximum time range for backups. The minimum time sets a check interval
in which if the log backup requirements are met, the log backup will run. The maximum interval determines the
maximum amount of time before a log backup will run, regardless of conditions being met.

Configure Automatic Log Backups

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Multi-streamed Exchange database backups


Multi-streamed backups of Exchange database reduce backup time by allocating streams on a per database level. The
maximum number of streams that can be used by a backup will be determined by the number of databases in the
Exchange environment. If a subclient’s content contains four databases, then four streams could be used, each stream
protecting one database.

In a DAG environment, the stream allocation will be based on the number of nodes. When the job starts, the stream
logic will automatically assign one stream to each node. If there are additional streams remaining, they will be
allocated based on which node has the most databases. The stream allocation process will continue in order of
Exchange servers in the DAG environment containing the most databases to fewest in a prioritized round-robin
method until all streams are allocated.

Configure Multi-Streamed Exchange Database Backups

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Auxiliary Copy Enhancements


Scalable Resource Allocation
When auxiliary copy jobs run, the AuxCopyMgr process on the CommServe server is used to coordinate all auxiliary
copy activity. When running large numbers or concurrent auxiliary copies, the AuxCopyMgr resource requirements can
cause performance issues.

Configure Auxiliary Copy Scalable Resource Allocation

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Data Recovery
Browse Data Using Pie Chart View
The new pie chart view in the browse window provides insight into what data is stored on a client and provides a
visual method for browsing data.

Enable the Pie Chart View

Use Pie Chart View to Browse Data

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