Quantum DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide For Veeam Backup & Replication
Quantum DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide For Veeam Backup & Replication
Quantum DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide For Veeam Backup & Replication
BPG00020A-09
DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide for Veeam Backup & Replication
Table of Contents
DXi-Series Configuration and Best Practices Guide for Veeam Backup &
Replication ..................................................................................................................... 1
How to Use This Guide ................................................................................................. 1
Shortcuts to Quick Start Activities .............................................................................. 1
Documentation and References................................................................................... 2
Online Documentation for Your Quantum Products ................................................................ 2
DXi Product Planning Guides ............................................................................................................. 2
DXi User’s Guide ................................................................................................................................ 2
Veeam Installation .............................................................................................................................. 2
Veeam Backup & Replication Documentation ........................................................................ 3
Summary of Performance Tuning Parameters for Veeam Backup & Replication ... 4
Configuration Recommendations for DXi as a Veeam Deduplicating Storage Appliance ................. 4
Configuration Recommendations for DXi as a Veeam CIFS (Shared Folder) ................................... 5
Configuration Recommendations for DXi as a Veeam NFS (Shared Folder) (Only available with
Veeam 10) .......................................................................................................................................... 9
Configuration Recommendations for DXi as a Veeam Linux Repository using Quantum AccentFS
.......................................................................................................................................................... 10
Considerations for employing AccentFS with Quantum DXi and a Veeam Linux Repository 12
Configuration Recommendations for Veeam 10 File Share Backup (Veeam 10 only) for DXi
............................................................................................................................................. 12
Configuration Recommendations for Scale Out Backup Repository using the DXi as the
performance extent .............................................................................................................. 13
Configuring Veeam Backup & Replication with the DXi-Series .............................. 14
Configuring Veeam Backup & Replication with DXi NAS ...................................................... 14
NAS or Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance Device Path Considerations ........................... 14
Configure the DXi for NAS or Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance Repository .................... 15
Configure DXi as a Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance Repository .................................... 15
Configure Veeam Backup & Replication for NAS or Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance
Repository ......................................................................................................................................... 15
Best Practices Guide for Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance Repository,
NFS, or CIFS ................................................................................................................ 16
Number of Shares Considerations ................................................................................................... 16
Network CIFS Share Access Control Considerations ...................................................................... 16
Network Considerations.................................................................................................................... 16
Additional Best Practice Considerations ........................................................................................... 17
Configuring Veeam Backup & Replication with the DXi-Series VTL....................... 19
VTL Device Path Considerations ...................................................................................................... 19
Configuring Veeam with DXi VTL ..................................................................................................... 20
Configuring Veeam with DXi VTL ..................................................................................................... 20
Best Practices with Veeam and DXi VTL ................................................................... 20
Virtual Tape Drive Device Description and Recommendation ......................................................... 20
Veeam Configuration recommendations with DXi VTL .................................................................... 21
Number of Concurrent Tape Drives in Use ...................................................................................... 21
Tape Cartridge Capacity Considerations.......................................................................................... 22
Tape Drive LUN Mapping ................................................................................................................. 23
Considerations for the Handling of Expired Media within Veeam .................................................... 23
The information provided in this document by Quantum is for customer convenience and is not warranted or
supported by Quantum. Quantum expects users to customize installation of third-party software for use to fulfill a
customer driven requirement. However, Quantum is not responsible for the usability of third-party software after
installation. This information is subject to change without notice.
This document provides key recommendations and useful information for quickly setting up a DXi system
with Veeam Backup & Replication. It then expands on these recommendations and discusses the
features and performance tuning considerations relevant to NAS attached storage.
This document is organized by the NAS storage target access methods to be employed with Veeam
Backup & Replication.
Note: After you click some of the links below, you may find multiple versions of a given document. Verify
your current software version, then choose the appropriate document for that software version.
The DXi Product Planning Guides help you configure and use your DXi storage solution correctly from the
start. As a best practice, verify that the DXi has been successfully deployed in the infrastructure, using the
Quantum site planning documentation:
Note: After clicking the links shown in the lists below, you may need to scroll down to find the linked
documents. In some Documentation Centers, you may need to expand the Previous Documentation
section to find one or more of the documents in these lists.
Refer to the DXi user’s guide for detailed information about all the configurations and functions available
on the DXi, including Network Attached Storage (NAS) share setup and DXi-to-DXi Replication setup:
Note: Only DXi FW 3.4.0 (13857-59970 Build21) and later support VDMS.
▪ DXi9000 Series User’s Guide
▪ DXi6900 User’s Guide
▪ DXi4800 User’s Guide
▪ DXi4700 User’s Guide
Veeam Installation
▪ DXi9000 Series User’s Guide
▪ DXi4800 User’s Guide
▪ DXi 4700 & DXi6900 Veeam Installation Guide
As with any modifications to a system that impact performance and/or tuning, your results may vary and
are not guaranteed.
The settings shown below are recommended, and present DXi as a Veeam Ready primary backup
target.
Enabled. This setting increases performance of the backup copy job by copying the restore
Read the entire restore point from
point from the source instead of synthesizing a full backup from incrementals resident on the
source backup instead of
copy target. The full copy is faster overall. This setting is located on the GFS retention
synthesizing it from increments
configuration section in the backup copy configuration settings.
Reverse Incremental Not recommended.
Incremental Enabled.
Enabled if FastClone is supported. DXi SW revisions 4.0.4 and later and Veeam Backup and
Replication Version 10 and later support FastClone for DXi, this enables copy on write backup
image synthesis and significantly reduces I/O load on the DXi. If FastClone is not supported,
Synthetic Full disable this setting as an Active Full Backup would likely perform better than a Synthetic full.
See Backup Stream Considerations for best practices for managing restore points.
Active Full Disabled or Enabled – Enabled is recommended if Synthetic Full is not employed.
Healthcheck Disabled.
Defragment and Compact full
Disabled.
backup file
Backup job
Veeam recommends leaving this as either AUTO or OPTIMAL for the DXi as it will optimize
Compression Level
overall processing.
Disabled (Veeam recommends disabling this option, because this will enable background
Inline data deduplication
optimizations for deduplication appliances).
Exclude swap file blocks Enabled.
Exclude deleted file blocks Enabled.
Local target or Local+16TB
Local+16TB produces a performance gain with synthetic full backups (up to 14%). Local+16TB
Storage Optimization
causes a slightly slower full backup duration, and increased incremental data transferred per
backup.
Do not enable Veeam’s Encryption feature. Although Veeam Backup & Replication supports
Encryption encryption, for best performance, use the Data-at-Rest hardware encryption provided by the
DXi appliance.
Miscellaneous Options Recommendations
Veeam Backup Server Recommendations
Backup Proxy Server Recommendations
Backup Enterprise Manager
Recommendations
Server
Use only standard ANSI characters for the computer name of the computer on which you want
Server Name
to install Veeam Backup & Replication.
Veeam Windows registry When using the Veeam Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance, Quantum recommends
modification increase the call execution timeout. See https://www.veeam.com/kb1176 for more details.
The settings shown below are recommended and present the DXi as a secondary backup target
for the Backup Copy Job.
SMB Server Signing is disabled by default on the DXi, but must also be disabled on the Veeam
server. (This can be changed on the local machine through a Registry setting, but if the server
is part of an AD environment, the group policy must be changed to disable SMB Server
Signing for the Veeam server for the change to be permanent.)
To disable Server Signing on the local server, disable (set to ‘0’) the following Registry values:
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManServer\Parameters
\RequireSecuritySignature
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManWorkstation\Parameters\Requi
reSecuritySignature
If the Veeam server is part of an AD environment, the group policy must be changed as well:
• Open the Group Policy Editor, and right-click-and-edit Default Domain Controller Policy.
• Go to Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings >
Local Policies > Security Options.
• Set “Domain member: Digitally encrypt or sign secure channel data (always)” and
“Microsoft network server: Digitally sign communications (always)” to Disabled.
In the case of busy systems, some timeout defaults do not allow for enough time to process
requests/responses. One such timeout value (“SESSTIMEOUT”) defines the amount of time
the client waits for the server to respond to an outstanding request. Adjusting this value can
keep SMB from timing out and requiring multiple retry attempts.
To adjust, either modify the existing SessTimeout DWORD or create the DWORD within the
following Registry location and set to a 600 value (10 minute timeout):
• HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanManWorkstation\Parameters
TcpMaxDataRetransmissions
Adjusting the following TCP/IP setting by adding a subkey in the registry should reduce the
number of timeouts, by allowing more time for the connection to complete. This setting is not
present in the registry by default.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
2. On the Edit menu, click Add Value, then add the following information:
On heavily utilized systems, consider increasing the TCP/IP timeout on Veeam Backup &
Replication backup proxy.
For high TCP loopback latency and UDP latency, applying the following Microsoft Hot Fix may
help:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/979612
Server Disk If I/O performance issues are seen when the Windows (applicable to Windows 2008 R2) disk is
under heavy I/O load, consider applying the following Windows Hot Fix:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982383
Cisco Nexus 7k-Series Disable Priority Flow Control for the DXi-connected ports:
Procedure:
If problems are encountered when mapping a CIFS share with IP address, short name, and long name,
reference the above link to standardize the configuration and help understand potential issues should
they arise following configuration.
Configuration Recommendations for DXi as a Veeam NFS (Shared Folder) (Only available
with Veeam 10)
Note: With Veeam 10, all DXi models are able to use a simple NFS share.
The settings shown below are recommended and present the DXi as a secondary backup target
for the Backup Copy Job.
Incremental Enabled.
Synthetic Full Disable.
Active Full Enabled – Recommended.
Healthcheck Disabled.
Defragment and Compact full
Disabled.
backup file
If the decompress setting for the Repository is enabled, this value will not result in compressed
Compression Level data being sent to the DXi. Veeam recommends leaving this as either AUTO or OPTIMAL for
the DXi, because it will optimize overall processing.
No. (Veeam recommends disabling this option, because it will enable background
Inline data deduplication
optimizations for deduplication appliances).
Exclude swap file blocks Enabled.Enabled
Exclude deleted file blocks Enabled.Enabled
Local target (16TB+ backup files) – Veeam recommends this setting on all DXi systems
Storage Optimization
employing NAS shares to improve overall performance.
Do not enable Veeam’s Encryption feature. Although Veeam Backup & Replication supports
Encryption encryption, for best performance, use the data at rest hardware encryption provided by the DXi
appliance.
Miscellaneous Options Recommendations
Veeam Backup Server Recommendations
Backup Proxy Server Recommendations
Backup Enterprise Manager
Recommendations
Server
Use only standard ANSI characters for the computer name of the computer on which you want
Server Name
to install Veeam Backup & Replication.
The settings shown below are recommended and present the DXi as a primary backup target.
Note: All versions of Veeam support Linux backup repository (9.x and beyond). The Veeam Linux Proxy
is only supported on Veeam 10 and later.
Supported Models and DXi SW Versions:
▪ DXi9000 Series – all software versions
▪ DXi4800 – all software versions
▪ DXi6900 – SW 3.4.0 and above
▪ DXi4700 – SW 3.4.0 and above
▪ Supporting Fast Clone:
o Dxi9000 Series and Dxi4800 with software 4.0.4 and above
Considerations for employing AccentFS with Quantum DXi and a Veeam Linux
Repository
If using Veeam 10 and later, the Quantum AccentFS plugin will be installed (see AccentFS Plug-in
Installation for DXi4800 or DXi9000 Series) on a Veeam Linux Proxy (follow Veeam instructions on how
to involve a Linux Proxy server) and a mount point created by following the AccentFS plugin install
instructions.
If using Veeam 9.5, you will need to create an independent Linux VM on the hypervisor cluster. Then
install AccentFS plugin. Follow instructions and mount AccentFS share on the Linux machine. Create a
standard Veeam Linux repository directing backups to the AccentFS mount point.
During backup job setup, it is a good idea to manually set the proxy for the backup job to the proxy that
has the AccentFS mountpoint. This way you guarantee the desired proxy server is employed, otherwise
Veeam may choose an alternate proxy server to serve as the virtual disk mount and add an unnecessary
hop in the datapath.
AccentFS should only be used if you wish to conserve network bandwidth. When using AccentFS, the
backup will perform source side deduplication and only send unique blocks of data to the DXi target. The
Veeam Linux Proxy will employ the “hotadd” or virtual appliance transport method. Compression,
deduplication, and encryption should be disabled. Synthetic operations should be avoided if employing
this storage method as FastClone is not supported currently. Performance is limited with this method
currently, so careful consideration of job parameters is necessary. For example, AccentFS would not be a
good candidate for secondary copy due to data path considerations. We recommend AccentFS be used
for primary backup, yet understand the performance will not be optimum.
The network bandwidth conservation is the primary benefit of this feature, not all out performance. Once
AccentFS is installed on the Linux proxy server, modifying the OS boot parameters to auto-mount the
AccentFS filesystem is desirable, this way the data lands on the DXi and not a local directory on the proxy
server in the event the proxy server is rebooted.
A new feature in Veeam 10 is file share backup. This allows the user to back up a primary storage NAS
share to the DXi. The method in which data is stored on the DXi is very different from traditional VM
backups. The file share backup is a forever forward incremental. This presents challenges as the
metadata is accessed frequently and results in increased random I/O (which can negatively impact
performance). The DXi memory consumption increases when the file share being protected has many
small files, the memory budget on the DXi can be exhausted quickly when using a VDMS repository as
the storage target. If a share contains a large number of small files, you may wish to use a NAS share on
the DXi in order to eliminate the memory consumption concerns. If you choose to back up to a Quantum
Deduplicating Storage Appliance repository (VDMS) closely monitor the DXi Admin alerts to see if the
memory consumed nears the maximum threshold (set to 85% of available memory, in normal cases
maximum memory is 32GB).
Configuration Recommendations for Scale Out Backup Repository using the DXi
as the performance extent
When configuring the object storage capacity tier, deselect the default gateway server to have the DXi
directly send the backup data to the S3 repository. This is only applicable if the DXi has internet or
intranet access to the S3 target repository and the DXi SW revision is 4.0.3 or later, DXi versions prior to
4.0.3 must contact Quantum Support and have a patch applied to achieve the same result. If the DXi
does not have internet or intranet access, or the DXi Software requirements are not met, select the
default gateway for the server that does have internet access to offload data to the capacity tier. It is
desirable to avoid that extra data path hop and have the DXi send the data direct, however.
Consult any of the following resources on the Help menu if you have questions or difficulties:
▪ See the Veeam Backup & Replication User Guide for comprehensive information about Veeam
Backup & Replication.
▪ See the Veeam Backup & Replication for searchable, topic-based documentation.
▪ See the Veeam Backup & Replication built-in help for access to offline searchable
documentation.
Important Note: The DXi is NOT a Network Attached Storage device to be used to store customer data.
The DXi only emulates a NAS device for the sole purpose of being a Backup-to-Disk target for backup
applications such as Veeam. Do NOT use the DXi NAS share as “Drag-and-Drop” file storage.
A DXi system can serve as a NAS backup system where the following protocols are supported:
CIFS Protocol -The CIFS (Common Internet File System) protocol defines a standard for remote
file access using many computers at a time. This protocol allows users with different platforms to
share files without installing additional software. This protocol is used with Windows networks.
NFS Protocol - The NFS (Network File System) protocol was originally designed by Sun
Microsystems and allows all network users to access shared files stored on computers of different
types. NFS provides access to shared files through an interface called the Virtual File System
(VFS), which runs on top of TCP/IP. Users can manipulate shared files as if they were stored
locally on the user's own hard disk.
With NFS, computers connected to a network operate as clients while accessing remote files, and
as servers when providing remote users access to local shared files. This DXi NAS presentation
is used with UNIX/Linux networks, and is used for the Veeam Linux Repository initial share
creation. However, the Veeam Data Mover is employed to transfer data, rather than NFS.
Network segmentation is the process of splitting a single network into several sub-networks or
segments. The advantages of a segmented network are improved performance and security.
Performance is improved because there are fewer hosts on the segmented network, which in turn
minimizes local traffic. Security is improved because the data traffic is contained on this segment and is
not visible to the outside network.
Note: If you are using network segmentation and Automated Deployment Services (ADS), you must use
the data segment IP information for ADS management, NOT the management segment. ADS uses the
Server Message Block (SMB) data protocol to manage the NAS shares on your system, which requires
that the management traffic use the data segment.
DXi systems allow you to configure your network for separate segment types. The three primary
segments are defined by the type of network traffic that can be used on that segment. The three types of
network traffic are:
▪ Replication traffic - This segment is used exclusively for replication data movement.
▪ Management traffic - This segment is used exclusively for DXi remote management (Web page
access).
▪ Data traffic - This segment is used exclusively for NAS/VDMS data movement.
Each network segment has its own network interface (IP address, network mask, and default gateway). In
this way, the segment is separated from other network segment traffic.
Note on Bonding:
When Bonding, whether or not Round Robin or LACP is used, the ports on the Ethernet switch that the
DXi are connected to must be in a matching group type as the Bond group on the DXi.
The DXi also supports Mode 1 Bonding (active/backup), which does not require any special switch
configuration. With a Mode 1 bond, only one interface in the bond is active. If that interface loses
connectivity, the MAC address is moved to another interface in the bond, which then becomes active.
Typically, this is used when connections to the DXi are routed through two completely separate switches
for redundancy / failover.
Veeam Backup & Replication seamlessly integrates with a DXi-Series disk backup system using the NAS
(CIFS or NFS) interface. Once installed and configured, Veeam can manage backups through the DXi
and take advantage of the system’s capabilities, such as data deduplication and replication.
Installing and configuring the DXi and Veeam for NAS operation consists of the following major steps,
which are discussed below:
1. Configure the DXi for NAS or Veeam Linux Repository
2. Configure the Veeam Backup & Replication NAS or Veeam Linux Repository
Configure the DXi for NAS or Quantum Deduplicating Storage Appliance Repository
The DXi system allows you to configure it to present its storage capacity as NAS shares that are
compatible with Veeam Backup & Replication. You can create NAS shares for use with Windows or UNIX
networks. You can also join the DXi to a Windows domain or workgroup and manage users.
In the DXi Remote Management Console (the GUI) the Configuration page allows you to configure many
of the features of the DXi, including storage presentation. A NAS license must be installed on the DXi
before you configure NAS shares. To enable the Veeam Linux Repository; you will need to install a
Veeam Application Environment License. Refer to the DXi Veeam Installation Guide for DXi4700/6900,
DXi4800 or DXi9000 Series for more detail.
Configuring the DXi for NAS lets you choose which network protocol will be used as the transport method
to the DXi. CIFS (Windows) and NFS (UNIX/Linux) are available on the NAS > Summary tab. After NAS
Shares have been configured on the DXi, Veeam Backup & Replication can be configured to use these
shares as storage resources.
Refer to the Quantum DXi Veeam Installation Guide for DXi4700/6900, DXi4800 or DXi9000 Series for
details.
Configure Veeam Backup & Replication for NAS or Quantum Deduplicating Storage
Appliance Repository
Refer to the “Veeam Backup & Replication” section of the Veeam Help Center (Technical Documentation)
website for current configuration and related details.
Quantum DXi systems support both CIFS (Windows-based) and NFS shares. Each system can support
multiple NAS shares, with a maximum of 128 shares. It is recommended that users create only the
required number of shares for each backup proxy.
When using CIFS shares on DXi systems, it is recommended that you create at least one share for each
backup proxy to use. Backup proxies should not share the CIFS shares during normal backup operations.
In Windows Active Directory environments, the share acts as the target for Veeam Backup & Replication.
The share is not intended as primary storage or drag-and-drop storage. A best practice is to create a new
account and workgroup, as opposed to joining the domain, to limit access and prevent accidental file
deletion by another user. It is recommended that you DO NOT reconfigure or delete NAS shares while
data is being written. There is no mechanism to detect the I/O and provide a warning to the user.
Network Considerations
network present to attempt to complete the backup job. This includes networks that are
not optimized for data transfer. In the latter case, the backup will fail. If this occurs, please
resolve the issue with the preferred network and re-attempt the backup job.
Several operational considerations are common to the two access methods (CIFS and NFS). See the
Common Operational Considerations for Veeam Backup & Replication section below for more information
on deduplication, encryption, compression, backup streams, and replication.
A performance increase between releases has been observed. Be sure to have the latest patch installed
for Veeam software.
▪ If you need to determine if your DXi9000 can be enhanced for Veeam, open the System
Management (GUI) Status > Hardware > Firmware Version and scroll until you see CPU
information like the following:
If your DXi9000 Series comes with advanced CPU and memory (768 GB RAM), run the following
syscli command:
syscli -- set veeam --cgroupslimit 416
This will allocate 416 GB RAM for Veeam usage. See DXi-Series Command Line Interface (CLI).
▪ VeeamONE and trigger-based replication.
o If using trigger-based replication to an additional DXi for added data protection, it has
been observed in the field when VeeamONE (versions earlier than VeeamOne 10) is also
used to monitor the VMware and storage repository environments, that at times trigger
based replication is sometimes delayed by the VeeamONE resource polling. If this is the
case, please add the following registry keys to the VeeamONE server in order to fine
tune the monitor polling interval. This will allow the files to close on the DXi to trigger rep-
lication to the target DXi. See registry keys below:
o Veeam 9.5 (pre update4)
This is a DWORD type and default value is 60000 (milliseconds) in decimal. Try to set it
to 180000 or higher and check the results.
After modifying the registry key, you must restart the Veeam Monitor Service for the
changes to take effect.
o VeeamOne 10, uses a new method of polling where system status is cached, and polling
methodology has changed. In this case trigger-based replication was not impacted during
normal usage. The above registry keys are ONLY relevant to Veeam 9.5 and earlier. For
VeeamOne 10, at this point, modifications are NOT needed to registry keys to modify be-
havior.
Note: Veeam does not support tape or VTL connected to an ESXi server. So, the Veeam Tape Server
should be a physical server with FC connections to the DXi VTL.
Creating a backup image on a virtual tape is no different than creating a backup image on a physical
tape. The DXi VTL is viewed through Fibre Channel interfaces and appears as a virtual library with virtual
drives and cartridges. During backups, Veeam creates backup images on the virtual tape cartridges.
One of the key ways to ensure that SAN-connected physical and virtual tape libraries are detected
properly by backup servers is serialization. Serialization provides a unique identifier for each device in a
physical or virtual tape library, to automate device association from multiple backup servers. These identi-
fiers, returned by the VTL devices, are separate from the element addresses that define the position of
devices in the library. The element address is used by the library’s robot or medium changer to manage
the tape drives.
Serialization allows the tape server to coordinate tape drive configuration by aligning the device serial
number with the device’s element address. This enables Veeam to align these two addresses, reducing
the potential for improper configuration.
When creating the VTL Quantum recommends selecting the native device identification. In other words,
use the DXi4700, DXi4800, DXi6900 or DXi9000 model name for the VTL to present an inquiry response
string as the identification for each model respectively. This allows proper product identification for admin-
istrators and service teams.
When using the native device mode, Windows environments will display the device in the Device Man-
ager as an unknown medium changer. This is normal and not an error and does not create a problem for
Veeam. If the customer environment has requirements for a specific changer device for compatibility, the
Quantum DXi products support emulation of many popular devices to meet those requirements.
Always ensure that the latest drivers have been installed for the tape drives and library. For best perfor-
mance, the original hardware vendors drivers should be loaded for the emulated tape drive or library. The
three LTO tape drive manufacture Quantum emulates are Quantum, IBM, and HP. The tape drivers may
be found on the respective manufacture’s web site.
Veeam seamlessly integrates with a DXi-Series VTL presentation. Once installed and configured, Veeam
can manage the backups to the DXi and can take advantage of the DXi system’s capabilities, such as
data deduplication and replication. The first step is to configure the DXi for VTL as detailed in the DXi
User Guide for your specific model: DXi4700, DXi6900, DXi4800 or DXi9000 Series.
Note: If you are planning to replicate partitions to another DXi system, you must ensure that every parti-
tion name and barcode number on the system is unique. You can NOT have duplicate partition names or
barcode numbers on a DXi system or on a system receiving a replicated partition.
The Create Media page allows you to create virtual media for a specific partition. Once created, these
virtual cartridges are available for backing up data. You can configure the media type, capacity, starting
barcode, and initial location on this page.
Note: Do not start a barcode series with CLR or CLN. Veeam reserves and manages these prefix for
cleaning media
Note: When creating media, the cartridge capacity can be assigned. See Tape Cartridge Capacity Con-
siderations for more information on this subject.
Note: It is possible to oversubscribe space on the DXi system. The sum total of capacity for all media
could be more than the physical capacity of the system. See Oversubscription of Space on the DXi for
more information on this subject.
Quantum DXi products support multiple tape drive emulations and allow user-definable capacities of tape
cartridges to support the drive type. The drive type selection does not internally impose any throttling of
the ingest rate. The host system uses tape device drivers to communicate with the virtual tape drives and
the Veeam Tape Server. Veeam recommends using OEM tape drive drivers for backup.
Quantum recommends against using the Windows update function to get the latest tape drive drivers, as
it is possible that Windows Update can find unexpected driver matches for a tape drive. These unex-
pected matches often are not the same as the ones supplied by the tape drive manufacturer and may in-
troduce unexpected incompatibilities.
Standard Media Pool Media Set Select: Do not create, always continue uing current media set
Do not select “Never overwrite data” Media needs to be managed with
Retention
reasonable retention periods and methodologies.
Offline media tracking Do not use offline media tracking in a VTL. Do no export VTL tapes
Encryption Do no use encryption. This will reduce deduplication efficiency
WORM Media Pool WORM Do not create a WORM media pool in a VTL
Media Automation Check to select: “Eject tape media upon job completion”
Tape Job: Backups
Advanced Settings Uncheck to deselect: “Use hardware compression when available.”
Media Automation Check to select: “Eject tape media upon job completion”
Tape Job: Files
Advanced Settings Uncheck to deselect: “Use hardware compression when available.”
Each DXi model has a maximum number of virtual tape drives that can be configured. Each model also
has a maximum aggregate throughput rate, which will be divided relatively equally between the virtual
tape drives in use. This does not prohibit a single tape drive from using all available bandwidth. The
Veeam tape server typically determines individual tape drive performance.
It is not a good idea to configure the maximum number of virtual tape drives and perform I/O through all of
them concurrently. Better performance can be achieved by using a subset of those virtual tape drives at
the same time. Quantum expects the customer configuration to distribute those virtual tape drives among
multiple Veeam tape servers, to simplify initial installation by providing dedicated resources to each tape
server
It is recommended that backups be staggered so that only a subset of drives is in use at any one time.
During a backup, the data transfer rate is primarily controlled by the Veeam tape server because the DXi
system does not restrict the ingest data rate. This makes it possible for one or more Veeam tape servers
to burst data at a higher rate, leaving less bandwidth for the remaining virtual tape drives. Conversely, it
supports the coexistence of fast data streams with slow streams, for maximum use of the available band-
width.
Keep in mind that increasing the number of concurrently active virtual tape drives does not increase the
aggregate DXi bandwidth. On the contrary, it could result in a failed backup job due to a timeout from a
bandwidth-starved operation.
The recommended maximum number of concurrently active virtual tape drives for various maximum ag-
gregate bandwidths is listed in the table below.
Space on a given tape cartridge cannot be reused until after all backup data on that cartridge has expired
AND DXi space reclamation has run. The greater the capacity of a cartridge, the longer it will typically
take for all data on that cartridge to expire. Expired data continues to take up space on the virtual tape
cartridge, as well as on the DXi, until that cartridge is overwritten, relabeled, or erased. This means that
lower cartridge capacities are more desirable, so that tapes will be returned to the default scratch pool for
reuse and overwritten sooner.
There is virtually no relationship between the configured capacity of a virtual tape cartridge and the tape
drive emulation that has been configured for the partition:
• Backup/restore operations will span the number of tapes required, ignoring the configured ca-
pacity.
• Vaulting/duplicating operations performed by the backup application will ignore the virtual ca-
pacity when writing to another cartridge, whether virtual or physical.
• DXi-Series devices limit the maximum capacity permitted by the tape drive emulation; the mini-
mum is 5GB.
• The capacity utilization is tracked in UNCOMPRESSED GB, and the data is stored in deduplicated
form. That is, 100GB of data that is 2:1 compressible will be reported as occupying 50GB of vir-
tual tape cartridge space.
Quantum’s general guidance is to specify a smaller virtual tape cartridge capacity, such as 50GB to
100GB, for the reasons mentioned above.
When a tape is expired by Veeam, the event is not directly communicated to the DXi-series device. The
result is that a tape may be displayed as empty or Free to the Veeam UI, but the same tape will display in
the DXi-series GUI as containing data. This indicates that the data on the expired tape is still using space
on the DXi-Series library.
To solve this problem, configure Veeam to use recycled media within a pool first before adding tapes from
the Free pool. With this option, the recycled media will be overwritten before new media, which uses
space more efficiently.
Data deduplication can work well with virtual machines, large databases, unstructured data such as
Microsoft Office documents (PowerPoint presentations, Word documents, and Excel spreadsheets), SQL,
Oracle, and Exchange databases, and source code.
Data deduplication does NOT work well with encrypted data, in-line compressed data, SQL with
LiteSpeed (in-line compression), Oracle with multi-channel RMAN (in-line multiplex), and compressed or
uncompressed music files or movies/videos.
For long-term archiving, it is recommended to vault the data to a physical tape device.
Replication Considerations
▪ The replication is only available to NAS shares with deduplication enabled.
For more information, please refer to the DXi User Guide for your DXi model, available from the Quantum
Documentation Portal.
Deduplication will reduce the amount of space used on the physical system by virtual tapes. Users are
advised to monitor for Low Space conditions on the DXi and free up virtual media before reaching this
threshold. A best practice would be to trigger the Space Reclamation process before the DXi reaches
approximately 80 percent full.
The Disk Usage overview on the Home page of the DXi Management GUI displays the following
information about disk usage on the system:
Note: Values are displayed as an amount and as a percentage of the total capacity in the system. For
more detail, see the DXi User Guide, Home Page, Disk Usage: DXi4800 is shown here.
▪ Disk Capacity - The total usable disk capacity of the DXi.
▪ Available Disk Space - The disk space available for data storage (free space).
▪ I/O Write Low Threshold state (Yellow) - Free disk space is equal to or less than 500GB +
[10GB * (Total system capacity in TB)].
▪ Stop Write state (Red) - Free disk space is equal to or less than 250GB.
▪ Stop I/O state (Red) - Free disk space is equal to or less than 10GB.
Note: For optimal system performance, Quantum recommends keeping the amount of Available Disk
Space (free space) at 20% or more.
Note: When disk capacity is low, target replication to the system is paused. In addition, space reclamation
is automatically started to free up disk space.
Space Reclamation
When data is deduplicated it is stored in the block pool—a pool of all unique data blocks that were
captured during the data deduplication cycle. When subsequent backup jobs occur, the data
deduplication engine searches for new data entering the DXi and uses a variable length compression
algorithm to compare new data to existing data in the block pool. Unique blocks are added to the block
pool, and known blocks are indexed.
The space reclamation function searches the blockpool for data blocks that are not referenced by any
pointers (that is, the files associated with these blocks have been expired and removed). When such a
data block is identified, it is removed to make the space reusable.
For correct system operation, space reclamation must be run at regular intervals (at least once a week).
Quantum recommends creating a schedule to automatically run space reclamation during off-peak times.
It may be beneficial to schedule space reclamation for a time when other operations are not normally
being carried out. Therefore, it is important to know when to schedule the space reclamation process. As
a best practice, Quantum recommends that the process starts at least two hours after your backup job
has completed, on a daily basis. It is far more efficient to process a day’s worth of new data than a week’s
worth.
Refer to the DXi User Guide for your DXi model, available from the Quantum Documentation Portal for
configuration details.
These simultaneous operations can negatively impact performance, causing an I/O performance
bottleneck on the DXi. To avoid this situation, if you are using a CIFS NAS repository, consider running a
standard incremental backup and then using the Active Full Backup method, to prevent I/O bottlenecks
within the storage device. Multiple Full Backups will not consume as much space on DXi storage,
because all similar blocks will be deduplicated by the DXi. If you are using the Veeam Linux Repository,
consider running standard incremental backups followed by a periodic synthetic full backup.
The Synthetic Full Backup is a method that synthesizes a backup from the first Full Backup and
subsequent Incremental Backups. The underlying difference between an Active Full Backup and a
Synthetic Full Backup is how the VM data is retrieved. With a Synthetic Full Backup, Veeam will not
retrieve the VM data from the source, but will synthesize a full backup from the DXi Linux repository. This
should only be attempted when the Quantum deduplication storage appliance (VDMS) Repository is
employed on the DXi. The network overhead of transferring the data to the Veeam Backup and
Replication server to synthesize is not necessary in this case, and the operation takes place entirely on
the DXi. For this reason, this method is a good candidate for environments that have limited network
bandwidth. It is not advisable to perform synthetic full backups when a CIFS Shared Folder repository is
employed. Synthetic full backups should definitely be employed on Quantum DXi and Veeam Backup and
Replication versions that support “FastClone.” This is a clonerange operation that significantly reduces
blockpool retrieves and is 15 – 20 times faster than traditional synthetic full backups. If FastClone is not
available, active full backups are often faster than traditional synthetic full operations (depending on
several factors). You may wish to try both methods to see which satisfies performance requirements.
Instant VM Recovery allows you to immediately restore a VM back into production from the DXi storage
repository. This allows you to minimize recovery time and minimizes disruption from production downtime.
Booting virtual machines from the DXi repository is similar in performance to the Reverse Incremental and
Synthetic Full Backup methods. However, this restore method could negatively impact performance,
causing an I/O bottleneck at the DXi. This should only be attempted when you are employing a Quantum
deduplication storage appliance (VDMS) Repository on the DXi.
The DXi works well with the Instant VM Recovery method, although it is not designed as primary storage.
Thus, Instant VM Recovery should be viewed only as a temporary solution, until primary storage is
available. It’s advisable to only start as many instant recovery sessions as necessary, because each
session consumes memory on the DXi while active. Memory consumption varies, depending on what type
of activity is present on the hosted virtual machine. It’s also advisable to redirect written blocks to a local
high speed datastore to take advantage of caching. We also suggest that you migrate instant recovered
virtual machines to permanent storage after instant recovery is complete.
When using the Quantum deduplication storage appliance (VDMS) Repository, consider using the
following backup workflow:
• Active Full Backup (initial)
• Daily Forward Incremental Backup
• Weekly Synthetic Full Backup (if FastClone is utilized)
• Monthly Active-full Backup
Try to limit restore points to from 7 to 14 (Veeam default). In addition, no more than 30 restore points
should be retained before a synthetic or full backup is performed.
Helpful Resources
The following is a list of documents, references, and links where you can find additional information
regarding specific activities and products.
http://www.vmware.com/
Contacting Quantum
More information about Quantum products is available on the Service and Support website at
https://www.quantum.com/serviceandsupport/get-help/index.aspx. The Service and Support Website con-
tains a collection of information, including answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs). You can also
access software, firmware, and drivers through this site.
For further assistance, or if training is desired, contact the Quantum Customer Support Center:
http://www.quantum.com/serviceandsupport/get-help/index.aspx#contact-support