EMC - DataDomain - Software Overview

1. EMC Data Domain Boost

EMC Data Domain Boost extends optimization capabilities of Data Domain solutions. The main
advantages for DD Boost are: improved throughput; backup server managed file replication; and
backup server replication awareness. How is this possible, and why is this important in a backup
recovery and archive environment

• The benefits of DD Boost include improved throughput. This is improved throughput of retaining data backups that is accomplished with the open storage technology (OST) protocol, and the Data Domain Distributed Segment Processing, DSP. OST, when compared to CIFS and NFS protocols, has a faster throughput. 

• The Distributed Segment Processing offloads part of the deduplication process to the backup server. Why is backup server managed file replication beneficial? without DD Boost,  replication is initiated and managed by the Data Domain system. The backup server is not aware of the data written on the replica Data Domain system, system B in the diagram. With DD Boost, the backup server can now control and manage file replication.Why is this backup server awareness of the replica Data Domain system beneficial? Because DD Boost allows for the backup server to be aware of the replica system, it can directly restore and recover from the replica. Prior to DD Boost, the backup server didn't control or manage replica data. This made restoring the data from replica a manual process.

Let's compare deduplication process with Let s and without DSP. in this illustration, the deduplication process is performed on the Data Domain system without DSP. Without DSP enabled, the entire deduplication process is performed on one system. The Data Domain goes through the process of segmenting, fingerprinting, filtering, compressing, and finally writing the data to disk. The backup server has no part in the deduplication process.

With DSP enabled, the process is distributed between the backup server and the Data Domain system. The creation of segments and fingerprints, along with the segment compression, is performed on the backup server. The Data Domain system filters the fingerprints and writes the segments to the Data Domain system disk. Note that the overall deduplication process remains the same with or without DSP. Enabled DSP merely changes which component – whether the backup server or the Data Domain system – performs parts of the process

The DD Boost advanced load-balancing and link failover functionality supports transparent failover of jobs. In-flight jobs on failed ports on the DD system are transparently moved to healthy links on the Data Domain system, and subsequent jobs are sent to the healthy links. This further improves the enterprise robustness of the backup environments that use Data Domain Boost

2. Virtual Tape Library - VTL

To summarize the benefits of Data Domain VTL, it starts with economics. There is less disk to resource and less to manage. The CPU-centric deduplication approach of SISL allows the system to be simpler to manage, as well as easier to provision. In addition, Data Domain is more mature and flexible than most of its competitors. Finally, because of their resilience and replication flexibility Data Domain systems are highly reliable when deployed for VTL environments.

Data Domain systems support backups over the SAN and LAN. The backup application manages
all data movement to and from Data Domain systems. The backup application manages physical
tape creation. Data Domain replicator software manages virtual tape replication, and Data
Domain System Manager is used to configure and manage tape emulations.

DD OS 5 0 and later 5.0 includes an NDMP tape server feature that simplifies the deployment of Data Domain systems for network attached storage or NAS devices. The feature is ideal to provide data protection for NAS systems and data centers or remote offices that use an Ethernet infrastructure, and complements the existing VTL over Fibre Channel capability. The capability is included with purchase of the VTL software option, bundled with Fibre Channel HBA's, and is available to the VTL installed base with an upgrade to DD OS 5.0 or greater

3. DD Relicator

Because there’s there s a variety of IT centers and visions for how long vaulting should work, with Data Domain products EMC offers a wide variety of options for deploying different topologies costeffectively, from centralized support of remote office backup over a WAN, to protecting larger peer data centers. All of these configurations are available

The main benefits provided by DD replicator licensing include network efficient asynchronous IP replication; easy integration with existing backup and archive applications; and environments and extensive feature set for real world enterprise providing the greatest deployment flexibility Data Domain replicator licensing supports replication and includes the addition of an SSL-based encrypted replication capability. This functionality is included at no additional charge and available to customers that have a DD replicator license and a valid support contract. Once the source and destination systems have authenticated, secure replication connections are established using the standard SSL protocol, which encrypt data and metadata using 256-bit AES key strength. The encrypted replication has a minimum performance impact, and the capability works concurrently with DD encryption of data at rest.

4. DD Encryption

The benefits and goals of Data Domain encryption are to protect against theft or loss of the system in transit; to protect against theft or loss of physical storage media; to allow failed drives to be returned to factory securely; and to provide adequate data encryption security to meet basic compliance regulations. DD encryption encrypts all system data at rest in the physical storage to provide adequate encryption key management to ensure key integrity and security.
Note: Encryption of data‐at‐rest (standard DD Encryption or integration with DPM) is not supported for systems with DD Extended Retention software

Data Domain's in-line encryption provides real-time data encryption with deduplication, and immediate data protection. There's no postprocessing encryption which is safer and more secure. Data is encrypted immediately. There's no window of exposure and the process is predictable and simple. Data Domain in-line encryption also involves SISL architecture, leveraged for optimized encryption with the same level of deduplication provided to non-encrypted data the software-based approach requires no additional hardware.