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DR Series Best Practice Guide
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4. Markers are set at the container level
5. OST quotas are set on a container level and are applied at non-deduplicated capacities.
6. Container names cannot contain spaces
Container limit
There are several different strategies in which to approach container creation. In general, it is better to
have as few containers as possible to maintain ease of management. This section is designed to assist
in developing an optimal container strategy based on your organization’s needs.
With most configurations where replication is not required, it is common to have a single container if
the administrators have a single Data Management Application (DMA). When replication is required,
container creation can become more complex, so it is best to choose what containers should and
should not be replicated as well as prioritizing what data should be replicated first. Below are four
scenarios to help with picking the proper container creation strategy:
Scenario 1: Separate data to be replicated vs. data not to be replicated
Scenario 2: Separate data that has a higher value to replicate vs. lower value
Scenario 3: Separate different types of data into different containers
Scenario 4: Separate different DMA types into different containers
Scenario 1: Separate data to be replicated vs. data not to be replicated
Robert has Exchange data that is required to have 2 copies, with 1 copy maintained offsite. Robert also
has VM data, which is NOT required to have 2 copies.
Recommendation: Robert should have the following two containers:
Container 1. For the Exchange data so that it can be replicated each week off site.
Container 2. For the local VM data so that it is not replicated and does not take up valuable WAN
bandwidth.
Scenario 2: Separate data that has a higher value to replicate vs. lower value
Robert also has intellectual property (IP) that he would like to have replicated offsite each day.
Recommendation: Robert should create a third container and enable replication schedules on all
containers (giving more time to the third container) to ensure replication of the IP container competes
each day.
Scenario 3: Separate different types of data into different containers
Assume that Robert also has SQL data that bypasses the DMA and is written directly to the DR.
Recommendation: Robert should create a forth container to allow the container to be locked down
just to that SQL server, as well as to allow independent access which does not interfere with the DMA.
Scenario 4: Separate different DMA types into different containers
Robert also has a VM infrastructure that he wishes to protect using Dell vRanger. This is in addition to
his other DMA which is used to protect their physical servers.