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Best practices for setting up Dell VTL Container or NetVault Backup native virtual tape library (nVTL)

Introduction

Dell

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DR Series appliances are high-performance, disk-based backup-and-recovery

appliances that deliver innovative features such as inline deduplication and compression,

advanced data protection, and replication. Additionally, the management features, ease of

deployment, and architecture that enables core backup data to remain on disk and online

longer can help organizations reduce the complexity associated with backups.

For most common data types, Dell recommends using Rapid Data Access (RDA). RDA

provides closely knit integration with Dell

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NetVault

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Backup (NetVault Backup) and the

DR Series appliance. This lets NetVault Backup use the DR Series appliance as a target

location for either source- or target-side deduplication, which lets you ﬁnely tune

backups to individual environments and requirements. DR series appliances typically

reduce the quantity of data stored as backups by a 15:1 ratio as a result of deduplication

and compression.

When backing up data stored on a network-attached storage (NAS) device via Network Data

Management Protocol (NDMP) RDA is not supported. For this use case, Dell recommends

using either the DR native Virtual Tape Library (VTL Container), NetVault Backup’s Virtual Tape

Library (nVTL) or a Dell

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NetVault

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SmartDisk (NetVault SmartDisk) conﬁgured with the DR

Series appliance. This document steps through the installation and conﬁguration of a VTL for

both the DR4000 and DR6000 Series appliances.

• DR Virtual tape libraries (VTL Containers) on a DR Series appliance are used to replace

or as a complement to a physical tape library as the primary storage target. Using a

combination of a DR Series appliance for a primary backup-storage target and existing tape

infrastructure for secondary backups provides a reliable, high-performance solution to

meet legal obligations or business requirements for osite storage, archiving, and disaster

recovery. DR VTL Containers provide the most ideal VTL solution for NetVault because the

VTL is created, maintained, and provided by the DR itself. Also, data is sent directly from

backups clients to the DR VTL Container. Unlike the nVTL solution which depends on 3rd

party communication protocols like CIFS or NFS.

• NetVault Virtual tape libraries (nVTLs) written to a DR Series appliance are usually used

to replace a tape drive or library as the primary storage target because the DR Series

appliances can deliver full backups and restores more eciently than traditional tape

devices. Using a combination of a DR Series appliance for a primary backup-storage

target and existing tape infrastructure for secondary backups provides a reliable, high-

performance solution to meet legal obligations or business requirements for osite

storage, archiving, and disaster recovery. NetVault nVTL solutions should only be

considered when DR VTL Containers will not meet customer needs.