About the media server deduplication (MSDP) node cloud tier
Starting with NetBackup 8.3, an MSDP server is able to directly write deduplicated data to cloud object storage. The cloud-tiering feature automatically uses the local block storage pool as its write-cache. This setup creates performance and efficiency improvements and prevents a network hop or requiring a dedicated cache when the cloud object storage is written to. To simplify deployment, MSDP cloud tiering enables data management in multiple buckets, storage tiers, and cloud providers from a single node.
Some of the key attributes of the MSDP cloud-tiering feature include:
Fewer servers required
Increased performance
Multi-bucket support
Easy web UI configuration
API-based deployment
Self-descriptive storage
Requirements for MSDP cloud tier:
Hardware requirements for block storage only MSDP pool - No change from NetBackup 8.2 MSDP guidance. Max capacity is 960 TB for the NetBackup Appliance, and 400 TB for BYO MSDP.
Hardware requirements for object storage only pool - Max capacity of 2 PB and 196 GB of memory. The default is 1 TB of local storage per cloud LSU, and the overall file system utilization should not exceed 90% full.
Hardware requirements for mixed object and block storage - Similar hardware requirements as local storage only pool. Total max capacity is 2.4 PB.
Operating system - Cloud Logical storage units (LSUs) can be configured on the storage servers running on Red Hat Linux Enterprise or CentOS platforms. No platform limitations for clients and load-balancing servers.
Features of the MSDP cloud tier:
One MSDP storage server can be configured to support multiple storage targets, including one local storage target and zero or more cloud storage targets. You can move data to local and to multiple cloud targets simultaneously.
The cloud targets can be from the same or from different providers, either public, or private. For example, AWS, Azure, and HCP. These cloud targets can be added on demand after the MSDP server is configured and active.
Multiple cloud targets can coexist in a single cloud bucket or multiple buckets that are distributed in a single or from different cloud providers.
Based on the OpenStorage Technology (OST), the new architecture uses multiple LSUs to manage and move data. These LSUs can be customized independently to meet different customer requirements. For example, as pure local target (same as MSDP in NetBackup 8.2 or earlier), or local target plus one or more cloud targets.