Advantages of universal shares
The following information provides a brief description of the advantages for using universal shares:
As a NAS-based storage target
Unlike traditional NAS-based storage targets, universal shares offer all of the data protection and management capabilities that are provided by NetBackup.
As a database dump location
Universal shares offer a space saving (deduplicated) dump location, along with direct integration with NetBackup technologies including data retention, replication, and direct integration with cloud technologies.
Financial and time savings
Universal shares eliminate the need to purchase and maintain third-party intermediary storage. Use of this storage typically doubles the required I/O throughput since the data must be moved twice. Universal shares also cut in half the time it takes to protect valuable application or database data.
Protection points
The universal share protection point offers a fast point-in-time copy of all data that exists in the share. This copy of the data can be retained like any other data that is protected within NetBackup. All advanced NetBackup data management facilities such as Auto Image Replication (A.I.R.), storage lifecycle policies, optimized duplication, cloud, and tape are all available with any data in the universal share.
Copy Data Management (CDM)
The universal share protection point also offers powerful CDM tools. A read/write copy of any protection point can be "provisioned" or made available through a NAS (CIFS/NFS) based share. A provisioned copy of any protection point can be used for common CPD activities, including instant recovery or access of data in the provisioned protection point. For example, a database that has been previously dumped to the universal share can be run directly from the provisioned protection point.
Back up and restore without client software
Client software is not required for universal share backups or restores. Universal shares work with any POSIX-compliant operating system that supports NFS or CIFS.
The universal share feature provides a network-attached storage (NAS) option for supported Veritas appliances as well as the software-only deployment of NetBackup. Traditional NAS offerings store data in conventional, non-deduplicated disk locations. Data in a universal share is placed on highly redundant storage in a space efficient, deduplicated state. The deduplication technology that is used for this repository is the same MSDP location used by standard client-based backups.
Any data that is stored in a universal share is automatically placed in the MSDP, where it is deduplicated automatically. This data is then deduplicated against all other data that was previously ingested into the media server's MSDP location. Since a typical MSDP location stores data across a broad scope of data types, the universal share offers significant deduplication efficiency. The protection point feature lets you create a point-in-time copy of the data that exists in the specified universal share. Once a protection point is created, NetBackup automatically catalogs the data as a specific point-in-time copy of that data and manages it like any other data that is ingested into NetBackup. Since the protection point only catalogs the universal share data that already resides in the MSDP, no data movement occurs. Therefore, the process of creating a protection point can be very fast.
The universal share feature supports a wide array of clients and data types. NetBackup software is not required on the client where the share is mounted. Any operating system that uses a POSIX-compliant file system and can mount a CIFS or an NFS network share can write data to a universal share. As the data comes in to the appliance, it is written directly into the Media Server Deduplication Pool (MSDP). No additional step or process of writing the data to a standard disk partition and then moving it to the deduplication pool is necessary.
Any data that is initially ingested into a universal share resides in the MSDP located on the appliance-based media server that hosts the universal share. This data is not referenced in the NetBackup Catalog and no retention enforcement is enabled. Therefore, the data that resides in the universal share is not searchable and cannot be restored using NetBackup. Control of the data in the share is managed only by the host where that share is mounted.
The protection point feature supports direct integration with NetBackup. A protection point is a point-in-time copy of the data that exists in a universal share. Creation and management of a protection point is accomplished through a NetBackup policy, which defines all scheduling and retention of the protection point. The protection point uses the Universal-Share policy, which can be configured through NetBackup web UI. After a protection point for the data in the universal share is created, that point-in-time copy of the universal share data can be managed like any other protected data in NetBackup. Protection point data can be replicated to other NetBackup Domains or migrated to other storage types like tape or cloud, using storage lifecycle policies. Each protection point copy is referenced to the name of the associated universal share.
Restoring data from a protection point is exactly the same as restoring data from a standard client backup. The standard Backup, Archive, and Restore interface or the NetBackup web UI can be used to restore data. The client name that is used for the restore is the universal share name in the Universal-Share policy. Alternate client restores are fully supported. However, to restore to the system where the universal share was originally mounted, NetBackup client software must be installed on that system. This software is necessary since a NetBackup client is not required to initially place data into the universal share.
NetBackup also supports a wide variety of APIs, including an API that can be used to provision (instant access) or create an NFS share that is based on any protection point point-in-time copy. This point-in-time copy can be mounted on the originating system where the universal share was previously mounted. It can be provisioned on any other system that supports the mounting of network share. NetBackup client software is not required on the system where the provisioned share is mounted.