Key benefits
The following information provides a brief description about the key benefits of universal shares:
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, including Storage Lifecycle Policies (SLPs).
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 CDM 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 and restore to any client
Client software is not required for universal share backups or restores. You can also restore universal shares to any client. Universal shares work with any POSIX-compliant operating system that supports NFS or CIFS.