Data Protection for PowerMax 2500 and 8500 with PowerProtect Data Manager and PowerProtect Data Domain
Download PDFTue, 30 Apr 2024 12:59:29 -0000
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Summary
Dell’s next-gen Dell PowerMax systems – the PowerMax 2500 and PowerMax 8500, were added to the PowerMax family for organizations that need trusted and innovative enterprise storage with unparalleled performance, scalability, and security at scale without compromise. Based on NVMe dynamic fabric technology, the next-gen PowerMax systems eliminate traditional storage boundaries in every dimension — performance, scalability, capacity, and security — to meet the increasing demands of traditional workloads and next-generation cloud-based applications.
Data protection for Storage Arrays is the next-generation storage array block volume data protection solution with Dell PowerProtect Data Manager or PowerProtect Data Manager Appliance. PowerProtect Data Manager enhances protection by sending data directly to the Dell PowerProtect Data Domain appliances to gain benefits from unmatched efficiency, deduplication, performance, and scalability. Together with Data Manager, PowerProtect Data Domain is the ultimate protection storage appliance with broad backup software ecosystem support.
Data Protection for PowerMax 2500 and PowerMax 8500 with PowerProtect Data Manager and PowerProtect Data Domain
Figure 1. Data Protection for PowerMax 2500 and PowerMax 8500 with PowerProtect Data Manager
In continuation of our data protection support for Storage Arrays, data protection for PowerMax 2500 and 8500 is supported starting with Data Manager version 19.17. With this ability, you can use Data Manager to back up and restore the Storage Groups within the next-generation PowerMax arrays.
By using Data Manager, application owners gain the advantage of centralized management and orchestration for backups and recoveries for multiple PowerMax arrays. For enhanced performance, Data Manager uses an external block volume Protection Engine as a Data Mover for backing up and recovering Storage groups within PowerMax arrays. Recoveries are fast, and there is little to no impact on your applications or databases. The combination of PowerMax and Data Manager delivers data protection that is simple, secure, and flexible for protecting the Storage Groups in PowerMax arrays.
To protect Storage Groups on PowerMax storage arrays, Data Manager provides the following features and benefits:
- Centralized management of multiple PowerMax arrays
- Fully automated backup and recovery of Storage Groups
- Direct integration with PowerMax arrays through Dell Unisphere
- No separate Storage Direct Protection agent is required for integration with PowerMax
- Performance scale-out architecture using an external lightweight block volume Protection Engine
- Protection Engine integration as Data Mover for enhanced backup and restore performance
- Simple and easy configuration to protect the PowerMax Storage Groups
- Leverage the DDBoost protocol to send data to PowerProtect Data Domain appliances. The backup target can be a physical or virtual PowerProtect Data Domain appliance.
- Supports incremental and full backups to PowerProtect Data Domain. Integration with the Snapshot bitmap API to perform incremental backups
- Automated pre- and post-secure scripting for application consistency
- Multiple backup/restore streams even for a single very large volume
- Data Immutability with Retention Lock support (Governance and Compliance)
- No impact on PowerMax resources during backup and recovery
- Low-performance impact with encryption over wire
- Centralized backup of the Storage Groups along with replication and DD Cloud Tiering
- Centralized management of backup scheduling, lifecycle management, monitoring, reporting, and alerting
- Centralized full restore to original or alternate Storage Groups or PowerMax arrays
- A single protection platform for PowerMax storage arrays along with other modern and traditional asset sources
- Supports only block volumes and is not supported for mainframe CKD devices
Data Protection operations for PowerMax
Data Manager includes a new integration for end-to-end orchestration of backup and recovery of PowerMax storage resources, which are Storage Groups. The storage array data protection service includes multiple modules to:
- Discover the PowerMax storage array Storage Groups
- Perform backups to PowerProtect Data Domain
- Perform restores of Storage Groups to original or alternate PowerMax arrays
Discovering PowerMax asset source and assets
PowerMax arrays are discovered in Data Manager by adding the Unisphere for PowerMax as an asset source. When Unisphere is added, Data Manager discovers all the PowerMax arrays (2500 and 8500) managed by Unisphere. The user can then select the required PowerMax array and choose the Enable Management option from More Actions. When the initial discovery is successful, the Storage Groups in the PowerMax array are available as assets in the Data Manager UI for protection. By default, discovery happens automatically after adding the asset source. The subsequent discoveries can be either manual or scheduled.
Protecting Storage Groups with PowerProtect Data Manager and PowerProtect Data Domain
Data Manager supports backing up the Storage Groups from the PowerMax arrays using a protection policy. Data Manager uses external block volume Protection Engines as data movers to perform backups of storage groups. The block volume Protection Engine divides the volume into chunks and assigns each chunk to a stream for backup.
Figure 2. Performing a backup to the PowerProtect Data Domain
The following figure shows the high-level user workflow to protect resources (Storage Groups) on PowerMax arrays using Data Manager:
Figure 3. High-level user workflow to protect Storage Groups with Data Manager
Recovering Storage Groups with PowerProtect Data Manager
Data Manager supports restoring Storage Groups from the Data Domain to the original or an alternate Storage Group/PowerMax array. Data Manager uses external block volume Protection Engines as data movers to perform restores of storage groups.
Figure 4. Performing a restore from the PowerProtect Data Domain
The following figure shows the high-level user workflow to restore resources (Storage Groups) to PowerMax arrays using Data Manager:
Figure 5. High-level user workflow to restore Storage Groups with Data Manager