In PowerStoreOS 3.5 and later, users can backup volumes and volume groups directly to a PowerProtect DD series appliance. This feature eliminates the requirement of a backup host because all backup traffic is offloaded to the storage appliances. By creating a remote system connection, PowerStore uses replication tagged storage ports to connect and transfer data to the PowerProtect DD appliance leveraging the DD Boost protocol as seen in the following figure.

Figure 32.    PowerProtect DD Remote System type

The PowerProtect DD appliance can either be physical or PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE). The DDVE is supported either on-premise or within Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Using PowerStore’s native snapshot technology, backups are initiated directly from PowerStore Manager. Backups are initiated through a new protection rule called Remote Backup Rules. This feature supports various operations that are outlined below, under Backup Sessions, Retrieve Sessions, Resources, and Instant Access Sessions. These options are found from the Protection > Remote Backup section of PowerStore Manager.

Figure 33.    Protection > Remote Backup list view

Backup Sessions are created when a protection policy that contains a remote backup rule is assigned to a supported resource. Backup Sessions have the following operations:

• Pause: Pauses the current backup session from running a future update.
• Resume: Resumes a paused session.
• Delete: Deletes a backup session.
• Backup: Manually starts a backup on an idle session.
• Cancel: Cancels an in-progress session.

Retrieve Sessions are remote backups that have been fetched from the PowerProtect DD appliance. Retrieving a backup can be initiated from the Protection > Remote Backup > Resources tab or from within the Protection tab of a volume or volume group that has been previously backed up. When a backup has been retrieved, users can manage the backup just like a snapshot (create a thin clone using snapshot, refresh using snapshot, or restore from snapshot). When finished with the Retrieve Sessions, users can:

• Delete: Deletes the retrieve session (retrieved snapshot will not be deleted)
• Cancel: Cancels an in-progress retrieve session

Resources provides a list volumes and volume groups that have been backed up to the PowerProtect DD appliance. Resources have the following operations:

• Manage Snapshots: Displays the backups of a selected resource. From here, users can Retrieve or Delete selected backups.
• Instant Access: Allows a host direct access to a volume or volume group backup on a PowerProtect DD appliance.
• Discover Remote Snapshots: Allows users to discover volume or volume group snapshots on a PowerProtect appliance. Using a PowerStore cluster’s Global ID, a user can find snapshots created by a different PowerStore cluster and retrieve them.

Instant Access Sessions allows hosts to access a volume or volume group snapshot directly from the PowerProtect DD appliance. This allows hosts to view the content of a snapshot without needing to retrieve it to the PowerStore system. Instant Access sessions can be created from the Protection > Remote Backup > Resources page, or from the Remote Snapshots tab within the Protection tab of a resource. While an Instant Access Session is enabled, manual, or scheduled, backups of the resource are postponed. Instant Access is not supported with PowerProtect DDVE in AWS. The following option is available on the Instant Access Sessions tab:

• End Session: Removes the selected Instant Access Session (the resource must be unmounted from the host and host access removed before ending the session).

Note: Instant access is supported for all block resources except VMware VMFS datastores. If access to data within a remote snapshot of a VMFS datastore is required, customers can still perform a retrieve operation on the remote snapshot and create and mount a thin clone.