Smart Scale for Dell PowerProtect Appliances, Part II: Architecture Deep Dive
Tue, 18 Jul 2023 12:18:05 -0000
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In the first blog post of this series, we discussed some of the challenges that are associated with managing large datacenters and multiple appliances, and how Smart Scale can help tackle these issues. Let’s now discuss the solution architecture and workflow in detail.
Deploying Smart Scale Services in PowerProtect DD Management Center (DDMC)
The following are the steps for deploying and setting up Smart Scale services, along with the terminology that is used by the solution:
1. To start, if there is an existing DDMC then login to it or deploy a new DDMC. DDMC is a scalable, virtual system-based solution for centralized management of multiple PowerProtect DD series appliances and virtual data protection systems (PowerProtect DD Virtual Edition (DDVE). DDMC is composed of browser-based pages and is installed and runs on a VMware platform or compatible cloud service.
2. Add all DD series appliances (DD9900, DD9400, DD6900, DD6400, and DDVE) to DDMC. (A DDMC instance can support up to 150 DD series appliances.)
3. Create a data center in DDMC. A data center is a logical grouping of DD series appliances located in the same region or building. You can assign a managed DD series appliance to only one data center. You can create multiple data centers to reflect the full organization.
4. For each data center, enable Smart Scale services. Smart Scale services allow you to create system pools and mobile storage units (MSUs) within the system pools. When Smart Scale services are enabled for a data center, DDMC automatically deploys a DD Namespace Virtual Machine (DDNVM) in the appropriate VMware infrastructure.
In DDNVM we have DD Namespace Redirection Service (DDNRS). This service helps DDNVM receive backup client requests and redirects them to the DD series appliance that is hosting the MSU.
Smart Scale services also enable some microservices in DDMC, such as the Placement and Migration Service (PMS). The PMS is a microservice responsible for generating recommendations, such as the best DD series appliance for the initial placement of new MSUs. It also facilitates the intelligent movement of MSUs within a group of multiple DD series appliances (called a system pool) based on factors such as capacity insights, performance, and content overlap. PMS also communicates with DDMC and the Namespaces Redirection Server Database Manager (NRS DB Manager) through a collection of REST APIs. Starting with the DDOS 7.11 release, you can select a system under a pool and create an MSU on the system. The DDMC GUI provides a list of systems in a system pool in a recommended order.
5. After Smart Scale services are deployed, create a system pool in a data center. A system pool in a data center is a defined set of DD series appliances in the same datacenter that you can organize. The reasons for forming system pools can include any combination of security, accounting, locality, and so on. (A data center supports up to four pools; each pool supports up to 32 DD series appliances).
Note: An option to edit and redeploy Smart Scale service is available if the deployment fails or post deployment.
- DDMC manages these DD series appliances and balances client workloads that access the MSUs that are hosted on them. An MSU is a DD Boost storage unit that is hosted on one of the DD series appliances in a system pool. DD Boost clients access the MSUs through the configured network and using the Mobile Boost User (MBU) credentials. An MBU is a user that is associated with a data center. MSUs must be owned by a MBU in the MSUs’ data center.
- DDMC creates and maintains a network group, which is a set of IP addresses, a subnet, and a VLAN ID. All IP addresses in a network group should be in the same family (IPv4 or IPv6). A pool access IP is created for each network group. This IP is a dedicated IP address that enables client access to the system pool. Redirection then occurs within the network group, helping customers manage and maintain separation across the network, and between system pools and MSUs.
High level backup architecture and workflow
While configuring the backup policy, select the system pool IP. When the backup is started (using backup software such as Dell PowerProtect Data Manager), the backup client uses a pool access IP to connect to the DD Namespace VM or Smart Scale services. The DD Namespace VM communicates with the DDMC VM using APIs to get the DD series appliance details from a system pool where there is more space available. The placement and migration service in DDMC provides the sorted list of DD series appliances on that system pool, based on capacity, then DDMC provides the DD details to the DD Namespace VM. The DD Namespace VM returns the information to the backup client. When the backup client receives the DD system’s IP and MSU details, it connects directly to the DD series appliance and starts the data transfer to the MSUs on the recommended DD series appliance.
In this figure, because DD3 and DD5 have more available space, MSU1 and MSU2 are created on them for clients requesting backup. When a non-pooled system or regular DD storage unit is used as the backup target during backup policy configuration, it accesses the DD storage unit directly and does not use the DD Namespace redirection service.
Both pooled and non-pooled environments can coexist. This means that backup applications can support a hybrid environment that consists of a DD series appliance that has both regular storage units and system pools mixed with MSUs.
For additional information about Smart Scale architecture and workflow see Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances – Technical white paper. See the next blog post in this series, Smart Scale for Dell PowerProtect Appliances, Part III: MSU Migration, Replication, Recoverability, and Security, which talks about Smart Scale MSU migration, replication topology, recovery, and security. You can also go back and check out Smart Scale for Dell PowerProtect Appliances, Part I: Innovative Technology to Manage Multi-Exabyte Data.
Additional resources for Smart Scale
Authors:
Vinod Kumaresan (LinkedIn)
Sonali Dwivedi (LinkedIn)