We are in the middle of a project to replace our current BackupExec 2012 with Data Domain 565 backup architecture with one of 3 possible solutions:
1. NetBackup 5230 Appliances (1x5230 with 76TB at primary DC and 2x5230 with 76TB each at secondary DC)
2. EMC Avamar/DD2500 (with NDMP Accelerator node and 1x90TB at primary DC and 1x135TB at secondary DC)
3. Commvault Simpana (dont have as much detail on this option, mainly looked at a Backup Service with a local provider that would use this system)
Here are some details about our current storage architecture:
Primary SAN = EMC VNX 5300 with some block level and file level storage
Secondary SAN = EMC VNX 5300 with some block level and file level storage
Use RecoverPoint to replicate block level storage (LUNs) between SANs
Use VNX Replicator to replicate file level storage (file systems) netweem SANs
We are almost 100% virtualized with VMware 5.0 host servers (3 hosts at primary and 3 hosts at secondary sites)
100Mbps metro ethernet between data centers
Ok, so here is where our backup problems come up:
5 x NAS file systems stored on file level side of VNX 5300
fs1 = 7.2TB file system takes too long to back up
fs2 = about 8TB of small files that is out image archive system (130 milion files)
fs3 = large file archive about 11TB, only has data added each quarter of the year (about 400-500GB per quarter), these files are manally moved from production file systems into this archive area, but users need access to this read only data 24x7 as needed
This is probably enough detail for now...
We like the Symantec approach and would like to go with it but are not 100% sure how it will handle these lare file systems. We have been told so far that we can use NetBackup Accelerator to backup the large file systems, but it I am not convinced. I do like the way the NetBackup appliance is directly attached to the storage and I think that will help make the backup jobs more efficient with less network parts in the puzzle. I also like the NBU interface best so far.
I like the Avamar/Data Domain approach since we are familar with Data Domain already and we know what kind of depuplication we should get. Plus, since we have had the EMC VNX SANs, I have had good experience with EMC support so far and this would be more of the same in that sense. Symantec support for BackupExec... sucks... I am not a big fan of NDMP and the Avamar solution would leverage that. I have seem many posts that
Anyway, I guess what I am hoping to hear is someone has gone through something simular and has used a NBU appliance with NBU accelerator to SUCCESSFULLY backup their large NAS file systems ON A VNX series SAN. OR is Avamar with NDMP backups our best bet.