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D2D NAS best practices
Introduction to D2D NAS backup targets
The HP StorageWorks D2D Backup System now supports the ability to create a NAS (CIFS or NFS) share to be
used as a target for backup applications.
The NAS shares provide data deduplication in order to make efficient use of the physical disk capacity when
performing backup workloads.
The D2D device is designed to be used for backup not for primary storage or general purpose NAS (drag and
drop storage). Backup applications provide many configuration parameters that can improve the performance of
backup to NAS targets, so some time spent tuning the backup environment is required in order to ensure best
performance.
Note: HP D2D NAS Implementation guides are available for on the HP web site for the following backup
applications: HP Data Protector 6.11, Symantec Backup Exec 2010, CommVault Simpana 9 and Symantec
NetBackup.
Overview of NAS best practices
Configure bonded network ports for best performance.
Configure multiple shares and separate data types into their own shares.
Adhere to the suggested maximum number of concurrent operations per share/appliance.
Choose disk backup file sizes in backup software to meet the maximum size of the backup data.If this is not
possible, make the backup container size as large as possible.
Disable software compression, deduplication or synthetic full backups.
Do not pre-allocate disk space for backup files.
Do not append to backup files.
Choosing NAS or VTL for backup
D2D Backup Systems provide both NAS and VTL interfaces; the most appropriate interface for a particular
backup need varies depending on several requirements.
Benefits of NAS
Simpler configuration as no drivers need to be installed and the interface is familiar to most computer users.
Often backup to disk is provided as a no cost option in backup applications, so application licensing is
cheaper and simpler.
Backup applications are introducing new features that make good use of disk as a target such as Disk-to-Disk-
to-Tape migration.
Backup applications that do not support backup to tape devices can now be used.
Benefits of VTL
Seamless integration with existing physical tape environment.
Backup application media copy is available for physical tape copies.
Performance may be better than NAS in some configurations due to the efficiency differences between the
protocols, especially when using a Fibre Channel VTL interface.