Posted on: 08/08/13
Celerity recently implemented an EMC Data Domain into our own
environment for use as our main backup storage device and because our
infrastructure is primarily virtualised we use Veeam as our backup
solution of choice. After some initial testing we have found that using
Data Domain as your backup storage in combination with Veeam can help you cut costs and improve data retention.
Veeam, as a standalone product, is extremely good which is why it is the #1 VM backup solution on the market, but when combined with the power of Data Domain it can be even better.
The major limitation with Veeam is that deduplication is limited to the virtual machines within each individual backup job. Veeam suggest that you keep similar machines in the same backup job, which works well for the OS files, but what about all that data spread across multiple backup jobs? And, what happens if you want to run an ad-hoc backup on a single machine?
Limitations within Veeam mean you must run a full job which could contain multiple virtual machines to get a backup of the virtual machine you want.
And so, this is where a deduplication storage system such as Data Domain comes into its own. It allows you to deduplicate globally across all virtual machine backups regardless of the job they are in. This means you can group your backups into smaller sub-jobs, or have singular backups for certain machines, without impacting on the amount of storage that would otherwise be required.
In essence what this means is that you can backup more machines, more of the time while using less space.
A Data Domain storage solution does not just benefit Veeam, it can also be used to backup physical machines to further reduce storage requirements for backups. You also have access to all of the other features Data Domain has to offer such as replication to another Data Domain device for offsite backups or for use as a Virtual Tape Library, which may be of interest with the release of Veeam Backup and Replication v7.
When time allows, I intend to do some further testing on the difference between regular Veeam backups and Data Domain to obtain the required information to confirm my initial findings, the results of which I will include in a future article.
Should you require to discuss your requirements please do not hesitate to contact a Celerity representative.
Barry Knox - Technical Consultant - Celerity Limited
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