Backup Central

Hi all,

Has anyone heard (or even experienced) a succesful method of backing up the newest HP's file archive storage appliance - Extreme Data Storage 9100? It's SATA-based, commodity-storage high-density file storage, working with up to 16 blade nodes under the control of Polyserve Matrix Server. It is able to store millions and petabytes of files - in my case some 300 millions (abt. 1.5 PB). Unfortunately, the ExDS9100 doesn't support the NDMP protocol.
Taking my file-archive characteristics into consideration, the best way would be to use a backup method based on progressive incrementals. Backup to tape.
So, how to back up this "Monster-Thing" effectively? Any ideas and real-life experience are very welcome.

Thanks in advance,
Michal

Wassermann,

The ExDS9100 nodes themselves are just RHEL. Therefore, you should be able to install backup agents directly on the nodes themselves. You should be able to create virtual hosts within PolyServe to provide HA to those agents. What backup software do you have or are considering?

I think you are on the right track with an "incremental forever" strategy. You could also break the data up and run several concurrent jobs through different blades. How many performance blocks do you have?

Of course the better question is, what is your RTO? How long would it take to restore all this data?

I used to work on the team that sold those, and backing up that muchdata was always the challenge. I know they were talking about using Ocarina to be able to replicate the data to another ExDS. Have you spoken with the hp team about this?