ExaGrid-Veeam Combination Delivers Faster, More Consistent Backups
Meleski said that since nearly 100 percent of its environment is virtualized, YCCD decided to install Veeam to take advantage of its tight integration with the ExaGrid system. Veeam’s built-in source side data deduplication minimizes the amount of data sent over the network to the ExaGrid system. Once the data lands on the ExaGrid, the data is further reduced to minimize space.
“The ExaGrid system and Veeam work very well together. The data sent to the ExaGrid is already reduced through Veeam, and we’re still seeing nearly 10:1 data deduplication on the ExaGrid side,” he said. “And because only changed data is sent over the network when the two systems are replicating, transmission time is minimized.”
ExaGrid writes backups directly to a disk-cache Landing Zone, avoiding inline processing and ensuring the highest possible backup
performance, which results in the shortest backup window. Adaptive Deduplication performs deduplication and replication in parallel with backups for a strong recovery point (RPO). As data is being deduplicated to the repository, it can also be replicated to a second ExaGrid site or the public cloud for disaster recovery (DR).
“Prior to installing the ExaGrid system, we weren’t able to back up all our systems during off hours. Now, our backups are so fast and efficient that we’re able to complete some of our incrementals in less than 15 minutes at different times during the day and then replicate the data offsite at night,” Meleski said.
ExaGrid and Veeam can instantly recover a file or VMware virtual machine by running it directly from the ExaGrid appliance in the event that the file is lost, corrupted or encrypted or the primary storage VM becomes unavailable. This instant recovery is possible because of ExaGrid’s Landing Zone – a high-speed disk cache on the ExaGrid appliance that retains the most recent backups in their complete form. Once the primary storage environment has been brought back to a working state, the VM backed up on the ExaGrid appliance can then be migrated to primary storage for continued operation.