How Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager and Veritas NetBackup Enable Off-Host Backups

Data protection is a critical business concern. However, increasingly stringent demands are stretching the limits of traditional host-based backup and recovery methods, which often cannot meet enterprise requirements for reduced backup windows, high performance, and rapid recovery.

Off-host backups, in which backup processing is offloaded to a separate system, can help reduce or eliminate the performance and availability impact of backups on production environments. The Veritas^TM  NetBackup^TM  6.5 data management tool from Symantec works with Dell^TM  EqualLogic^TM  Auto-Snapshot Manager and Microsoft^®  Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to support fast, reliable off-host backups of Microsoft application data stored on Dell EqualLogic PS Series Internet SCSI (iSCSI) storage area network (SAN) arrays.

The off-host approach requires that backup applications have access to application-consistent, point-in-time snapshots of application data. Microsoft VSS enables the creation of these snapshots of NT File System (NTFS), Microsoft Exchange, and Microsoft SQL Server® application data, which Veritas NetBackup and Dell EqualLogic Auto-Snapshot Manager can then use to support off-host backup and recovery. Veritas NetBackup 6.5 also includes features designed to simplify and streamline backup and recovery operations, such as built-in data life cycle policies and comprehensive security and management capabilities, while EqualLogic PS Series arrays support automated load balancing and storage virtualization to help optimize scalability and performance. Together, these tools can help organizations enhance business continuity, increase application performance, and streamline the management of data protection and recovery.

By Sarah Doherty and Troy Lehman

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