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Interesting Avamar upgrade
Hi there,
I have an interesting project at the moment where a customer has a old gen 2 and 3 Avamar cluster that is aging and needs replacing. There isn't a huge amount of cash on the table so I'm thinking about putting a Data Domain in place and redirecting backups to it them allowing the old backups to expire.
However they're using old Avamar running 6.x I don't believe it supports backup to Data Domain and the preference would be to upgrade all the software to take advantage of the source based deduplication like they have at the moment.
So the question is there a way to keep the old grid going while sending the backups to Data Domain?
Thanks in advance,
Ed
mradamk
215 Posts
1
January 21st, 2015 04:00
You may want to refer to the following link for ADMe which supports automated data migration from Avamar to tape, to cloud and from Avamar-A/GSAN to an Avamar-B with DD ensuring the target copies are stored in the DD.
https://community.emc.com/docs/DOC-7910
ADMe enables migrating a copy of a backup from an Avamar GSAN system to an Avamar/Griffin system ensuring the data is stored in the DD. Think of the Avamar/Griffin in this case as replacing the tape application when ADMe is used for tapeout. This process is not replication, it is purely a backup copy equivalent to performing tapeout therefore from a practical perspective time-wise, it can only act on selected backups perhaps one per month or per week etc.
The resulting migration provides file level recoveries directly from the Avamar-B/DD system in the same manner as recovering directly from tape so no need to import these to another Avamar/GSAN system or to reprocess it. The intended use case for this is to help a customers migrate their long term backups from a GSAN only system into a Avamar/DD system. ADMe supports the majority of plug-in types including file system, SQL, Exchange, NDMP etc…
The ADMe work flow first recovers the selected backups from Avamar-A to a staging disk area on a staging server and subsequently back it up into Avamar-B with the DD. I.E. Avamar-A -> Staging-Server -> Avamar-B -> DD
In order for this to be a fully automated end-to-end workflow Avamar-A must be at version 7.x as the staging server in the middle will in fact be activated to both Avamar’s at the same time. The prereq. for 7.x is to ensure the plug-in is compatible and aware of the functionality of being able use the DD as a target for file system which was first made available at 7.0. If it is not feasible to upgrade the source Avamar system to 7.x first, then you would need to switch the file system plug-in version manually on the staging server so less automation but the end result remains the same.
regards,
Adam
Nayaks1
77 Posts
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January 20th, 2015 19:00
Are they planning to get rid of the old hardware in due course of time ? or is the plan to keep a mix ?
-sanjay
Nayaks1
77 Posts
1
January 20th, 2015 19:00
also! the following discussion covers an important concept for you to consider when thinking about an AV-DD solution
Metadata for avamar integration w/data domain?
-sanjay
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 20th, 2015 23:00
I see what your saying here, the question off the back of this is, is it possible to upgrade the utility node to a newer generation either virtual or physical?
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 20th, 2015 23:00
The plan would be to get rid of them over time as the support costs are high.
Nayaks1
77 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
You mean getting a client backed up in 2 Avamars at the same time ? I don't know if there is a way to do that.
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
Great, what about restoring backups from the old environment?
Nayaks1
77 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
The client needs to be activated in the respected Avamar to restore backups
Nayaks1
77 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
Keep them coming...I'll tell you if I don't know the answer
The client can be activated in only one Avamar at a time.
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
Sorry excuse all the questions but can you have one client activated in two Avamar?
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
I sort of knew the answer before you said it, so do you think there is anyway if doing this?
Nayaks1
77 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 00:00
I'm not sure if I understand the question,but! You can setup a new AV-DD and migrate the clients to this setup gradually
edhoward
214 Posts
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January 21st, 2015 09:00
We meet again Mr Kirkpatrck, excellent response as always, so there is route here which is great news.
Thanks for your help.
Ed