Data Domain: DDBoost Best Practices for Commvault v11

Best Practices for Data Domain Boost Access for CommVault version 11.30.x

• When using the Data Domain Boost Access library (comes with CommVault 11.30.x), CommVault recommend using Commvault deduplication and compression with backups.
  • With CV Dedupe and compression enabled customers can take advantage of their Dash Full
  • DD will perform Dedupe on CV Dedupe data to optimize more on savings.
• Keep all the Commvault data being written in the same format to maximize the space savings provided by the device level deduplication of the Data Domain, but this is not mandatory to enable CommVault Deduplication
  • Customers can disable CV Dedupe and Compression if CyberSense is expected to scan data.
• Enable Data Domain On-wire Encryption only.
  • To encrypt data between the Commvault servers and the Data Domain devices, enable the Encryption of data in flight through DD Boost option in the Data Domain console.
  • Do not enable encryption on backups in Commvault.
  • This prevents the Data Domain from further deduplicating the data written on the device side. If you need to use encryption of the data at rest, enable this feature on the Data Domain.
• Authentication Mode -Anonymous
  • For the best performance with Encryption of data in flight through DD Boost option, select anonymous authentication mode.

Deduplication Database Settings

• Set the value of the Do not Deduplicate against objects older than n day(s) option to 90 days if CV Deduplication is enabled. For more information, see Deduplication Database Properties - Settings.

Replication

• Enable Data Domain Mtree replication If you want to have multiple copies of data across two or more Data Domain devices, consider using the MTree Replication feature of Data Domain, because this is more efficient than performing auxiliary or DASH copies.

For other best practices, refer to Best Practices for Disk Libraries..

Capability Table

Summary: This table provides more granular level of capability metrics across CommVault and DDBoost
 

CommVault Tuning

Configuration	DDBoost Access	DDBoost Client	Notes
CV Default Block Size	512K	N/A
CV Deduplication DB	Yes	N/A	DDBoost Access: CV Dedupe Default Enabled However, CR scanning is not available. DDBoost Access:  CV Dedupe Disabled: CR Scanning is available however Synthetic Full is not recommended. DDBoost Client: All Deduplication is done by DDBoost DSP
CV Compression	No	No	DDBoost Access: CV Compression Default Enabled However, CR scanning is not available. Recommendation is enabling CV Compression if Secondary copy is non DD (e.g. Tape /cloud) Recommendation is disabling CV Compression if Secondary copy is DD (e.g. DD cloud Tier,)
CV Data Encryption	No	No	DD on -wire encryption can be enabled to secured data transfer over network to DD
Replication Type	Mtree	MFR
Retention Lock Mode	Governance or Compliance	Governance or Compliance
Client Installation Packages	Storage Accelerator	Media Agent Package additionally on client	DDBoost Access: if CV Client side dedupe is requirement. Media Agent package is required to installed on client system. DDBoost Client: Media Agent package is required to be installed on the client system due to Visual Studio version compatibility.
Secure Linux	Yes	Yes
CV magnetic max file size / chunk size optimal value /configurable		4GB	Default: 4GB However, CommVault don’t recommend tuning without consultation.
Do not deduplicate against chunks that are older than x days	Yes	N/A	DDBoost Access: Commvault recommends this for migrated libraries or newly created libraries. Refer Deduplication Database Properties - Settings

Converting a Data Domain Disk Library to a Data Domain Boost Access Library with CommVault 11.30

Step 1. CIFS/NFS Share and Data Domain Boost FS Disk Library

Step 2. Validating and Accessing the Storage Unit

You can convert a Data Domain Disk Library to a Data Domain Boost Access Library in the following ways:

For CIFS/NFS Share and BoostFS Disk Library

You can convert a CIFS/NFS share and BoostFS Mtree to a storage unit by running the following command on Data Domain System.
For more information, see Dell EMC® Data Domain® documentation.

#ddboost storage-unit modify (MTREE_NAME that you created) user (DDBoost-username-you-want)

For Data Domain Boost FS Disk Library
Note down the credentials used to create the storage unit.

Step 1.

#ddboost storage-unit modify (existing BoostFS MTREE_NAME ) user (DDBoost-username-you-want)

Step 2.
Execute the DiskLibMigration script by running the following command on CV MA
#qoperation execscript -sn DiskLibMigration -si <LIBRARY_ALIAS_NAME> -si <DEVICE_TYPE>

For example,
#qoperation execscript -sn DiskLibMigration -si 'dd_cifs_demo' -si 'DD Boost Access'

For more details, see DiskLibMigration

This action disables the mount path for writing new data. To allow write operations and pruning, navigate to the Allocation Policy tab on the Mount Path Properties dialog box, and then select Maximum Allowed Writers.

Validating and Accessing the Storage Unit

1. From the navigation pane, go to Storage > Disk.

The Disk page appears.

2. From the list, click the required disk.
3. On the Backup locations tab, click the required backup location.
4. In the Disk access paths table, under the Path column, click the path you want to edit.
5. Edit the following:
   1. Name
   2. IP address in the Data domain host box
   3. Storage unit name

Note: If the Data Domain Boost Disk Library is created using a folder under the storage unit, then enter the storage unit as Storage unit\Folder.

5. 4. Access type: Read or Read/Write
6. Click Save.

Enabling WORM
 
Note: You should enable the DD Retention lock option on the MTree in Data Domain Console prior to enabling WORM storage lock in CommCell Console.
With DataDomain Retention Lock manual is supported both for Governance and Compliance mode.
Note: DataDomain Automatic Retention Lock is not supported.

Configuration of Retention Lock

• Configure the WORM storage lock on the Data Domain Boost Storage Library.
• For more information, see Enabling WORM Storage and Retention for Disk Storage.
• The WORM lock days configured in Commvault storage pool should be set between the Retention period min and Retention period max values set in Data Domain Console under the DD Retention Lock setting. WORM Lock days is shown on the Storage Policy Copy Properties dialog box.
• The DD Retention Lock can be set to either Governance mode or Compliance mode.
• Data Domain Retention Lock setting to one day less than the retention set in Commvault and maximum retention to 2x+1 than the retention set in Commvault on the storage pool. For example, if the minimum retention in Commvault is 14 days, then set the minimum retention to 13 days and maximum retention to 29 days in Data Domain Console.
• For other best practices, refer to CommVault Best Practices for Disk Libraries