Data Domain: Creating a DD Boost Protocol Storage Unit Using UI or CLI

A Storage Unit is an MTree configured for the DD Boost protocol. Data isolation is achieved by creating a Storage Unit and assigning it to a DD Boost user. The DD Boost protocol permits access only to Storage Units assigned to DD Boost users connected to the system.

You can use MTrees for CIFS shares, DD Boost storage units, DD VTL pools, or NFS exports. MTrees allow granular management of snapshots, quotas, and DD Retention Lock.

In the protection system, storage units that you create are exposed to backup applications that use the DD Boost protocol. For Veritas applications, storage units are viewed as disk pools. For NetWorker, storage units are viewed as logical storage units (LSUs). A storage unit is an MTree; it supports MTree quota settings. (Do not create an MTree in place of a storage unit.)

Creating a storage unit with the UI

You must create at least one storage unit on the protection system, and a DD Boost user must be assigned to that storage unit. Use the Storage Units tab to create a storage unit.

Each storage unit is a top-level subdirectory of the /data/col1 directory; there is no hierarchy among storage units.

Steps:

1. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units.
2. Click Create (+). The Create Storage Unit dialog box is displayed.
3. Enter the storage unit name in the Name box.

Each storage unit name must be unique. Storage unit names can be up to 50 characters. The following characters are acceptable:

• Upper-case and lower-case alphabetical characters: A-Z, a-z
• Numbers: 0-9
• Embedded space

• Comma (,)
• Period (.), if it does not precede the name
• Exclamation mark (!)
• Number sign (#)
• Dollar sign ($)
• Percent sign (%)
• Plus sign (+)
• At sign (@)
• Equal sign (=)
• Ampersand (&)
• Semicolon (;)
• Parenthesis [(and)]
• Square brackets ([and])
• Curly brackets ({and})
• Caret (^)
• Tilde (~)
• Apostrophe (unslanted single quotation mark)
• Single slanted quotation mark (')
• Minus sign (-)
• Underscore (_)

4. To select an existing username that has access to this storage unit, select the username in the dropdown list. If possible, select a username with management role privileges set to none.
5. To create and select a new username that has access to this storage unit, select Create a new Local User and:
   1. Enter the new username in the User box. The user must be configured in the backup application to connect to the protection system.
   2. Enter the password twice in the appropriate boxes.

6. To set storage space restrictions to prevent a storage unit from consuming excess space, enter either a soft or hard limit quota setting, or both a hard and soft limit.

7. Click Create.
8. Repeat the above steps for each DD Boost-enabled system.

Viewing storage unit information

From the DD Boost Storage Units tab, you can select a storage unit and access the Storage Unit, Space Usage, Daily Written, and Data Movement tabs for the selected storage unit.

Storage Unit tab

The Storage Unit tab shows detailed information for a selected storage unit in its Summary and Quota panels. The Snapshot panel shows snapshot details, allows you to create new snapshots and schedules, and provides a link to the Data Management > Snapshots tab.

• The Summary panel shows summarized information for the selected storage unit.

Summary Item	Description
Total Files	The total number of file images on the storage unit. For compression details that you can download to a log file, click the Download Compression Details link. The generation can take up to several minutes. After it has completed, click Download.
Full Path	/data/col1/filename
Status	R: Read; W: Write; Q: Quota defined
Pre-Comp Used	The amount of precompressed storage already used

 

• The Quota panel shows quota information for the selected storage unit.

Quota item	Description
Quota Enforcement	Enabled or disable  Clicking Quota takes you to the Data Management > Quota tab where you can configure quotas.
Pre-Comp Soft Limit	Current value of soft quota set for the storage unit
Pre-Comp Hard Limit	Current value of hard quota set for the storage unit
Quota Summary	Percentage of Hard Limit used.

To modify the precompressed soft and hard limits shown in the tab:

1. Click the Quota link in the Quota Panel.
2. In the Configure Quota dialog box, enter values for hard and soft quotas and select the unit of measurement; MiB, GiB, TiB, or PiB. Click OK.

• Snapshots

The Snapshots panel shows information about the storage unit’s snapshots.

Item	Description
Total Snapshots	The total number of snapshots created for this MTree  A total of 750 snapshots can be created for each MTree.
Expired	The number of snapshots in this MTree that have been marked for deletion, but have not been removed with the clean operation as yet.
Unexpired	The number of snapshots in this MTree that are marked for keeping.
Oldest Snapshot	The date of the oldest snapshot for this MTree
Newest Snapshot	The date of the newest snapshot for this MTree
Next Scheduled	The date of the next scheduled snapshot
Assigned Snapshot Schedules	The name of the snapshot schedule assigned to this MTree

Using the Snapshots panel, you can:

• Assign a snapshot schedule to a selected storage unit:

• Create a new schedule:

• Select when the schedule is to be run: Weekly, every day (or selected days), monthly on specific days that you select by clicking that date in the calendar, or on the last day of the month. Click Next.
• Enter the time of the day when the schedule is to be run: Either select At Specific Times or In Intervals.

• Enter the retention period for the snapshots in days, months, or years. Click Next.
• Review the Summary of your configuration. Click Back to edit any of the values. Click Finish to create the schedule.

• Click the Snapshots link to go to the Data Management > Snapshots tab.

Space Usage tab

The Space Usage tab graph displays a visual representation of data usage for the storage unit over time.

• Click a point on a graph line to display a box with data at that point.
• Click Print (at the bottom on the graph) to open the standard Print dialog box.
• Click Show in a new window to display the graph in a new browser window.

There are two types of graph data displayed: Logical Space Used (Pre-Compression) and Physical Capacity Used (Post-Compression)

Daily Written tab

The Daily Written view contains a graph that displays a visual representation of data that is written daily to the system over a period of time, selectable from 7 to 120 days. The data amounts are shown over time for pre- and post-compression amounts.

Data Movement tab

A graph in the same format as the Daily Written graph that shows the amount of disk space moved to Cloud Tier storage (if the Cloud Tier license is enabled).

Modifying a storage unit

Use the Modify Storage Unit dialog to rename a storage unit, select a different existing user, create and select a new user, and edit quota settings.

Steps

1. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units.
2. In the Storage Unit list, select the storage unit to modify.
3. Click the pencil icon. The Modify Storage Unit dialog appears.
4. To rename the storage unit, edit the text in the Name field.
5. To select a different existing user, select the username in the drop-down list. If possible, select a username with management role privileges set to none.
6. To create and select a new user, select Create a new Local User and do the following:
   1. Enter the new username in the User box. The user must be configured in the backup application to connect to the protection system.
   2. Enter the password twice in the appropriate boxes.

7. Edit the Quota Settings as needed. To set storage space restrictions to prevent a storage unit from consuming excess space: Enter either a soft or hard limit quota setting, or both a hard and soft limit. With a soft limit, an alert is sent when the storage unit size exceeds the limit, but data can still be written to it. Data cannot be written to the storage unit when the hard limit is reached.

8. Click Modify.

Renaming a storage unit

Use the Modify Storage Unit dialog to rename a storage unit. Renaming a storage unit changes the name of the storage unit while retaining its:

• Username ownership
• Stream limit configuration
• Capacity quota configuration and physical reported size
• AIR association on the local protection system

Steps

1. Go to Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units.
2. In the Storage Unit list, select the storage unit to rename.
3. Click the pencil icon. The Modify Storage Unit dialog appears.
4. Edit the text in the Name field.
5. Click Modify.

Deleting a storage unit

Use the Storage Units tab to delete a storage unit from your protection system.
Deleting a storage unit removes the storage unit, and any images contained in the storage unit, from your system.

Steps

1. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units.
2. Select the storage unit to be deleted from the list.
3. Click Delete (X).
4. Click OK. Results The storage unit is removed from your system. You must also manually remove the corresponding backup application catalog entries.

Undeleting a storage unit

Use the Storage Units tab to undelete a storage unit.
About this task Undeleting a storage unit recovers a previously deleted storage unit, including its:

• Username ownership
• Stream limit configuration
• Capacity quota configuration and physical reported size
• AIR association on the local protection system

Steps

1. Select Protocols > DD Boost > Storage Units > More Tasks > Undelete Storage Unit.
2. In the Undelete Storage Units dialog box, select the storage unit that you want to undelete.
3. Click OK.

CLI commands 

To list storage units, use the following command: 

# ddboost storage-unit show

To create a new user, use the following command: 

# user add user 

To create a new storage unit with user, use the following command:

# ddboost storage-unit create storage-unit user user 

A Storage Unit is an MTree configured for the DD Boost protocol. Data isolation is achieved by creating a Storage Unit and assigning it to a DD Boost user. The DD Boost protocol permits access only to Storage Units assigned to DD Boost users connected to the system.

You can use MTrees for CIFS shares, DD Boost storage units, DD VTL pools, or NFS exports. MTrees allow granular management of snapshots, quotas, and DD Retention Lock.

In the protection system, storage units that you create are exposed to backup applications that use the DD Boost protocol. For Veritas applications, storage units are viewed as disk pools. For NetWorker, storage units are viewed as logical storage units (LSUs). A storage unit is an MTree; it supports MTree quota settings. (Do not create an MTree in place of a storage unit.)

MultiUser DD Boost and Storage Units in SMT
When using MultiUser DD Boost with Secure Multitenancy (SMT), user permissions are set by Storage Unit ownership.

MultiUser DD Boost indicates the use of multiple DD Boost user credentials for DD Boost Access Control, in which each user has a separate username and password.

A Storage Unit is an MTree configured for the DD Boost protocol. A user can be associated with, or "own," one or more Storage Units. Storage Units that are owned by one user cannot be owned by another user. Only the user owning the Storage Unit can access the Storage Unit for any type of data access, such as backup and restore. The number of DD Boost usernames cannot exceed the maximum number of MTrees. (See the "MTrees" chapter in this book for the current maximum number of MTrees for each model.) Storage Units that are associated with SMT must have the none role that is assigned to them.

Each backup application must authenticate using its DD Boost username and password. After authentication, DD Boost verifies the authenticated credentials to confirm ownership of the Storage Unit. The backup application is granted access to the Storage Unit only if the user credentials that are presented by the backup application match the username associated with the Storage Unit. If user credentials and username do not match, the job fails with a permission error.