Ask the Expert: EMC ProtectPoint: Storage Integrated Data Protection for Your Mission Critical Applications

Hi folks,

To kick discussion, here are few questions:

a) is there a plan to integrate control or (at least) management plane with backup application in future?

b) in case you see rollover of snapshot from DD to tape, how is this done?

c) in case of loss of control plane data on the application host, how is this restored?

d) if my PRD tier is on VMAX and TST tier on another type of primary storage, I assume I can't utilize ProtectPoint as I would do it with backup application integrated with snapshots - what is the model to be used here?

e) I assume PP configuration data on application host is handled as admin/root user? What kind of security models can be set there?

Hi Simon,

Thank you for response. I assume a) and b) and d) data movement might become part of future integration and development of ViPR modular suit (as it was with ViPR that separation of planes started to be focus).  I think those who already use hybrid backup approach (integration with snapshots) certainly will welcome ProtectPoint as, in my personal view, it addresses following points:

• time which previous backup modules (PowerSnap at least) spent of metadata processing prior and post backup took more time than necessary.  This might not be always fault of platform as much as how this process was designed as I could have done certain things more efficient with script.
• as you mentioned in a), in certain cases you may need certain CG to be snapped/backed up at the same time which due to pre-work was not possible using backup application. It is not yet clear to me if this is possible with ProtectPoint, but it sounds you are headed that way.
• data plane is obviously important and just as DD Boost enabled hosts to communicate with appliance directly, this goes into next step where data flow uses storage array to storage array communication (and uses minimized data traffic as it is possible to utilize it today with VMware)
• perhaps biggest issue in my view was metadata. Typically in this setup you do meet big data databases (perhaps not big by everyone's standard, but certainly not small) which with backup translates to big stream management for which backup application database is not fit (at least not without recoding or change of DB model).  So shift in that area is welcome and assuming management plane will be included in backup application, I look forward to see how this space develops.

As a long time user of PowerSnap with Symmetrix I would like to see ability to use this product with backup application for sure. Which brings me back to my next question: if I understood correctly control plane is based on local configuration on the application host. I assume that supports RAC and OS based clusters as well?  And most importantly, is there central tool from where configuration per host (or changes to host configuration) can be done or do we need to connect to each host individually?