STORServer Appliances and The Microsoft® Data Protection Server

From the inception of the STORServer’s Backup Appliance and the new Archive Appliance, we have implemented to meet the ever increasing demands of storage administrators world-wide. With hundreds of existing installations STORServer Appliances provide disk-based data protection for Windows, Unix, Linux, Novell, Mac, OpenVMS, AS/400, and other client platforms. So what does Data Protection Server (DPS), the newest member of the Microsoft ® Windows Server™ System family, do for our customers?

For the mid-range market using Windows Servers, the addition of the DPS offering to the STORServer Appliances brings unique capabilities to both existing and new Backup and Archive Appliance customers.

Unlike other vendor’s stand-alone non-integrated deployments, STORServer will be offering DPS with every STORServer appliance. This add-on feature will significantly complement and enhance the data protection capabilities of Windows Servers.

DPS runs transparently under the Windows Storage Server 2003 implementation of the STORServer Appliances and offers new capabilities to STORServer customers for their Windows Servers, including:

• Enhanced critical Windows Server platform data protection
• Replication option for Windows data
• Continuous data protection
• Dedicated Windows Server data protection disk pools
• Windows Application Interface and integration with Microsoft office tools and components
• TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) improvements

Customers with a STORServer Appliance protecting their multiple platform enterprises – including Unix, Linux, Novell, Mac O/S, and other servers – will not be required to deploy a separate Windows DPS solution for their enterprise. The DPS option will be seamlessly integrated with the STORServer backup, archive and disaster recovery storage pools, giving the Windows enterprise added features and benefits.

The deployment of DPS in the STORServer Appliances will be delivered with STORServer V3, identified on the STORServer roadmap, just months after the official release of DPS by Microsoft into the general marketplace.

V3 of the STORServer Appliances will offer Explorer integration for user backup and archive operations, greatly simplifying user functionality. DPS broadens that integration to the Windows Office level, specifically at the Windows application interface

DPS capabilities broaden both RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) time factors for the Windows based enterprise. This greatly enhances the Total Cost of Ownership for STORServer Appliances with DPS functionality.

The DPS Windows functionality offers a dedicated disk pool for critical file server data protection, while the rest of the Windows environment, and all other client platforms, can use the shared disk pool architecture of the standard STORServer appliances.

New Capabilities Offered in STORServers with DPS

• The DPS solution will be already integrated into the Appliance for customers buying the STORServer V3. The Appliance will come preconfigured and ready to deploy. New capabilities for STORServer V3 and DPS will include: The Full Server Recovery process available for server administrators – the bare metal restore process with DPS implemented in STORServers speeds up the re-build of Windows servers.
  
• Faster Disk Recovery for system administrators – because a replicated copy of critical disk volumes will be located on the STORServer DPS pool, customers can rapidly rebuild disk volumes by a simple copy. The latest “snapshot” of critical disk volumes will reside on the DPS pool. Versions extending for as many days and versions will still be available in the standard STORServer online pool, but the new DPS pool offers a quicker latest version restore.
  
• Quicker Byte-Level Backup Recovery – STORServer’s byte-level backups today require a rebuild of the files for restores, which is excellent service for workstation file rebuilds, but the DPS byte-level continuous backup adds critical server capability and very fast restore for STORServer customers. With DPS, the byte-level changes are applied during the replication.
  
• For critical servers and workstations where they can allocate 10-20% of their disk for local rebuilds in the case of network outage, the DPS’s design of local cache restore is a further data protection benefit.

Benefits to DPS Deployment on STORServer Appliances

The primary benefits to customers with STORServer V3 using DPS will be the media management and pool architecture of the appliances.

Rather than attach media (primarily tape) to a DPS server, and then manually organize and vault media for disaster recovery, the STORServer incorporates the DPS server into STORServer backup, archive and disaster recovery pools.

Disaster Recovery vaulting, whether electronically vaulted or checked out manually, will be managed by the STORServer’s patent pending appliance technology. Customers will have the added benefit of providing extended versioning and copies of incrementals and snapshots in the STORServer’s online pool with the added plus of a disaster recovery copy to the off-site DR pool; or, customers can simply create a disaster recovery copy to their DR pools.

The DPS pool management for both backups and archive, and for disaster recovery copies of DPS backups and archives, will not conflict or create duplicate activities for customers with multiple platforms. Enterprises with Unix, Linux, Novell, and all other servers, will still see a single pool management for online and off-site pools.

The incremental and continuous backup design of DPS merges transparently with the existing incremental nature of the STORServer Appliances.

The portability of STORServer’s pool media adds long-term stability and longevity to the backups of the DPS data. STORServer backup, archive and disaster recovery pools are able to migrate across media types over time without forcing a restore. The pool architecture also offers built-in refresh of data across media volumes in the pools, meeting IRS regulation 26 CFR 601.105.

Centralized media management with a STORServer appliance allows a customer to deploy the DPS capabilities without requiring a separate media or library purchases. DPS is integrated seamlessly with the STORServer pools, which are defined to tape, disk, or optical media options managed by the STORServer V3 operations.

Archive requirements are different from backup, and the STORServer’s archive technology adds point-in-time capture of both name sets and data which can be stored in archive packages. The naming description and expiration dates for these packets are designed for the longer term storage of archives. In addition, the STORServer builds in “shredding” of expired data.