Celestra Power

Has Your Backup Window Slammed Shut?

Free Your Enterprise from the Impact of Backup Operations

Celestra Power delivers live, serverless, LAN-free backup, providing your data centers with the ability to protect storage assets without impacting application server and LAN performance. Managed by NetWorker 6.x in DAS and SAN environments, Celestra Power enables you to achieve 24x7 high-performance application access and fail-safe data protection by eliminating the need for a backup window.

Extending NetWorker functionality, Celestra Power moves data live at a block level - directly from disk to tape - bypassing critical LAN and server CPU and I/O resources. Data travels at high-speed using a copy command (Celestra Data Mover) that resides on a separate low-end server, freeing application servers from the strain of backup processing. Storage assets are protected, application performance remains strong, and user productivity thrives.


Features & Benefits

Flexible, Scalable, Standards-based Solution

    Readily implemented in direct-attached storage environments and SANs

    Supports Oracle 7.3- 8i databases with Celestra Module for Oracle (CMO), non-database files systems and raw partitions


Eliminates Need for Backup Window!

    Ideal for 24/7 data intensive, high demand enterprise environments

    Backup often, at anytime, without impacting application or network performance

    Regain hundreds to thousands of hours of lost productivity

    Reduce data loss exposure in event of disaster


Live, Serverless, LAN-free Backup

    Direct disk-to-tape data transfer

    Offloads LAN, CPU and I/O resources

    Reduces CPU and I/O consumption by 97%


High-Availability Clustering and Multipathing Co-Existence

Optimally Efficient Image-Level Backup

    Backs up only populated blocks

    Incrementally backs up only changed blocks, not entire file


Industry's Highest Data-Transfer Rates

    Leveraging high-performance tape drives

    Fully streams tape drives without multiplexing


Reduces Downtime Costs via High-Speed Restore

    Full, directory, individual file restore

    Direct tape-to-disk full image restore

    Dramatically cuts restore times


Supported Platforms

    Solaris 2.6-7 and 8, HP-UX 11.0

    Online JFS 3.3


Details

For many businesses, data has become the most valuable asset and protecting it is vital. The storage volumes generated in a Fortune 1000 enterprise often amount to terabytes and are rising steadily. IT organizations are also returning to a centralized storage model to provide better information access and management. If not backed up locally, copying large amounts of data across a LAN can fully consume bandwidth. Backup operations can also saturate server CPU and I/O resources, significantly diminishing application performance. This has created a need for backup operations to generally occur during off-peak periods - the so-called "backup window." In today's anytime, eBusiness environment, high-performance network and application access has reached a 24/7 requirement. The backup window has slammed shut.

Fully managed by NetWorker, Celestra Power is a standards-based client agent that frees network and server resources from the impact of backup and restore operations - eliminating the need for a backup window!

NetWorker directs Celestra Power via NDMP (Network Data Management Protocol) to backup a specific filesystem(s). Celestra Power syncs the filesystem, takes a snapshot, and builds a filesystem block list. Meta data is also collected and forwarded to NetWorker to build an index. The block list is then sent to an external copy command called a Celestra Data Mover which reads the blocks from disk and writes them directly to tape, bypassing the LAN and application host(s).

With Celestra Power, data is backed up live (applications remain online with no user lockout!) and with optimum efficiency. During full backups, only populated blocks are copied to tape, not the entire image. Termed "sparse," Celestra Power skips over null, unused blocks. By reducing backup volume sizes, backups are complete with less tape consumption when compared to other serverless backup products

During incrementals, only changed blocks are backed up, not the entire file(s). Lengthy delays traversing a file system to identify changes are also avoided as Celestra Power continuously records all subsequent block changes for quick, instant reference upon backup.

By further enabling backup operations to be completed faster, enterprises have greater flexibility in fulfilling data protection requirements and service level demands. In the event of disaster, a full image, directory, or individual file can be readily restored.

Celestra Power can be readily implemented on 32 and 64bit Solaris or HP-UX platforms using direct SCSI- or Fibre-attached storage and Storage Area Networks (SANs). With NetWorker and Celestra Power, today's enterprise can now fully protect storage assets without impacting application performance. Has the backup window slammed shut in your business environment?

      Meta Data
 Power Agent
    Fibre or SCSI
    SCSI
    Fibre


1. NetWorker 6.x begins backup (mulitiple backups can be run simutaneously).

2. Celestra Power takes snapshot of file system, builds block list, then sends list to Celestra Data Mover. Meta data is sent to NetWorker.

3. Celestra Data Mover copies blocks from disk directly to tape at optimal streaming speeds. A full image restore is copied from tape directly to disk, bypassing the file system. For file/directory restores, Celestra Power requests Data Mover to read tape (one pass) and send it the appropriate blocks, which are then written to disk.

Celestra Data Mover

The Celestra Data Mover application provides Copy Command functionality when driven by Celestra Power in conventional direct-attached and SAN storage environments.

Celestra Data Mover is installed on a dedicated low-end UNIX workstation or server equipped with Fibre Channel or SCSI host adapters. During backup (or restore) operations, the Celestra Data Mover copies blocks of data specified by Celestra Power directly from disk to tape at ultra-high speed, bypassing valuable LAN, CPU, and server I/O resources.

Celestra Data Mover provides homogeneous support for Solaris or HP-UX platform environments. To provide high speed, low impact data movement for mixed Solaris/HP-UX environments, simply add a second workstation installed with Celestra Data Mover.