HP StorageWorks 6000 HP StorageWorks VLS and D2D Solutions Guide (AG306-96028, - Page 57

• Servers to back up are split across two physical networks which need independent access to the D2D. You must assign the virtual libraries to whichever port is on the network of the device to back up. • Separate data and management LANs are used, i.e., each server has a port for business network traffic and another for data backup. One port on the D2D can be used solely for GUI access with the other used for data transfer. • High Availability port - Both ports are used but are bonded to appear as a single port. This is the recommended configuration, there is no special switch configuration required other than to ensure that both Ethernet ports from the D2D are connected to the same switch. This mode sets up "bonded" network ports where both network ports are connected to the same physical switch and behave as one network port. This mode provides some level of load balancing across the ports and also port failover. Backup Server Networking When considering backup performance, consider the whole network. Any server acting as a backup server should be configured where possible with multiple network ports which are bonded in order to provide a fast connection to the LAN. Client servers (those that backup via a backup server) may connected with only a single port if backups are to be aggregated through the backup server. Ensure that no sub 1Gbit network components are in the backup path because this will significantly restrict backup performance. Fibre Channel SAN Two Fibre Channel ports are provided at 4Gbit. These should both be connected to a SAN switch which supports 4Gbit Fibre Channel. Virtual library devices are assigned to an individual interface; therefore, balancing virtual devices across both interfaces will ensure that one link is not saturated while the other is idle. Fibre Channel devices should be zoned on the switch to only be accessible from a single backup server device to ensures that other SAN events (such as the addition and removal of other Fibre Channel devices) do not cause unnecessary traffic to be sent to devices. It also ensures that SAN polling applications cannot reduce the performance of individual devices. Multiple Backup Streams The HP D2D Backup System performs best with multiple backup streams sent to it simultaneously. For example, a D2D4009i will back up data at approx 40 MB/s for a single stream; multiple streams can deliver an aggregate performance in excess of 80 MB/s. There are two ways that the D2D can be used to achieve multiple stream backups: • Several virtual library devices each with a single virtual tape drive receiving one backup stream each. Use this configuration if you are backing up multiple servers, each of which is a backup application "media server," which can directly connect to a virtual library target. Also use this configuration if you are backing up one or more servers but wish to keep the data backed up from each logically separate for easier management. • A single virtual library with multiple virtual tape drives (up to four on HP D2D4000 models) receiving backup jobs to each tape drive simultaneously. Use this configuration if you are backing up a single server (or multiple servers using a single "media server"), and you wish to achieve some deduplication of backup data across all of the HP StorageWorks VLS and D2D Solutions Guide 57