Cloud Backup - Commvault v11 / IT-GRAD Blog

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Constantly changing requirements for cloud infrastructure lead to the need to develop new business models and create architectural solutions to improve data security and improve manageability of the infrastructure.

Today we want to talk about Commvault v11 - a solution for managing data and organizing backup and recovery of data in the cloud of the IaaS provider. We will discuss platform components and consider possible scenarios for using Commvault.

Commvault v11 is a software and hardware independent platform that performs the following tasks: backing up data and virtual environments, monitoring virtual infrastructure, archiving data, databases, etc.

The main components of Commvault v11 are CommServe, ContentStore, Data Agent, and Media Agent. CommServe is a management server, and ContentStore is a single set of storage resources, which include storage systems, cloud storage, file servers, tape drives. The name Agent is an agent for applications and file systems that can compress, deduplicate, and encrypt data on the source, and as for the Media Agent component, it is an agent that accepts the data stream coming from the Data Agent.

According to the supplier, in Commvault v11 the approach to data protection and management remained the same, however, new features appeared and functionality expanded.

The concept of “Role Based Security” was introduced. Role-based security goes beyond restricting traditional users and security groups.

Now the following entities appeared in the service:

• User or user group;
• Roles - define a set of permissions without reference to a specific user or group of users;
• An object is a component that binds a user (group) to the corresponding role.

This division allows the user (or group of users) to have different permissions, depending on what his role in the activities of a particular object.



Suppose a user needs permissions to perform backup and recovery on a file server and permission to restore mail server data. In this case, the user is associated with the file server object, and the "restore" / "backup" role is defined for it. Then the same user is attached to the mail server object and receives the "restore" role.

It should further be noted that Commvault v11 introduced the concept of “indexing a new generation of v2.” Newly acquired functionality reduces the size of indexed files located in the cache and repositories.



Indexing v2 works as follows: indexed data is placed in the index database. One index database manages the records of all objects within the backup set. Therefore, all subclients, and therefore all data sets for backup and settings within the same backup set, are written to the same index database.

The third feature of the new version is "content-based deduplication." Commvault supports deduplication based on database and log content. Application databases often use built-in compression, which compresses the blocks before Commvault generates the signatures of these blocks. Application-level compression causes inconsistent blocks to be deduplicated several times when starting a backup.



Using Commvault compression during backup instead of compression using application tools, the application agent determines that the database backup process has started and then “signs” the uncompressed data. After signing, the data block is compressed. This leads to improved deduplication rates.

It is also known that log files are constantly updated with new information and replace old data with new ones. Since this is an ongoing process, deduplication does not provide a gain in terms of saving disk space. However, during the start of the log backup process, the application agent is able to determine that there is a backup of the log files in front of it - in this case, it will not issue signatures, which significantly saves memory and processor resources.

In addition, the changes affected storage policies, disk and tape libraries, and a new interface appeared in the form of an administration console with virtualization support. Additionally, it became possible to manage virtual machines based on the Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor and password-protect files and shared folders. These and other features of Commvault v11 can be found in the official manuals ( here and here ).

Commvault solutions can help you meet your growing business needs, eliminating the cost and complexity of your organization. It’s not for nothing that, according to the results of Gartner, Commvault’s decision hitsin the quadrant of leaders in the Enterprise backup and integrated appliance study. Next, let's look at the three main use cases for Commvault.

Backup or archive to the cloud

Several options are possible here. The first is offsite storage, when it is not necessary to restore data to the cloud, but if necessary, this option is provided. The second is a direct connection to the storage object, and the third is the situation when the target storage object is provided by a public IaaS provider or service provider as part of the BaaS service.

Cloud Disaster Recovery

When using the Off-site Storage Requirement & Cloud DR Site in the Cloud scenario, the cloud infrastructure is used only in case of DR events, which saves time and money (as part of the IaaS, DRaaS service).

In the case of the VM Provisioning scenario, the client uses its own tools to deploy virtual machines in the cloud until they are restored.

Cloud protection

Commvault v11 provides recovery of active workloads and data within the vendor’s external cloud. Among possible use cases, data protection in the context of workloads should be highlighted here. In this case, protection of active workflows (Production, Dev / Test) is provided within the existing IaaS cloud.

Another scenario is copying to another cloud or onpremis, when data is fully mobile and replicated to a geographically remote site of an IaaS provider, sites of various IaaS providers, or back to the customer’s site.

In conclusion, I would like to add that the Commvault v11 platform provides a unified approach to managing data, which is one of the main business assets of companies. Using flexible integrated data management, Commvault v11 is responsible for organizing  backup and disaster recovery of data in the cloud of the service provider, guarantees the protection of cloud platforms and controls the work processes in the cloud.