Hardware Specifications for Deduplication Mode

The following are the hardware requirements for MediaAgent for Tape, Disk, Cloud, Deduplication Database, and Index Cache. For details on supported platforms, see Building Block Guide - Deduplication System Requirements.

Important

The following hardware requirements are applicable for MediaAgents with deduplication. The requirements do not apply for tape libraries or MediaAgents without deduplication or using third party deduplication applications.
The suggested workloads are not software limitations, rather design guidelines for sizing under specific conditions.
For large data sets that exceed the suggested capacity, group the similar data type agents for backups, such as file system agents, database agents and so on.
The TB values are base-2.
To achieve the required IOPs, please consult your hardware vendor for the most suitable configuration for your implementation.
The index cache disk recommendation is for unstructured data types like files, VMs and granular messages. Structured data types like application, databases and so on need significantly less index cache. The recommendations given are per MediaAgent.
It is recommended to use dedicated volumes for index cache disk and DDB disk.

Hardware Requirements

Components	Extra large	Large	Medium	Small	Extra small
Backend Size^{2, 3}	Up to 250 TB	Up to 150 TB	Up to 75 TB	Up to 50 TB	Up to 25 TB
CPU/RAM¹¹	16 CPU cores, 128 GB RAM (or 16 vCPUs/128 GB)	12 CPU cores, 64 GB RAM (or 12 vCPUs/64 GB)	8 CPU cores, 32 GB RAM (or 8 vCPUs/32 GB)	4 CPU cores, 24 GB RAM (or 4 vCPUs/24 GB)	2 CPU cores, 16 GB RAM (or 2 vCPUs/16 GB)
OS or Software Disk	400 GB SSD class disk	400 GB usable disk, min 4 spindles 15K RPM or higher OR SSD class disk	400 GB usable disk, min 4 spindles 15K RPM	300 GB usable disk, min 2 spindles 15K RPM	200 GB usable disk, min 2 spindles 15K RPM
Deduplication Database (DDB) Disk	2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package. See, Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database.	1.2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package. See, Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database.	600 GB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package. See, Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database.	400 GB usable, min 4 spindles, 15K RPM or higher⁵ For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package. See, Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database.	200 GB usable, min 2 spindles, 15K RPM or higher5 For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package. See, Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database.
Suggested IOPS for DDB Disk¹²	20K dedicated Random IOPS⁵	15K dedicated Random IOPS⁵	5K dedicated Random IOPS⁵	400+ IOPS	200+ IOPS
Index Cache Disk^{1, 7, 8}	2 TB SSD Class Disk^{4, 7}	1 TB SSD Class Disk⁴	1 TB local disk space with 400+ random IOPs	400 GB local disk space with 200+ random IOPS	400 GB local disk space with 200+ random IOPS

Suggested Workloads

Components	Extra large	Large	Medium	Small	Extra small
Parallel Data Stream Transfers	300	200	100	50	25
Laptop Clients	5000	2500	1500	500	200
Front End Terabytes (FET)¹²	110 TB to 150 TB	60 TB to 125 TB	30 TB to 60 TB	10 TB to 30 TB	5 TB to 15 TB
Network backups	120 TB FET files (includes OnePassTM for files) 100 TB FET for multiple Virtual Machines (VMs) with Virtual Server Agent (VSA) 90 TB FET for databases or applications Note Combination of above data types not to exceed 100 TB FET	100 TB FET files (includes OnePass for files) 80 TB FET for multiple VMs with VSA 60 TB FET for databases or applications Note Combination of above data types not to exceed 80 TB FET	50 TB FET files (includes OnePass for files) 30 TB FET for multiple VMs with VSA 25 TB FET for database or applications Note Combination of above data types not to exceed 30 TB FET	25 TB FET files (includes OnePass for files) 20 TB FET for multiple VMs with VSA 10 TB FET for databases or applications Note Combination of above data types not to exceed 20 TB FET	10 TB FET files (includes OnePass for files) 10 TB FET for multiple VMs with VSA 5 TB FET for databases or applications Note Combination of above data types not to exceed 10 TB FET
LAN free backups	50 TB FET for VMs with VSA on MediaAgent, 50 TB FET mixed network backup including VMs with VSA⁹ 50 TB FET with proxy for IntelliSnap, 50 TB FET of mixed network backups	40 TB FET for VMs with VSA on MediaAgent, 40 TB FET mixed network backup including VMs with VSA 40 TB FET with proxy for IntelliSnap, 40 TB FET of mixed network backups	20 TB FET VMs with VSA on MediaAgent, 10 TB FET mixed network backup including VMs with VSA 20 TB FET with proxy for IntelliSnap, 10 TB FET of mixed network backups	NA	NA

Supported Targets

Components	Extra large	Large	Medium	Small	Extra small
Disk Storage without Commvault Deduplication	Maximum supported by storage controller/HBA	Maximum supported by storage controller/HBA	Maximum supported by storage controller/HBA	Maximum supported by storage controller/HBA	Maximum supported by storage controller/HBA
Commvault Deduplication Disk Storage	Up to 250 TB, direct attached (OR) NAS	Up to 150 TB, direct attached (OR) NAS	Up to 75 TB, direct attached (OR) NAS	Up to 50 TB, direct attached (OR) NAS	Up to 25 TB, direct attached (OR) NAS
Third-Party Deduplication Appliances	Not supported with Commvault Deduplication	Yes Exception: Some functionality might be limited, e.g., Synthetic Fulls	Yes Exception: Some functionality might be limited, e.g., Synthetic Fulls	Yes Exception: Some functionality might be limited, e.g., Synthetic Fulls	Yes Exception: Some functionality might be limited, e.g., Synthetic Fulls
Cloud Storage
Deploying MediaAgent on Cloud / Virtual Environments	Yes For AWS or Azure Sizing, see the following guides: Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Amazon Web Services Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Azure	Yes For AWS or Azure Sizing, see the following guides: Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Amazon Web Services Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Azure	Yes, follow vCPU recommendations	Yes, follow vCPU recommendations	Yes, follow vCPU recommendations

Footnotes

It is recommended to use dedicated volumes for index cache disk and DDB disk.
Maximum size per DDB.
Assumes standard retention of up to 90 days. Larger retention will affect FET managed by this configuration, the backend capacity remains the same.
SSD class disk indicates PCIe based cards or internal dedicated endurance value drives with dedicated RAID 1 or RAID 10 group.
Recommend dedicated RAID 1 or RAID 10 group.
When multiple DDBs are on the volume, each DDB needs dedicated IOPs. IOPs may be limited by SAN controller even though SSD drives are used. We recommend to use MLCs (Multi-Level Cells) class or better SSDs.
Recommendation for unstructured data types like files, VMs and granular messages. Structured data types like application, databases and so on need significantly less index cache.
To improve the indexing performance, it is recommended that you store your index data on a solid-state drive (SSD). The following agents and cases require the best possible indexing performance:
- Exchange Mailbox Agent
- Virtual Server Agents
- NAS filers running NDMP backups
- Backing up large file servers
- SharePoint Agents
- Ensuring maximum performance whenever it is critical
The index cache directory must be on a local drive. Network drives are not supported.
Assumes weekly full backups are run.
Assumes latest generation CPU architecture.
Front-End Terabytes (FET): Size of the data (for example, files, database, and mailboxes) on the client computer that have to be backed up.