Hardware Specifications for Deduplication Two Partitioned Extended Mode

Deduplication Partitioned Extended mode configuration uses multiple MediaAgents (two to four, in a grid) to host multiple individual physical partitions (up to two deduplication databases (DDBs) per MediaAgent) of larger logical DDBs (up to two per grid). This configuration is typically used to increase the amount of FET or BET a single DDB can manage, or to allow extended/alternate retention of data in the primary DDB through a DASH-copy from the primary DDB to the secondary DDB, or to allow cross-site copies of data in a disaster recovery (DR) configuration.

For details on supported platforms, see Building Block Guide - Deduplication System Requirements.

You can use the deduplication partitioned extended mode in the following scenarios:

MediaAgent hosting the DDB of primary copy and secondary copy from two different sites.

Both primary and secondary copies data (usually from separate sources) access the same DDB MediaAgent. Usually as part of cross site DASH copy.

Long Term Retention

MediaAgent hosting two DDBs of primary and secondary copies with following retention settings:

Primary Copy - 90 day retention.
Secondary Copy - 1 to 5 years retention and DDB sealing is performed every year.

Long Term Retention

Two DDBs for Primary Copies per Grid

Protection of large amounts of unstructured data with incremental forever strategy.

In this scenario, MediaAgent hosts two DDBs of primary copy with 90 days retention.

Two DDBs for Primary Copies per Grid

Two DDBs for Secondary Copies per MediaAgent

Fan-in target for secondary copies from two or more DDB MediaAgents managing primary copies.

In this scenario, MediaAgent hosts two DDBs of secondary copies with 90 days retention.

Two DDBs for Secondary Copies per MediaAgent

The following table provides the hardware requirements for Extra Large and Large environments for deduplication partitioned extended mode. For Medium, Small and Extra Small environments, partitioned mode is not recommended.

Terms that is used in the following Hardware Requirements:

Deduplication Node - MediaAgent hosting the DDB.
Grid - The collection of the deduplication nodes.

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.
The TB values are base-2.
To achieve the required IOPs, please consult your hardware vendor for the most suitable configuration for your implementation.
It is recommended to use dedicated volumes for index cache disk and DDB disk.

Number of MediaAgents, Grid Backend Storage, and CPU/RAM

Components	Extra large	Large
Number of MediaAgents in Partitioned DDB	2	2
Grid Backend Storage^{2, 3}	Up to 1000 TB	Up to 600TB
CPU/RAM per node	16 cores, 128 GB (or 16 vCPUs/128 GB)	12 cores, 64 GB (or 12 vCPUs/64 GB)

Disk Layout per Node

Component	Extra large	Large
OS or Software Disk	400 GB SSD class disk	400 GB usable disk, min 4 spindles 15K RPM or higher OR SSD class disk
Deduplication Database (DDB) Disk 1 per node¹	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.	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.
Deduplication Database (DDB) Disk 2 per node¹	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.⁹ 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.⁹ See Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database
Suggested IOPS for each DDB Disk per node	20K dedicated Random IOPs⁵	15K dedicated Random IOPs⁵
Index Cache Disk per node^{1, 7, 8}	2 TB SSD Class Disk^{4, 6}	1 TB SSD Class Disk⁴

Suggested Workloads for Grid

Component	Extra large	Large
Parallel Data Stream Transfers	400	300
Laptop Clients	Up to 10000 per grid	Up to 5000 per grid
Front End Terabytes (FET)	Primary Copy Only - 220 TB to 320 TB FET Secondary Copy Only - 220TB to 320 TB FET Mix of Primary and Secondary Copy: 120 TB to 160 TB Primary FET AND 120 TB to 160 TB Secondary FET	Primary Copy Only - 120 TB to 260 TB FET Secondary Copy Only - 120 TB to 260 TB FET Mix of Primary and Secondary Copy: 80 TB to 120 TB Primary FET AND 80 TB to 120 TB Secondary FET
Primary Copy Only (OR) Secondary Copy Only for Grid	320 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files) 190 TB FET of VM data (mix of VSA on VMs and MediaAgent) 220 TB FET of VM and file data (mix of VSA on VMs and MediaAgent) Notes Assumes incremental forever strategy with periodic DASH fulls and staggered schedules Combination of above data types not to exceed 190 TB to 220 TB FET on the primary copies	260 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files)) 160 TB FET of VM data (mix of VSA on VMs and MediaAgent) 180 TB FET of VM and File Data (mix of files, and VSA on VMs and MediaAgent) Notes Assumes incremental forever strategy with periodic DASH fulls and staggered schedules Combination of above data types not to exceed 120 TB to 180 TB FET on the primary copies
Mixed Primary and Secondary Copy for entire Grid	Primary Copy 160 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files) 120 TB FET for VMs and files (mix of files with VSA on MediaAgent, and multiple VMs with VSA) 120 TB FET for databases or applications Secondary Copy 100-150 TB FET originating from primary copy of another deduplication database	Primary Copy 140 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files) 100 TB FET for VMs and files (mix of files with VSA on MediaAgent, and multiple VMs with VSA) 90 TB FET for databases or applications Secondary Copy 60-120 TB FET originating from primary copy of another deduplication database

Supported Targets

Component	Extra large	Large
Tape Drives	Not Recommended	Not Recommended
Disk Storage without Commvault Deduplication	Not Recommended	Not Recommended
Deduplication Disk Storage	Up to 1000 TB, direct attached or NAS	Up to 600 TB, direct attached or NAS
Third-Party Deduplication Appliances	Not recommended	Not Recommended
Cloud Storage	Yes Primary copy on Disk and secondary copy on Cloud	Yes Primary copy on Disk and secondary copy on Cloud
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

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 back end capacity remains the same.
SSD class disk indicates PCIe based cards or internal dedicated endurance value drives. We recommend to use MLCs (Multi-Level Cells) class or better SSDs.
Recommend dedicated RAID 1 or RAID 10 group.
Recommendation for unstructured data types like files, VMs and granular messages. Structured data types like application and databases require considerably 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.
For Linux, host the DDB on LVM volumes. This helps DDB Backups by using LVM software for snapshots. It is recommended to use thin provisioned LV for DDB volumes to get better Query-Insert performance during the DDB backups.

Tuning Performance When Using a Partitioned Deduplication Database