Auto-scaling is critical for recovery, especially for large-scale recoveries. Auto-scaling allocates resources dynamically, based on demand, preventing resource bottlenecks and optimizing performance. It then decommissions access nodes when they're not needed. When you need to use use auto recovery in a disaster scenario, where the volume of data and the number of workloads to restore can vary significantly, auto-scaling ensures that the necessary computing and storage resources are available, without provisioning more than you need.
Supported Operations and Regions
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Auto-scaling for is supported for most data protection operations. Only restores of guest files and instance files don't use auto-scaling.
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Auto-scaling is supported for all commercial AWS Regions. Edge locations (such as GovCloud, AWS Outposts, Local Zones, and Wavelength Zones) are not supported.
Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) Used for Auto-Scaled Access Nodes
The software creates the auto-scaled access nodes by cloning an Amazon Machine Image (AMI). Commvault provides a version of the following AMIs for each platform release. To use these images, subscribe to them on AWS Marketplace. The AMIs are deployed for each AWS Region that has instances that reside in the AWS account.
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Commvault Cloud Access Node ARM BYOL: Amazon Linux AWS Graviton (ARM 64-bit)
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Commvault Cloud Access Node BYOL: Red Hat Enterprise Linux
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Commvault Cloud - Access Node for Microsoft 365 BYOL: Windows Server 2019 (64-bit x86)
Amazon EC2 Instance Types Used for Auto-Scaled Access Nodes
By default, an AWS Graviton (Arm-based, 64-bit) image with the C7g.large instance type is used to create the auto-scaled access nodes. If an AWS Graviton (Arm-based, 64-bit) image is not available in the AWS Region, then an x86 image with a C7i.large instance is used.
You can specify a different instance type. The following AWS instance types are supported:
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AWS Graviton (Arm-based, 64-bit): C7g.large (default), c6g.large, c6g.xlarge, c6g.2xlarge, r6g.large, r6g.xlarge, r6g.2xlarge, r6g.4xlarge
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x86: C7i.large (default), c5.large, c5.xlarge, c5.2xlarge, m5a.2xlarge, r5a.large, r5a.xlarge
Creation of Access Nodes
AWS Regions
The access nodes are created in zones or regions, depending on which transport mode is used:
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EBS direct transport mode: In regions
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AWS VM Import/Export: In regions
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HotAdd transport mode: In zones
Number of Access Nodes That Are Created
The number of access nodes that are required increases or decreases based on the amount of data you back up and the settings you configure for automatic scaling.
For Backups
For backups, the software determines the number of access nodes to create based on the following characteristics:
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The Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
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The throughput rate
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The number of data readers that are configured for the VM group
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The Maximum number of access nodes setting in the Auto scale settings dialog box
Important
To increase the number of access nodes, change the Maximum number of access nodes setting instead of changing the number of data readers per access node.
For Restores
For restores, the software determines the number of access nodes to create based on the following characteristics:
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The number of CPUs on auto-scaled access nodes
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The load on auto-scaled access nodes
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The Maximum number of access nodes setting in the Auto scale settings dialog box
Decommissioning of Access Nodes
Auto-scaled access nodes shut down after they are idle for 5 minutes. If an access node is shut down when a job request is initiated, then the access node is powered on and used. If no activity occurs on that access node after the job completes, then the access node is deleted from both the Command Center and the AWS portal.
Log Files
The log files for auto-scaling are at the following location on the CommServe server: CommvaultContentStoreiDataAgentJobResultsCV_JobResultsAutoScale