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Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances

July 2022

H19074

White Paper

Abstract
This white paper provides an overview of Smart Scale for PowerProtect
Appliances and its components and workflows. It also describes how to
create a Data Center, deploy services, and create system pools.

Dell Technologies
Copyright

The information in this publication is provided as is. Dell Inc. makes no representations or warranties of any kind with respect
to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose.
Use, copying, and distribution of any software described in this publication requires an applicable software license.
Copyright © 2022 Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. All Rights Reserved. Dell Technologies, Dell, EMC, Dell EMC and other
trademarks are trademarks of Dell Inc. or its subsidiaries. Intel, the Intel logo, the Intel Inside logo and Xeon are trademarks
of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Published in the USA July 2022 H19074.
Dell Inc. believes the information in this document is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change
without notice.

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Contents

Contents
Executive summary.......................................................................................................................4

Overview ........................................................................................................................................4

Acronyms ......................................................................................................................................5

Smart Scale Terminology .............................................................................................................5

Architecture Overview ..................................................................................................................7

Deployment....................................................................................................................................8

Backup and Restore Workflow ...................................................................................................10

Smart Scale Integration with PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM) .........................................11

Migrating a Mobile Storage Unit .................................................................................................12

Replication ...................................................................................................................................13

Smart Scale Disaster Recovery ..................................................................................................13

References ...................................................................................................................................15

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 3


Executive summary

Executive summary

Business Case Managing multiple large data centers that have large amounts of backup data is a difficult
task for the backup administrator. Appliances are getting added in data centers due to
data growth. Customers must take their projected capacity needs and corresponding
infrastructure configuration into account when making decisions. Nowadays, effective
capacity management and projection can become a tedious job.

Solution Smart Scale simplifies capacity management across multiple PowerProtect DD systems in
a data center by enabling Smart Scale services from PowerProtect DD Management
Center (DDMC). Analytics provide capacity insights and actionable recommendations for
capacity addition and placement.

Overview
Smart Scale architecture pools together a set of DD Restorers (DDRs) into a group under
the data center wherein all DDRs are managed by DDMC for space balancing. The actual
placement of the backup object is in one of the DDRs in the System Pool which is done by
Smart Scale services.

Note: Smart Scale supports DDOS 7.8 and higher. Smart Scale supports the following models
DD9900, DD9400, and DD6900.

The DD Namespace VM is a virtual machine that is deployed from the PowerProtect DD


Management Center UI which provides support for data protection applications to the
DDRs in the system pool where Mobile Storage Units reside.

The following figure provides a high-level graphical representation of the Smart Scale
architecture.

Figure 1. Smart Scale architecture

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Acronyms

Acronyms
Table 1. Acronyms

Term Meaning

DDMC PowerProtect DD Management Center

DDR DD Restorer

DDNVM DD Namespace VM

MSU Mobile Storage Unit

MBU Mobile Boost User

NRS Namespace Redirection Service

MFR Managed File Replication

PPDM PowerProtect Data Manager

Revisions
Table 2. Revisions

Date Description

Feb 2022 Initial release

May 2022 Minor updates

July 2022 Adds MSU Migration

We value your Dell Technologies and the authors of this document welcome your feedback on this
feedback document. Contact the Dell Technologies team by email.

Author: Varun N

Note: For links to other documentation for this topic, see the PowerProtect DD Series
Appliances InfoHub.

Smart Scale Terminology

Data Center A data center is the place where one or more DDRs are grouped together. A data center
can be created in PowerProtect DD Management Center by navigating into Data Center
under Infrastructure. Users can create one or more data centers based on their
requirements. DDRs that are part of one data center cannot be added to another data
center. A maximum of 32 DDRs can be pooled per data center where the Smart Scale
service is deployed.

System Pools A system pool is a grouping of DDRs within a data center. One can create a maximum of
four system pools in a data center. In the following figure, the data center has 9 DDRs and
a system pool is being created from the list.

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 5


Smart Scale Terminology

Figure 2. System pool creation

Pool Access IP A pool access IP is used to access a Mobile Storage Unit in a system pool.

Network Group Smart Scale has two types of networks: Management and Data. Only a management
network is created at the time of deployment. A data network is used to send the data
from a client to a DDR. A pool access IP is used for a data network. The DDMC collects
the configuration of all network interfaces from all the DDRs that the DDMC manages.
Once the data is collected, network groups are constructed based on a unique subnet
mask, VLAN ID, and network address.

Smart Scale supports three configuration modes of network topology:


• EST (External Switch Tagging)
• VST (Virtual Switch Tagging)
• VGT (Virtual Guest Tagging)

Mobile Storage A mobile storage unit (MSU) is a DD Boost storage unit created through DDMC that exists
Unit on a DD series appliance in the system pool and can be reached through DDNVM using
the pool access IP.

Mobile Boost Whenever a mobile storage unit (MSU) is created, an associated Mobile Boost User
User (MBU) will be created on a corresponding DD. An MBU is unique for each data center and
can own more than one MSU. A client server that accesses an MSU must provide the
MBU credentials to gain access.

DDMC PowerProtect DD Management Center Is a virtual appliance-based solution for centralized


management of multiple PowerProtect DD series systems. It provides current and
historical data of all managed DDs.

6 Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances


Architecture Overview

DDNVM DD Namespace VM is a VM that can be deployed from the DDMC and executes services
to redirect data protection applications to the PowerProtect DD systems where MSU
resides.

Architecture Overview
Smart Scale provides a federated system deployment model that can be applied to new or
existing data center protection infrastructure deployments. Similarly, as with any
protection environment, the customer’s backup software and its associated clients are
deployed and linked to DD series by means of their protection policies. Data Center is the
place where one or more DDRs are grouped together. The Smart Scale service VM (also
called the DD Namespace VM) can be deployed directly from the DDMC UI. When the
Smart Scale service VM is deployed, a system pool can be created, which is a grouping of
DDRs from the list of DDRs in the data center.

For example, in the following figure, there are six DDRs in the data center, of which three
DDRs are grouped together to create a system pool. DDMC collects the configuration of
all the network interfaces from the DDRs it manages and identifies network groups based
on a unique subnet mask, VLAN ID, and network address. An access IP is created on the
DDNVM matching the network group. This IP is a dedicated IP address that enables client
access to the system pool.

While creating backup policies, select a system pool as the destination for the backup
instead of selecting individual DDRs. When a backup application initiates a backup to an
MSU, the client will establish a connection using the pool access IP, to the DDNVM. The
Namespace redirection service returns the IP address within the same Network Group on
the DD series appliance where the MSU resides, and the DD Boost library on the client
will redirect the connection to this address. Clients will now start sending data to the
appropriate DDR.

Note: Smart Scale supports the following models: DD9900, DD9400, and DD6900.

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 7


Deployment

Figure 3. Architectural overview

Deployment
DDMC can be deployed from an OVF file by providing all required information such as
hostname, IP address, storage, and so on. To manage DDRs, add them to the DDMC.

To enable the Smart Scale service for a data center, the administrator can use the DDMC
UI to deploy the DDNVM. One DDNVM can be deployed for each data center.

The following figure shows that Advanced Services are not deployed in the data center
Santa Clara North. By clicking Deploy Services, it creates a DDNVM for this data center
after providing the information, such as where the DDNVM needs to be deployed, vCenter
credentials, name, and IP with network details of the DDNVM and the port numbers.

Figure 4. Deploy Service

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Deployment

The following table lists the resource requirements for deploying the DDMC and the
DDNVM.

Table 3. Resource requirements

Resource DDMC DDNVM

vCPU 4vCPU 8vCPU

Memory 8 GB 25 GB

Disk 40 + 200 + 100 256 GB

The following table provides a list of port numbers that are used by default. These can be
changed if required. Use the default port numbers and make sure that the ports are not
used by any other applications. Deploying a DDNVM normally takes 15 to 20 minutes.

Table 4. Default port numbers

Port Protocol Service

10001 TCP DD Namespace redirection service agent

10002 TCP Pre-Shared Key for SSL/TLS handshake

10003 TCP SSH Daemon

10004 TCP DD Namespace redirection DB Manager

2053 TCP DD Namespace redirection service

Services The following is a summary of the services that run on the DDMC and the DDNVM.

In the DDMC:
• Migration and Placement service: A new containerized service for Smart Scale
that exposes a set of REST APIs used to manage the placement and movement of
MSUs. It synchronizes objects between the DDMC DB and the DDNRS DB.
• Projection Service: A rearchitected version of the previous DDMC Projection
implementation, in the form of a containerized microservice.
In the DDNVM:
• Namespace Redirection Service: This service requests the IP address of the DD
where MSU resides from the NRS DB and returns the IP address to the DD Boost
library on the client for redirection.
• NRS DB Manager Service: This Migration and Placement service is the main
consumer that sends the data that needs to be stored / updated in the NRS DB for
the MBU and MSU.
• NRS DB: The Postgres DB container service.

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 9


Backup and Restore Workflow

Backup and Restore Workflow

Backup workflow After deploying the DDMC and adding DDRs to it, navigate to Infrastructure then Data
Center to create the Data Center. The Data Center is where one or more DDRs are
grouped together. Once the Data Center is created, enable the Smart Scale service by
deploying the DDNVM from the DDMC UI. The DDNVM provides various services,
including the DD Namespace Redirection Service.

After enabling the Smart Scale service, you can create system pools. These are enabled
with a pool access IP. Clients in the backup policy will talk to the DDNVM after the backup
is initiated. The DDNVM maintains a database of MSU location and MBU credential
information, populated by DDMC's Management and Placement Service. The Namespace
Redirection Service on the DDNVM queries this database and returns the location details
to the client. The client disconnects the connection with DDNVM, connects to the DDR,
and writes the data.

Figure 5. Backup workflow

1. Client A uses a pool access IP to connect to the DD Namespace VM. Services


on the DDNVM retrieve the IP of the DDR where the MSU resides from the
NRS DB.
2. When the client receives the DDR IP, it starts sending the data to the mobile
storage unit on the DDR. In this figure, Client A is redirected to DD1, where the
MSU resides. It was placed there at the time of creation of the backup policy,
because this system had the most available space.
3. Client B is configured to backup data to System Pool B. It connects to the
DDNVM using the configured Pool Access IP. Services on the DDNVM retrieve
the DDR IP of the MSU to which Client B is backing up.
4. When the client receives the DDR IP, it starts sending the data to the mobile
storage unit on the DDR. In this figure, the MSU that Client B is using was

10 Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances


Smart Scale Integration with PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM)

originally placed on DD4 at the time the backup policy was created, because it
had the most available capacity in System Pool B.
5. Client D is configured to use a Storage Unit as opposed to a Mobile Storage
Unit residing in a pool. Client D connects directly to DD5.

Restore
workflow

Figure 6. Restore workflow

1. Backup software initiates the restore.


2. Client A uses the pool access IP to connect to the DDNVM. Similar to the backup
workflow, services on the DDNVM retrieve the IP of the DDR where the client's
MSU resides, from the NRS DB.
3. The DD Boost library on the client automatically disconnects from the DDNVM and
redirects to the DDR IP.
4. The backup software reads the data from the DDR.
5. After successfully recovering the data, the client disconnects the connection with
the DDR and updates the status to the backup software.

Smart Scale Integration with PowerProtect Data Manager (PPDM)


Integrating Smart Scale with PPDM consists of the following steps:
1. Create the Data Center, deploy the DDNVM. Using the DDMC UI, create a system
pool with pool access IP.
2. While adding storage in PPDM, instead of PowerProtect DD systems, select
PowerProtect DD Management Center and provide additional details such as the
DDMC host name and its credentials.
3. Under Infrastructure, the Storage pane lists all system pools that are available in
the DDMC in addition to DD.

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 11


Migrating a Mobile Storage Unit

4. At policy creation time on the PPDM server, select the storage pool as the storage
name (instead of the DDR / DDVE) while adding the target for the primary backup.
5. To initiate backup, the PPDM server sends a request to the client. Rather than
requesting a DD Boost connection directly with a DD series appliance, the client
agent makes the connection request to the Namespace Redirection service through
a well-known IP address called pool access IP. The policy’s storage unit name is
passed as part of this request.
6. DD Boost authenticates the connection and requests the physical location of the
storage unit from the Namespace Redirection service. When the DD system on
which the mobile storage unit lives is determined, DD Boost disconnects from the
Namespace Redirection service, and connects to the system to write the data.

Note: Quick recovery is not supported in Smart Scale.

Migrating a Mobile Storage Unit


Migrating a Mobile Storage Unit is a new feature that helps to migrate a Mobile Storage
Unit (MSU) from one DDR to another. When you initiate the migration, the Migration and
Placement Service provides the recommended list of DDRs from the available list of
DDRs in the Data Center. Based on that list, you can select the target system and initiate
the migration. You can select which Network Group to use, and can select from the
following migration priorities:
1. Balanced transfer – Resources are balanced between the backup and the migration
2. Fast transfer – More resources will be allotted for migration
3. Minimum system impact transfer – Fewer resources will be allocated for migration
You must now start the migration immediately. When the migration is initiated, you can
view the status. When the migration job reaches 100%, it is ready to commit. All the
operations (backup or restore) to the source MSU need to be canceled or stopped before
committing the migration.

There are two options available for the source MSU: you can either mark the MSU to be
deleted after a successful migration or you can keep the MSU on the source system.
When the commit is done, the remaining data that needs to be synced with the target
DDR will be updated. The source MSU is marked as read only; the target MSU is marked
as read write. The source MSU is demoted to an Mtree and target system has a new MSU
with the same name. The Migration and Placement Service in PowerProtect DD
Management Center updates the Namespace Redirection Service Data Manager
(NRSDM) about the new location of the MSU. NRSDM then provides that information to
the NRS.

When a boost client now requests the physical location of the MSU to write the data, NRS
provides the target DDR’s IP address.

12 Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances


Replication

Replication
DD Replication provides automated, policy based, network efficient and encrypted
replication for DR and multi-site backup and archive consolidation.
• Smart Scale supports Managed File Replication (MFR) on MSUs
• Managed File Replication is supported from MSU to MSU, SU to MSU, or MSU to
SU
• MREPL is not supported on mobile storage units.

Figure 7. DD replication

Smart Scale Disaster Recovery


Customers can protect DDMC by taking a snapshot of the entire VM and restore if
required. With the Smart Scale features introduced in DDMC 7.8, configuring DR backup
of DDMC is recommended.

DDMC DR Backup is disabled by default in DDMC. The customer must do the following:
backup • Enable the backup.
• Specify an MTree on a DD system that is currently being managed by the DDMC.
• Create an NFS export for the MTree and provide full access to the DDMC.
By default, the backup happens every 15 minutes and retains only the latest readable
copy. The backup will first copy to a staging area (/resource/ddmc_dr/backup) in DDMC
and then move to the MTree.

DDMC recovery Deploy a new DDMC with the same version and mount the MTree that has the backup on
the new DDMC. Copy the backup to a staging area (/resource/ddmc_dr/restore) and then
to the original location.

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 13


Smart Scale Disaster Recovery

The following are scenarios in which DR is required:

Table 5. DDMC recovery

DDMC DDNVM Solution

Good Corrupt / Destroyed Restart DDNVM from vCenter. Redeploy the


service from the DDMC UI and sync the data if
a restart didn’t fix the issue.

Corrupt / Destroyed Good Recover / Redeploy DDMC

Corrupt / Destroyed Corrupt / Destroyed Recover DDMC from DR backup and redeploy
DDNVM from the DDMC UI.

14 Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances


References

References

Dell The following Dell Technologies documentation provides other information related to this
Technologies document. Access to this document depends on your login credentials. If you do not have
documentation access to a document, contact your Dell Technologies representative.
• PowerProtect DD Series Appliances

Smart Scale for PowerProtect Appliances 15

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