Re : Undrstanding Altavault cache to AWS S3 population

[samshaw]

Hello there,

How are you. I am trying to understand How/When Altavault to AWS S3 replicaiton happens ? We are using NBU to backup our data to Altavault  4.3.1 ( in AWS). 

1) With AVA Standard share , the data is backed up into OST standard share and we see prepopulation in cache as 100 % . Does it mean when this data is not replicated into s3 or if it is , writeen to S3 does it happen immediately?

2) With AVA Cloud Share, the data is replicated from Standard share --> Cloud Share --> S3 , what is the purpose of this ?

3) We have AVA C-16 (16 TB cache), what happens when we exceed 16TB cache, will the old data be evicted form local AVA cahce but still be present in S3 ? Can we still do restore with NBU 8.1 in this case ?

4) How do we increase performance of AVA writes with NBU. should we create a separate share per NBU media server ? Is there any guidelines on how many connections can/should write simultaneously into  single share ?

Thank you very much.

[chriswong]

Hi,

AltaVault replicates data it receives from NBU to the cloud asynchronously from the write acknowledgements that it sends to NBU. AltaVault sends data as efficiently as possible to the cloud, using multiple replication streams, and this typically becomes a performance metric based on your WAN speeds. AltaVault caches the data locally on the appliance to ensure it's safe (this is the write acknowledgement) and will keep it on cache for the duration of time until it's no longer the most recent data and is evicted by AltaVault for more current backup data. All data is replicated before it becomes eligible for eviction, so there's no data integrity/access issues. If needed, data can be recovered from cloud when a restore for it is needed.

The cloud share is designed for replicating storage efficient backup copies that NBU OST will manage for a separate (typically longer) SLP duration. Imagine backups to a standard share being maintained by AltaVault for 2 weeks, but NBU then creates a duplicate, optimized copy of that backup that is then separately maintained for 7 years. All the processing for creating the data is done by AltaVault utilizing the data it already has, so no new data is sent from NBU.

You can refer to the AltaVault OST and administration guide documentation for further details on this feature.

https://mysupport.netapp.com/documentation/productlibrary/index.html?productID=62032

It is recommended you utilize AltaVault 4.4 software for the most up to date capabilities and performance.

Regards,

Christopher