ExaGrid Release V4.9 Software for Backup Storage Appliances

ExaGrid Systems, Inc. announced the availability of version 4.9 of its software for the company’s family of backup storage appliances.

This release supports data deduplication globally across all NAS shares and all appliances in a scale-out GRID. The release also enhances support for Oracle RMAN Channels which enables the ability to backup Oracle databases up to 800TB and to write to multiple NAS shares across multiple devices for backup performance and failover.

Company’s global deduplication ensures that all data is deduplicated across NAS shares and appliances in a GRID. In addition, global deduplication allows organizations the flexibility to redirect backup jobs to any NAS share, on any appliance, at any time while maintaining data deduplication globally across the GRID.

Landing zone and scale-out architecture provide for faster backups that result in shorter backup windows, faster restores, and VM boot speeds that are up to ten times faster than inline deduplication appliances, as well as a fixed-length backup window even as data expands, via its scale-out GRID architecture. The result is a new era of disk-based backup storage appliances that deliver the performance, scalability, and price that is lower – both up front and over time – compared to the large brand vendors.

“ExaGrid’s new global deduplication will add continued benefits and value to our backup and recovery requirements,” said Dave Lively, backup and recovery systems administrator, Grow Financial FCU. “Before we switched to ExaGrid we were using EMC Data Domain. Their unit did a good job of performing basic backups, but it really fell short on restores. Ninety-nine% of the time, we need to restore data from the most recent backup, but with EMC Data Domain, stored data had to be reconstituted and the recovery process was long and complicated. ExaGrid’s GRID architecture enables us to expand the system as needed by adding appliances into the scale-out GRID. Moreover, the fact that the ExaGrid stores the most recent backup in an undeduplicated form allows for faster restores because we can access data immediately from the unit’s landing zone.“

“ExaGrid’s 4.9 release allows us to move up market into larger opportunities by offering a next generation solution that has significant scalability up to 800TB. As customer data grows, ExaGrid’s is the only architecture that ensures a fixed backup window and the most advanced deduplication with the ability to redirect a backup job from one NAS share to any NAS share on any appliance. ExaGrid is a disruptor in the market and continues to provide unparalleled innovation and support services to our team,” said Hugo G. Perez, MD, United Data Technologies (UDT), an ExaGrid strategic channel partner.

Version 4.9 of company’s software offers two key new features:

• Global Deduplication: Deduplication now occurs across all NAS shares and all appliances in a single scale-out GRID. Company’s largest system can take in an 800TB full backup and stores the most recent backups in their full undeduplicated form for faster backups, restores, VM boots, and tape copies. Long-term retention in deduplicated form can be kept for weeks, months, or years. The backup window stays fixed as data grows as the company adds compute with capacity by adding full appliances into a scale-out GRID, unlike all first generation solutions that simply add disk capacity.

• Oracle RMAN Channels: ExaGrid supports Oracle RMAN Channels targeted at multiple NAS shares across multiple appliances in a scale-out GRID. RMAN Channels automatically writes ‘sections’ in parallel to all NAS shares and automatically redirects the next ‘sections’ based on available targets. RMAN Channels with the company’s solution has six major advantages:

• The Oracle database can be hundreds of terabytes in size and can be backed up in parallel to a single ExaGrid scale-out GRID.

• The database backup performance is accelerated as the sections are backed up in parallel across multiple appliances in a scale-out GRID.

• The database backup performance is maximized as each new section is automatically sent to the highest performance availability NAS shares and/or appliance, resulting in the best possible performance based on the NAS share and appliance ingest availability.

• If any appliance in a GRID fails, the sections are automatically redirected to the active appliances, providing for automatic failover – which allows database backups to occur if an appliance fails.

• The most recent database is stored in an undeduplicated form in the ExaGrid landing zone allowing for the fastest restores while still allowing for storage efficiency as all long-term retention data is stored in deduplicated form. This avoids the lengthy data rehydration process of inline scale-up appliances that only store deduplicated data.

• As the database data grows, the backup window stays fixed in length as full appliances are added into a scale-out GRID bringing compute with capacity. This eliminates the forklift upgrades associated with inline scale-up deduplication appliances.

“If data deduplication is not implemented properly, it can actually slow down backups and restores,” said Bill Andrews, CEO, ExaGrid. “The release of version 4.9 is yet another step in ExaGrid’s commitment to help users overcome these challenges by architecting a new era of backup storage solution that focuses on superior backup performance, a fixed backup window as the data grows, and the most advanced deduplication for both storage and WAN bandwidth efficiency. In addition, global deduplication allows the user to redirect a backup job,or any portion of a backup job, from one NAS share to any NAS share on any appliance without losing any deduplication.“

Referring to the addition of Oracle RMAN Channels, George Crump, president, founder and lead analyst, Storage Switzerland LLC, stated: “Most solutions cannot take in a single multi-hundred terabyte Oracle RMAN backup.” He continued, “Most other backup architectures have a single front-end controller with scale-up disk shelves, so if the controller fails, all backups fail. But with ExaGrid, if there are eight appliances in a GRID and one fails, Oracle RMAN Channels will redirect the backups to the remaining seven operational appliances so that backups can continue uninterrupted. This is critical for Oracle environments since a missed nightly backup can cause a lot of IT disruption the next day.“

Version 4.9 software upgrade is available at no charge to customers who have an active yearly maintenance and support contract. Version 4.9 will be available to customers at the end of August 2015.