Dell DR series, Administrator'S Manual

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OST Guidelines
For best results, observe the following guidelines for optimal performance with your supported OpenStorage Technology
(OST) operations with the DR Series system:
• Backup, restore, and optimized duplication operations need to be performed via the Dell OST plug-in
NOTE: The Dell OST plug-in needs to be installed on client systems to support client-side deduplication.
• Backup:
– Passthrough writes: Passthrough writes are when data is sent from a media server to the DR Series system
without applying any optimization to the data.
– Optimized writes: Optimized writes are when data is sent from a media server to the DR Series system after
optimization is applied to the data.
• Restore
• Replication
OST Terminology
This topic introduces and briefly defines some basic OpenStorage Technology (OST) terminology used throughout the
DR Series system documentation.
Term Description
BE Symantec DMA, Backup Exec (BE).
DMA/DPA Data Management Application (also known as Data Protection
Application), which are terms for the role played by the Symantec
NetBackup or Backup Exec applications.
LSU Logical Storage Unit, which from the DR Series system perspective,
represents any container created for data storage.
LSU
is a common
storage term while
container
is a common term in DR Series systems
that represents a location for storing data.
media server This is the host running the DMA media server (NetBackup and Backup
Exec), and is where the OST plug-in is installed. The OST plug-in can
also be installed on a NetBackup client.
NBU Symantec DMA, NetBackup (NBU).
OST The OpenStorage Technology from Symantec, which allows storage
devices to deliver backup and recovery solutions with NetBackup. OST
uses the OpenStorage API and a plug-in installed on either a Linux or a
Windows-based media server platform.
Supported OST Software and Components
For the list of supported DMAs and OST plug-ins, see the Dell DR Series System Interoperability Guide , at
support.dell.com/manuals.
The Dell DR Series system licensing is all-inclusive, so that no additional Dell licensing is required to use OST or the
optimized duplication capability. The Dell OST plug-in that gets installed on a supported Linux or Windows media server
platform is a free download from Dell. However, Symantec NetBackup requires that you purchase a Symantec
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