DL4300 Appliance
Understanding encryption keys
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Deduplication occurs in backup snapshots captured by Rapid Recovery Core. Backup information is deduplicated
within a single repository. It cannot be deduplicated across multiple repositories.
Rapid Recovery release 6.0.2 uses target-based deduplication for all DVM repositories. In this model, information
is transferred to the DVM repository (the target), and is then deduplicated from the repository.
For the most part, deduplication takes place inline (during the transfer of backup information).
For maximum gains, Rapid Recovery now also offers deduplication that occurs as post-processing. Post-
processing is sometimes called pass-through deduplication. Using this model, data in the repository are compared
to references in the DVM data cache. If a block of data in the repository has already been saved, then each
additional occurrence of that data is replaced with a pointer or reference to the data.
This post-processing can save space on your repository storage volume, particularly if the deduplication cache
was filled and then the cache was subsequently increased to take advantage of additional deduplication. This
type of deduplication takes place when performing a repository optimization job. This feature is unique to DVM
repositories, and is also called duplicate block reclamation.
For more information about the repository optimization job, see
About the Repository Optimization Job
information on performing this task, see
Thus, Rapid Recovery takes advantage of all types of deduplication described here: target-based deduplication,
inline deduplication, and post-processing deduplication.
For more information on where the references to unique blocks are stored for DVM repositories, see
Understanding deduplication cache and storage locations
Parent topic
Understanding encryption keys
The Rapid Recovery Core can encrypt snapshot data for all volumes within any repository using encryption keys
that you define and manage from the Core Console.
Instead of encrypting the entire repository, Rapid Recovery lets you specify an encryption key for one or more
machines protected on a single Rapid Recovery Core. Each active encryption key creates an encryption domain.
There is no limit to the number of encryption keys you can create on the Core.
In a multi-tenant environment (when a single Core hosts multiple encryption domains), data is partitioned and
deduplicated within each encryption domain. As a result, Dell recommends using a single encryption key for
multiple protected machines if you want to maximize the benefits of deduplication among a set of protected
machines.
You can also share encryption keys between Cores using one of three methods. One method is to export an
encryption key as a file from one Rapid Recovery Core and import it to another Core. A second method is to
archive data secured with an encryption key, and then import that archived data into another Rapid Recovery
Core. The third method is to replicate recovery points from a protected machine using an encryption key. After
you replicate protected machines, the encryption keys used in the source Core appear as replicated encryption
keys in the target Core.
In all cases, once imported, any encryption key appears in the Core with a state of Locked. To access data from
a locked encryption key, you must unlock it. For information about importing, exporting, locking or unlocking
encryption keys, see the topic
.
