Hardware Specifications for Deduplication Extended Mode

Deduplication Extended mode configuration is referenced as the MediaAgent that can hosts multiple (recommended only two) deduplication database (DDBs).

For details on supported platforms, see Building Block Guide - Deduplication System Requirements.

You can use the extended mode in the following scenarios:

MediaAgent Hosting DDBs of Two Sites

MediaAgent hosting the DDB of primary copy and secondary copy from two different sites.

Both primary and secondary copies data from different sites accessing the same DDB MediaAgent.

MediaAgent Hosting DDBs of Two Sites (1)

Long Term Retention

MediaAgent hosting two DDBs of primary and secondary copies with following retention settings:

Primary Copy - 90 day retention.
Secondary Copy - 1 to 5 years retention and DDB sealing is performed every year.

Long Term Retention (2)

Two DDBs for Primary Copies per MediaAgent

Protection of large amounts of unstructured data with incremental forever strategy.

In this scenario, MediaAgent hosts two DDBs of primary copy with 90 days retention.

Two DDBs for Primary Copies per MediaAgent (1)

Two DDBs for Secondary Copies per MediaAgent

Fan-in target for secondary copies from two or more DDB MediaAgents managing primary copies.

In this scenario, MediaAgent hosts two DDBs of secondary copies with 90 days retention.

Two DDBs for Secondary Copies per MediaAgent (1)

The following table provides the hardware requirements for Extra Large and Large environments for deduplication extended mode. For Medium, Small and Extra Small environments, extended deduplication mode is not recommended.

Important

The following hardware requirements are applicable for MediaAgents with deduplication. The requirements do not apply for tape libraries or MediaAgents without deduplication or using third party deduplication applications.
The suggested workloads are not software limitations, rather design guidelines for sizing under specific conditions.
The TB values are base-2.
To achieve the required IOPs, please consult your hardware vendor for the most suitable configuration for your implementation.
The index cache disk recommendation is for unstructured data types like files, VMs and granular messages. Structured data types like application, databases and so on need significantly less index cache. The recommendations given are per MediaAgent.
It is recommended to use dedicated volumes for index cache disk and DDB disk.

Backend Size and CPU/RAM

Components	Extra large	Large
Backend Size^{2, 3}	Up to 500 TB	Up to 300 TB
CPU/RAM	16 CPU cores, 128 GB RAM (or 16 vCPUs/128 GB)	12 CPU cores, 64 GB RAM (or 12 vCPUs/64 GB)

Disk Layout

Components	Extra large	Large
OS or Software Disk	400 GB SSD class disk	400 GB usable disk, min 4 spindles 15K RPM or higher OR SSD class disk
DDB Volume 01 per MediaAgent¹	2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package.	1.2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package.
DDB Volume 02 per MediaAgent¹	2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package.⁸ See Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database	1.2 TB SSD Class Disk/PCIe IO Cards⁴ 2 GB Controller Cache Memory For Linux, the DDB volume must be configured by using the Logical Volume Management (LVM) package.⁸ See Building Block Guide - Deduplication Database
Suggested IOPS for each DDB Disk	20K dedicated Random IOPS⁵	15K dedicated Random IOPS⁵
Index Cache Disk^{1, 6, 7}	2 TB SSD Class Disk⁴	1 TB SSD Class Disk⁴

Suggested Workloads

Components	Extra large	Large
Parallel Data Stream Transfers	300	200
Laptop clients	5000	2500
Front End Terabytes (FET)	Primary Copy Only - 150 TB to 200 TB Secondary Copy Only - 150 TB to 200 TB Mix of Primary and Secondary Copy: 80 TB to 100 TB Primary Copy FET 80 TB to 100 TB Secondary Copy FET	Primary Copy Only - 80 TB to 160 TB Secondary Copy Only - 80 TB to 160 TB Mix of Primary and Secondary Copy: 40 TB to 60 TB Primary Copy FET 40 TB to 60 TB Secondary Copy FET
Two DDBs for Primary Copy per MediaAgent (OR) Two DDBs for Secondary Copies per MediaAgent	200 TB FET files (includes OnePassTM for files) 120 TB FET of VM data (mix of VSA on VMs and on MediaAgent) 140 TB FET of VM and file data (mix of files, VSA on VMs and on MediaAgent) Notes Assumes incremental forever strategy with periodic DASH fulls and staggered schedules Combination of above data types not to exceed 120 TB to 140 TB FET on the primary copies Do not use extended mode with two primary copies for application or proxy backups	160 TB FET files (includes OnePass for files) 100 TB FET of VM data (mix of VSA on VMs and on MediaAgent) 120 TB FET of VM and file data (mix of files, VSA on VMs and on MediaAgent) Notes Assumes incremental forever strategy with periodic DASH fulls and staggered schedules Combination of above data types not to exceed 80 TB to 120 TB FET on the primary copies Do not use extended mode with two primary copies for application or proxy backups
MediaAgent hosting one Primary Copy DDB and one Secondary Copy DDB	Primary Copy 100 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files) 80 TB FET for VMs and files (mix of files with VSA on MediaAgent, and multiple VMs with VSA) 60 TB FET for databases or applications Secondary Copy 80 to 100 FET originating from primary copy of another deduplication node	Primary Copy 80 TB FET Files (includes OnePass for Files) 60 TB FET for VMs and files (mix of files with VSA on MediaAgent, and multiple VMs with VSA) 40 TB FET for databases or applications Secondary Copy 40 to 60 FET originating from primary copy of another deduplication node

Supported Targets

Components	Extra large	Large
Tape Drives	Not Recommended	Not Recommended
Disk Storage without Commvault Deduplication	Not Recommended	Not Recommended
Deduplication Disk Storage	Up to 500 TB Direct Attached (OR) NAS	Up to 400 TB Direct Attached (OR) NAS
Third-Party Deduplication Appliances	Not Recommended	Not Recommended
Cloud Storage	Yes Primary copy on Disk and Secondary copy on Cloud	Yes Primary copy on Disk and Secondary copy on Cloud
Deploying MediaAgent on Cloud / Virtual Environments	Yes, for AWS or Azure Sizing, see the following guides: Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Amazon Web Services Public Cloud Architecture Guide for Azure

Footnotes

It is recommended to use dedicated volumes for index cache disk and DDB disk.
Maximum size per DDB.
Assumes standard retention of up to 90 days. Larger retention will affect FET managed by this configuration, the backend capacity remains the same.
SSD class disk indicates PCIe based cards or internal dedicated endurance value drives. We recommend to use MLCs (Multi-Level Cells) class or better SSDs.
Recommend dedicated RAID 1 or RAID 10 group.
To improve the indexing performance, it is recommended that you store your index data on a solid-state drive (SSD). The following agents and cases require the best possible indexing performance:
- Exchange Mailbox Agent
- Virtual Server Agents
- NAS filers running NDMP backups
- Backing up large file servers
- SharePoint Agents
- Ensuring maximum performance whenever it is critical
The index cache directory must be on a local drive. Network drives are not supported.
For Linux, host the DDB on LVM volumes. This helps DDB backups by using LVM software for snapshots. It is recommended to use thin provisioned LV for DDB volumes to get better Query-Insert performance during the DDB backups.