The Commvault software uses access nodes to protect Amazon EC2 resources. Verify that the machines you intend to use as access nodes for Amazon EC2 meet the requirements.
Deployment and Scaling
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A single access node can service multiple AWS Regions and Availability Zones.
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You can scale access nodes vertically or horizontally to achieve additional throughput based on data volume.
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Amazon EC2 access nodes can be deployed either in the same Region, Availability Zone, or AWS account as the protected data or in an alternate Region, Availability Zone, or AWS account as the protected data.
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Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) direct API restores provide optimal restore performance across Regions, Availability Zones, and accounts.
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In a deployment that uses resources from a service account, the access node can be in the service account. For more information, see Using Resources from an AWS Service Account.
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For the following operations, the access node can be an Amazon EC2 instance or an external machine:
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VM conversion and restores
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IntelliSnap backups and restores from IntelliSnap jobs
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Operating Systems
You can configure an access node on a Linux instance using one of the following methods:
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Deploy an AWS instance as an access node from the AWS Marketplace.
For information, see Deploying a Commvault Cloud Access Node from AWS Marketplace.
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Use one of the following Linux distributions:
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Amazon Linux 2023 AMI 64-bit (Arm) (recommended)
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Amazon Linux 2023 64-bit (x86)
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Amazon Linux 2 AMI (HVM) - Kernel 5.10, SSD Volume Type 64-bit (x86)
Important
For Amazon Linux instances, you must install the dmidecode command-line utility, which enables the Commvault software to detect the instances as access nodes.
AWS Marketplace AMIs already include dmidecode.
When you use an AWS instance with a 64-bit ARM processor as a Linux access node, you can back up instances and restore full instances, but you cannot restore guest files.
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RHEL 8.5, 8.3, 8.2, 8.1, 8.0, 7.9, 7.8, 7.7, 7.6, 7.5, 7.4 64-bit (x86)
Note
For RHEL 8 instances, to install operating system packages that must enable automatic installation of Mono, register the instances with Red Hat.
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The following features are not supported when using a Linux access node. Use a Windows access node for these operations.
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Full instance restores (import method)
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Conversion from another hypervisor to Amazon EC2 (import method)
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Conversion from another hypervisor to Amazon EC2 (import method) is not supported when using a Linux access node to convert a Windows guest VM
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Live sync replication (import method)
For cross-hypervisor restores or replication from VMware to Amazon EC2, you can use an access node that runs on Windows or Linux. If you use an access node that runs on Linux, for both Windows and Linux guest VMs, the drivers must be installed on the source before performing the backup. Otherwise, the replication operation fails. You cannot use a Linux access node for the import method.
Windows
All editions of the following versions of Windows Server, with all Windows-compatible processors, are supported as access nodes for Amazon EC2:
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Windows Server 2019
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Windows Server 2016
Hardware
Backup type |
Requirements |
More information |
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IntelliSnap only |
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This access node can contain a deduplication database (DDB) for writing index data. |
IntelliSnap and streaming |
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This access node can contain a DDB for index data and streamed data. |
Processor Architecture
The following processor architectures are supported:
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x64 (Linux, Windows)
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ARM
Hard Drive
A minimum of 100 GB disk space recommended.
Memory (RAM)
A minimum of 4 GB RAM is required, beyond the requirements of the operating system and running applications.
Amazon EC2 Instance Families
The Amazon Linux 2 and Graviton2 EC2 instance families that are supported as access nodes include the following:
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Amazon EC2 cost and performance optimized (A1)
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Amazon EC2 general purpose (M6g, M6gd, T4g)
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Amazon EC2 compute optimized (C6g, C6gd, C6gn, C7g)
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Amazon EC2 memory optimized (R6g, R6gd, X2gd)
IAM Permissions
Commvault requires certain IAM permissions to perform data protection operations in the AWS cloud. For more information about the required IAM permissions, see How Commvault Uses AWS Permissions for Amazon EC2 Instance Protection.
Other Requirements
Amazon EC2 access nodes that run on Amazon EC2 instances must meet the following additional requirements:
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Windows Server instances must have the most recent paravirtual (PV) driver.
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EBS optimized, high IOPS volume.
Network Connectivity
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Access nodes require Layer 3 network connectivity to the upstream MediaAgent on port 8403. If the MediaAgent and the access node are in different accounts or in different Virtual Private Clouds (VPCs), you can configure Amazon VPC peering as described in the AWS article VPC peering basics.
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The access node must be able to connect to ec2.amazonaws.com, or to the regional equivalent if the AWS account is restricted to specific regions. To route communications through an HTTP or HTTPS proxy, see Configuring an HTTP Proxy for an Amazon EC2 Server Group.