Overview:
ExaGrid is a scalable, cost-effective disk-based backup with deduplication solution that revolutionizes how organizations back up and protect their data.
With ExaGrid, you get the only disk backup appliance purpose-built for backup that leverages a unique architecture optimized for backup and restore performance, scalability, and price. Only ExaGrid's performance-based GRID architecture offers you:
- Fastest backups up front with permanently short backup windows as data grows
- Instant recovery of full systems, VMs, and files so you have the least downtime
- Lowest total cost over time by eliminating "forklift" upgrades and product obsolescence
Our patented zone-level deduplication reduces the disk space needed by a range of 10:1 to 50:1 by storing only the unique bytes across backups instead of redundant data. Adaptive deduplication performs deduplication and replication in parallel with backups while providing full system resources to the backups for the shortest backup window. Adaptive deduplication delivers the fastest backups, and as your data grows, only ExaGrid avoids expanding backup windows by adding full appliances in a GRID. ExaGrid's unique landing zone keeps a full copy of the most recent backup on disk, delivering the fastest restores, instant VM recovery, "Instant DR," and fast tape copy. And, as data grows, ExaGrid saves you 50% in total system costs compared to competitive solutions by avoiding costly "forklift" upgrades.
Replace Tape with Cost-Effective Disk-Based Data Protection
Using ExaGrid's disk backup solution to replace tape in the nightly backup process can reduce backup windows by up to 90%. A typical 12-hour backup window can be decreased to as little as two to three hours. ExaGrid improves the speed and reliability of your backups and restores, including support for advanced virtualized server recovery techniques such as instant VM recovery. For offsite long-term retention or disaster recovery, ExaGrid offers the ability to transfer backup data to an installed system at a remote location to supplement or eliminate offsite tapes. ExaGrid also supports multi-site topologies where multiple locations can transfer backup data to a centralized site for DR protection. ExaGrid is very cost effective at transferring backup data offsite because ExaGrid's deduplication only moves changes, requiring minimal WAN bandwidth. The costs and reliability issues associated with tape handling, shipment, and storage are significantly reduced or eliminated.
ExaGrid Appliance
The ExaGrid system includes standard appliances along with ExaGrid's software to deliver a complete turnkey solution for disk backup with data deduplication. The ExaGrid appliance is rack-mountable and uses standard components, including Intel processors, enterprise SATA/SAS drives, and Gigabit Ethernet connection(s).
ExaGrid works seamlessly with all major backup applications, so you can preserve your investment in backup applications and processes. Using ExaGrid is as simple as pointing your existing backup jobs to a NAS share on the ExaGrid appliance. Backup jobs are sent directly from the backup application to the ExaGrid appliance for onsite disk backup. The backup application can create copies from the ExaGrid system directly to your tape library for offsite storage, or you can deploy a second site ExaGrid to reduce or replace offsite tape.
ExaGrid Advantage
Highest Performance for Backups
- Fastest backup performance using adaptive deduplication, so nothing interferes with the data writing directly to disk, at the speed of disk
- Backup windows kept permanently short as data grows by adding full servers (with processor, memory, disk, and bandwidth) in a GRID
Fastest Restores and Instant Recovery
- Fastest restore and tape copy performance from the most recent backup kept in its whole form. No reassembly from small blocks and large hash tables is required.
- Instant recovery of VMs from high-speed landing zone, which maintains a full copy of the latest backup. If the primary VM is unavailable, recover and run a VM from the ExaGrid system within minutes.
Most Cost-Effective Solution with No "Forklift" Upgrades
- Scalable next-generation GRID architecture with full appliances provides plug-and-play expansion. To add an ExaGrid appliance, you simply plug it in and let ExaGrid's GRID software virtualize the backup capacity pool.
- Multiple appliances allow full backups of 1TB, 2TB, 3TB, 4TB, 5TB, 7TB, 10TB, 13TB, 21, or 32TB with corresponding raw capacity of 5TB, 7TB, 9TB, 11TB, 16TB, 20TB, 26TB, 32TB, 48, and 72TB, respectively. Any size appliance can be mixed and matched in multiple different configurations with up to 14 servers combined into a single GRID of up to 1008TB raw capacity (882TB usable), allowing full backups of up to 448TB.
- 50% lower total system cost vs competing systems over time by eliminating the costly "forklift" upgrades associated with a first-generation front-end controller/disk shelf architecture.
Features:
- Turnkey cost-effective disk-based backup solution with
all hardware and software included.
- Zone-level deduplication technology reduces the
amount of disk space needed by as much as 50:1.
- Adaptive deduplication performs deduplication and
replication in parallel with backups while providing
full system resources to the backups for the shortest
backup window and an optimal recovery point at the
disaster recovery site.
- Global deduplication across all NAS shares and
appliances in a GRID.
- Unique landing zone reduces downtime by keeping
a full copy of the most recent backup in complete
form for instant recovery of VMs, full systems, and files.
Competing solutions must reassemble the most recent
backup from millions or billions of deduplicated chunks
causing much longer recovery time.
- Scalable GRID computing architecture allows for costeffective
growth and eliminates obsolescence.
- Plug and play expansion – various sized appliance
models allow full backups of up to 40TB per appliance.
Combining up to 25 appliances in a single GRID allows
for scalability from a 2TB full backup to a 1PB full backup
(1.9PB usable storage).
- Single primary site system allows for existing offsite tape
strategy if desired, and support for two site or multi-site
topologies can supplement or eliminate offsite tape
with a disk-based system.
- Support of Oracle RMAN Channels for multi-hundred
terabyte databases with the fastest backup, fastest
restore performance, and failover.
- Bandwidth throttling for WAN efficiency.
- Management software notifies via SNMP or email that
the system is reaching capacity thresholds.
- RAID6 guards against up to two simultaneous
disk failures.
- Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) technology (encrypted
models only) ensures that data at rest is always protected.
- WAN encryption for secure data transfer.
- A comprehensive listing of supported backup apps and
utilities can be found at www.exagrid.com.
Solutions:
ExaGrid Basic Concept
ExaGrid appliances work seamlessly with industry-leading backup applications and utilities by presenting themselves as standard NAS shares (CIFS or NFS). Backup jobs are directed to the ExaGrid appliance. ExaGrid appliances are easily integrated into existing backup environments, as illustrated below.
ExaGrid Sits Behind Your Existing Backup Server and Replaces Tape Onsite or Offsite
ExaGrid Technology
ExaGrid appliances are comprised of Intel Quad Core XEON processors, RAID 6 + Hot Spare storage using enterprise class SATA or SAS drives, and ExaGrid software. Each appliance plugs into a switch and is virtualized into a shared GRID.
The media server is connected to the same switch and sees the appliances as one or more NAS shares. Since each appliance includes the appropriate amount of processor, memory, disk and bandwidth for the rated data size, performance increases as more appliances are added to the GRID.
ExaGrid Appliances Connect to Form a Scalable GRID
Advanced Backup Features (GRT and OST)
Another area to consider when looking at disk-based backup solutions is how well a particular solution supports advanced backup application features such as Backup Exec GRT (Granular Restore) and Symantec's OST (Open Storage Technology) for Backup Exec and NetBackup. Some solutions do not integrate well with these features; poorly implemented GRT solutions, for example, may take hours to restore an individual e-mail or may not work at all.
Symantec's Open Storage is another popular feature that allows for more integrated offsite data protection, and it is important to check whether these features are supported if you are using Symantec NetBackup or Backup Exec.
Another example is Veeam for virtualized environments. Most of Veeam's unique features such as Sure Backup, Virtual Lab, Instant VM Recovery, Copy and Replicate and other advanced features require an undeduplicated copy on disk. Only ExaGrid provides this with its unique landing zone. All other solutions only store deduplicated data. In addition, ExaGrid includes an integrated Veeam data mover with each appliance called the ExaGrid-Veeam Accelerated Data Mover. This improves all backup and restore processes and also allows a synthetic full to be created directly on the ExaGrid for increased performance.
Offsite Data Protection for Disaster Recovery
While keeping offsite copies of backups has traditionally meant maintaining a set of tapes at an offsite location, companies using ExaGrid appliances can easily maintain offsite backups through the use of an offsite ExaGrid appliance in conjunction with a primary site ExaGrid appliance.
Backing up your data to an ExaGrid appliance at your primary site dramatically reduces the amount of disk space required to store all of that data due to its high-performance data deduplication capability. In a multi-site ExaGrid environment, the onsite ExaGrid system is only sending deduplicated data—the backup data bytes that change between each backup—over the wide area network (WAN) to the offsite ExaGrid appliance. The offsite ExaGrid appliance is ready for data restore and fast recovery in the event of a disaster or other primary site outage.
- Optimizes most recent backups for "Instant DR"
- Avoids delays from restoring from tape
- Restores faster from full copy vs. "rehydrating" data
ExaGrid supports three models for disaster recovery sites:
- Unidirectional replication to offsite for disaster recovery
In this use case, the entire offsite system can be configured for repository, allowing for a half-size system to be used offsite. ExaGrid is asymmetrical in this use case where all other solutions are symmetrical.
- Cross protection
In this use case, data is backed up at both the offsite and onsite systems and cross replicated such that each site becomes the disaster recovery site for the other.
- Multiple data center sites
ExaGrid can support up to 16 sites in a single star topology with 15 spokes to a hub. Full systems or individual shares can be cross replicated such that data center sites can serve as disaster recovery sites for each other.
Specifications:
ExaGrid Model |
EX2000 |
EX3000 |
EX5000 |
EX7000 / -SEC |
EX10000E / - SEC |
EX13000E / -SEC |
EX21000E / -SEC |
EX32000E / -SEC |
EX40000E / -SEC |
Chassis |
2U |
2U |
2U |
2U |
3U |
3U |
3U |
4U |
3U |
Full Backup |
2TB |
3TB |
5TB |
7TB |
10TB |
13TB |
21TB |
32TB |
40TB |
Disks |
7 |
9 |
8 |
10 |
13 |
16 |
14 |
24 |
16 |
Disk Size |
1TB |
1TB |
2TB |
2TB |
2TB |
2TB |
4TB |
3TB |
6TB |
Memory |
8 GiB |
8 GiB |
8 GiB |
8 GiB |
16 GiB |
16 GiB |
32 GiB |
32 GiB |
64 GiB |
CPUs / Cores |
1 CPU
4 cores |
1 CPU
4 cores |
1 CPU
4 hyperthreaded cores |
1 CPU
4 hyperthreaded cores |
1 CPU
4 hyperthreaded cores |
1 CPU
4 hyperthreaded cores |
1 CPU
4 cores |
1 CPU
4 hyperthreaded cores |
1 CPU
6 hyperthreaded cores |
NICs |
Two 1GbE |
Four 1GbE and two optional 10GbE |
Four 1GbE and two optional 10GbE |
Four 1GbE and two optional 10GbE |
Six 1GbE and optionally replace two 1GbE with two 10GbE |
Six 1GbE and optionally replace two 1GbE with two 10GbE |
Six 1GbE and optionally replace two 1GbE with two 10GbE |
Six 1GbE and optionally replace two 1GbE with two 10GbE |
Six 1GbE and optionally replace two 1GbE with two 10GbE or two 40GbE |
All Servers |
Intel processors / Enterprise SATA drives / RAID6 with hot spare / Redundant fans / Redundant power supplies / ExaGrid software / 19-inch rack-mount chassis |
Application Support |
- Veeam Backup & Replication
- Veritas Backup Exec/NetBackup
- Acronis Backup & Recovery
- Arcserve Backup, D2D & UDP
- Bridgehead
- Carbonite Amanda
- CommVault Simpana
- Dell vRanger
- EMC Networker
- HP Data Protector
- IBM TSM
- Idera SQLsafe
- LiteSpeed for SQL Server
- PHD Virtual Backup
- Red Gate SQL Backup
- StorageCraft ShadowProtect
- Unitrends Enterprise/Virtual
- Zerto Offsite Backup
- POSIX-compliant TAR files
- Oracle (RMAN)
- SQL Dump
|
Site Configurations |
- Scalable from 2TB to 1PB full
backup (7TB to 2.4PB raw) with
25 servers in a GRID
- Mix and match different size/age
server models
- Hub-and-spoke architecture
- ExaGrid sites (one hub and
up to 15 spokes)
- Standard IP WAN connection between sites
- WAN encryption for secure data
transfer
- Bandwidth throttling for WAN
efficiency
|
Power |
Frequency: 50-60 Hz / Voltage: 100-240 VAC, Two NEMA 5-15R 3-prong receptacles/appliance
Country kits available for international orders
EX2000 and EX3000: 220W (1.83A @ 120VAC)
EX5000 thru EX13000E: 270W (2.25A @ 120VAC)
EX21000E: 263W (2.2A @ 120VAC)
EX32000E: 375W (3.13A @ 120VAC)
EX40000E: 336W (2.8A @ 120VAC) |
Temperature |
10o to 35o C (50o to 95o F) |
Humidity |
20% to 80% non-condensing |
Regulatory Approvals |
- UL/CSA 60950-1 2d Ed.
- IEC 60950 - 1:2005s
- EN 6095 - 1:2006
- FCC Class A
- CB Certificate
- ICES-003 Issue 4
- EN55024:1998 +A1:2001 + A2:2003
- EN55022:2006 + A1:2007
- AS/NZS CISPR 22:2006
- RoHS Compliant
- WEEE Declaration EU Directive
|
Cooling (Operating) |
EX2000 and EX3000: 751 BTU/hr
EX5000 thru EX13000E (including -SEC):
922 BTU/hr
EX21000E (including -SEC): 900 BTU/hr
EX32000E (including -SEC): 1280 BTU/hr
EX40000E (including -SEC): 1147 BTU/hr |
† Maximum power varies by country