Dell EMC Isilon with Cohesity DataProtect

Dell EMC Isilon with Cohesity DataProtect

Abstract This guide outlines the Cohesity DataProtect deployment guide for Dell EMC Isilon Data Protection. Table of Contents About This Guide...2 Intended Audience...2 Cohesity Architecture...3 Configuration Overview...4 Required Isilon Permissions...4 Register Dell EMC Isilon Cluster...4 Configure Protection Policy...4 Configure Protection Job...4 Performing Backups...6 Performing Restores...7 File Level Recovery...7 Recover NAS...8 Summary...10 About the Author...10 Version History...10 1.

About This Guide This paper details the steps and best practices to deploy Cohesity DataProtect for protecting Dell EMC Isilon. Cohesity DataProtect provides a comprehensive, scale-out and flexible data protection solution for enterprise organizations. In this guide, IT administrators are defined as individuals who have the role of managing storage and data protection of applications and servers (virtual or physical) in a data center. With the latest Cohesity DataProtectd, we added support for Dell EMC Isilon. IT administrators can leverage Cohesity DataProtect for data protection of Dell EMC Isilon Servers. Note: In this document, a DELL EMC Isilon cluster is also referred as an Isilon cluster. Intended Audience This paper is written for IT administrators and DBAs familiar with managing data protection of Dell EMC Isilon clusters. Cohesity recommends having familiarity with the following: Cohesity DataProtect Cohesity DataPlatform 2.

Cohesity Architecture Cohesity delivers a hyper-converged, web-scale platform that consolidates all secondary storage and data services onto a single, efficient solution. Cohesity simplifies data protection, consolidates file and object services, provides instant access to test/dev copies, and performs in-place searches and analytics, all on a software-defined platform that spans from the edge to the cloud. Cohesity s scale-out distributed file system was built from the ground up to ensure complete scalability to enable organizations to flexibly grow their environment by adding nodes to a cluster. With this scalability, organizations can eliminate the costs of data migrations and forklift upgrades, while benefiting from the simplicity of a homogenous solution. Cohesity dramatically simplifies data protection across the enterprise. Cohesity s integrated backup, archive, replication, disaster recovery, and public/private cloud support, combined with its inherent context awareness, eliminates the need for cataloging software, separate backup software, and other ancillary backup infrastructure. Figure 1 shows a high level overview of how Cohesity DataProtect protects a Dell EMC Isilon cluster. The initial configuration requirement would be to register a Dell EMC Isilon cluster and then configuring a NAS backup policy with Cohesity DataProtect. Figure 1 Dell EMC Isilon with Cohesity DataProtect When a Cohesity Protection Job is executed, the Dell EMC Isilon cluster initiates native snapshots of the protected shares and exports through Dell EMC Isilon OneFS API calls. The snapshot is mounted locally on Cohesity, backed up and unmounted. With Cohesity DataProtect for Dell EMC Isilon, native snapshots are leveraged for data protection, which provides the IT administrator the ability to perform incremental forever backups while preserving ACLs and Extended attributes on SMB. 3.

Configuration Overview Cohesity DataPlaform with Cohesity DataProtect requires the following to protect an Isilon cluster: Cohesity 5.0.2+ or later Isilon OneFS Version 8.0.0.2+ or later The configuration of Cohesity DataProtect for Dell EMC Isilon Cluster is divided into the following tasks: Register Dell EMC Isilon Cluster Create Cohesity Protection Job Required Isilon Permissions The minimum permissions require to protect a Dell EMC Isilon cluster with Cohesity DataProtect requires the following: Name Description Privileges Palteform API Access to Isilon API s Read-only Auth Verify Users and Passwords Read-only Cluster Obtain cluster identity and settings Read-only Network Obtain network interfaces Read-only NFS Read NFS server settings Read-only SMB Read SMB server settings Read-only Snapshot Fetch, create, and delete snapshos for shares and exports Note: There are no proxy servers required with Cohesity DataProtect for Dell EMC Isilon clusters. Read/Write Register Dell EMC Isilon Cluster The process to register a Dell EMC Isilon Cluster with Cohesity DataProtect is simple. From the Cohesity dashboard, select Sources from the Protection drop down menu and click on Register Source. Select NAS to begin the Dell EMC Isilon cluster registration (see figure 2). It is a requirement to use HTTP port 8080 for Isilon cluster registration. Figure 2 Register Dell EMC Isilon with Cohesity DataProtect 4.

To protect SMB shares, the SMB credentials for registration must have at least Read-Only permissions to the account on the Isilon SMB share details. For example, if the SMB share is in an active directory domain, the user credential in the Isilon SMB Share Details > User and Groups should have a minimum of Read-only permission. Click on Register to complete the Isilon cluster registration. Configure Protection Policy From the Cohesity dashboard, select Protection > Policy Manager to create a protection policy for the Isilon cluster. For example, figure 3 shows an Isilon protection policy that protects an Isilon cluster shares and exports every day with a retention period of 90 days. Figure 3 Cohesity Protection Policy IT administrators can also take advantage of Cohesity s replication and archival for additional data protection requirements and for DR purposes across multiple data centers and regions. Use Cohesity s Protection Policy wizard and complete the protection policy creation. Configure Protection Job From the Cohesity UI, create a new NAS Protection Job (see figure 4). Use the Protection Job wizard and walk through the configuration process. Figure 4 NAS Volume Protection Job 5.

In step 3, select the registered Isilon Cluster and click on Next. In step 4, use Select Objects to select the Isilon cluster shares and exports to be protected with Cohesity DataProtect (see figure 5). Figure 5 Select Objects for Isilon NAS with Cohesity DataProtect After selecting the shares and exports for data protection, use the Protection Job wizard and complete the creation of a NAS Volume Protection Job. Performing Backups Using the NAS protection job, the IT administrator can select Run Now and manually start the Isilon cluster protection job. Figure 6 shows some examples of successful protection job runs. Figure 6 Successful NAS job runs with Isilon cluster Backups of Isilon cluster shares and exports, with Cohesity DataProtect, allows any IT administrator to restore to alternate filer as needed. In addition to data mobility, a Cohesity DataPlatform also introduces predictability and eliminate RTO concerns because of Cohesity DataProtect Instant Restore features. IT administrators can leverage Cohesity s incremental forever backup to protect Isilon clusters. 6.

Performing Restores With Cohesity DataProtect, IT administrators get a web-scale solution that supports unlimited snapshots and clones, distributed file system for consolidating backup storage, files, objects, test/dev copies and in-place analytics. Cohesity DataProtect, a hyper-converged secondary storage platform offers modern data center unparalleled scalability to address growing IT business requirements. Isilon clusters protected with Cohesity DataProtect supports the following recovery process: File level recovery Recover Dell EMC Isilon cluster shares and exports using Cohesity s Recover NAS File Level Recovery With Cohesity NAS indexing enabled, IT administrators can recover Isilon shares and exports at the file level. In the Cohesity Recovery UI, select Recover > Files and Folders option (see figure 7). Type in the filename and use Change Filters, for additional filtering if needed. In the example, the file search has additional filtering by the protection job. Figure 7 Recover Files Click on the selected file for recovery. In the next step (see figure 8), select Download File to recover the file. Figure 8 File Level Recovery Cohesity DataProtect will recover and download the file directly to your Windows, Linux or Mac from the web browser. 7.

Recover NAS Cohesity s Recover NAS feature allows IT administrator, to select Isilon share to be recovered from any Cohesity DataProtect protection job run. With Recover NAS, Isilon shares can be instantaneously mounted as a Cohesity View on any Linux or Windows system that has access to the Cohesity DataPlatform. From the Cohesity dashboard, select Recovery. In the Recovery page, select Recover > NAS (see figure 9). Figure 9 Recover NAS In Recover NAS, search for the NAS volume. For example, figure 10 shows the protected Isilon shares and exports that can be recovered from previous protection job runs. Figure 10 Recover NAS, search by NAS volume Click on the Isilon cluster NAS volume to recover. The Recover NAS wizard will create a task. In the task, select the Recover Point to choose a point to recover from (see figure 11). In the next step, set the QoS Policy that will be required for the Cohesity View. 8.

Figure 11 Recover NAS, search by NAS volume Click on Create Task to complete the Recover NAS process. Click on Recover to this View: from the recover NAS task. Click on and select NFS or SMB to copy path (see figure 12). Figure 12 Cohesity View of protected Isilon share/export The Cohesity view can be accessed and mounted from any Linux, Windows, or Mac system for file copies or file services directly from the Cohesity DataPlatform (see figure 13). Figure 13 Cohesity View mounted via SMB In a DR scenario, where data recovery needs to be performed from a secondary data center when the primary site is unavailable, Cohesity DataPlatform with DataProtect ensures business continuity with the least amount of disruption. Cohesity s file recovery provides additional benefits when combined with Cohesity s CloudArchive, users can perform granular recovery of a single file rather than restoring an entire virtual machine from the cloud. 9.

Summary Cohesity DataPlatform with DataProtect provides a comprehensive solution to your data center storage requirements. A Cohesity DataPlatform is not just for backups, but a solution that consolidates data protection, files and objects, and provides instant access to test/dev copies, on a single platform. Data centers with Cohesity DataPlatform solution can also perform in-place searches and analytics. IT administrators, application and database administrators can rely on Cohesity to store and safeguard business applications, and corporate data without compromises. About the Author Dominic Cheah is an IT veteran, currently working for Cohesity as a Technical Marketing Engineer. In this role, Dominic architects, builds, tests, and validates business-critical applications, databases, and virtualization solutions with Cohesity s DataPlatform and DataProtect for on-premise and cloud deployments. Version History Version Date Document Version History Version 1.0 May 2018 Original Document 10.

About Cohesity Cohesity delivers the industry s first solution for secondary storage consolidation. Cohesity enables companies of all sizes to bring order to their data chaos by converging storage workloads, including file services, data protection, Test/Dev, and in-place analytics, onto an infinitely scalable, intelligent data platform. With Cohesity, customers can manage and protect data seamlessly, use it efficiently, and learn from it instantly. Cohesity is headquartered in the heart of Silicon Valley, California with a global presence across the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. 152018 Cohesity, Inc. Address 300 Park Ave., Suite 300, San Jose, CA 95110 Email contact@cohesity.com www.cohesity.com @cohesity 2018 Cohesity. All Rights Reserved. 14. 15.