Storage
The storage configuration subsystem allows the user to configure system storage, including the addition, modification, and deletion of new storage targets on the system. In addition to this, space allocated for backups and vaulting may be modified at run-time. This feature is not available on all system models.
When entering the Storage screen, the user will see the list of the defined Storage targets on the system and their primary properties: name, how the storage is being used, storage type, mount point, size, and whether or not it is online. You may add storage by clicking on the "Add Storage" button at the bottom of the screen, or modify an existing storage target by selecting one of the items from the list of storage items defined.
When adding storage, you must first specify the name and how it will be used, i.e., the "Purpose" of the storage. Valid storage purposes are:
- Backups - by default, there is a storage entry defined for storage on the system itself, called Internal. This is what is commonly called /backups and is the primary file system on the system itself. For virtual systems, users can add external storage with a Backups purpose, e.g., an external datastore located on a SAN connected to an ESX host.
- Vaulting - storage can be added for Vaulting to a virtual system, e.g., vaulting storage on a SAN connected to an ESX host. For physical systems that are vaults, vault space is on /backups and no additional vaulting storage may be added.
- Archiving - storage that is added as archive media, either a SAN LUN or a NAS.
- Protect - storage that is to be mounted to the system itself for protection, e.g., a user who wishes to map a NAS to the system
so that the files may be backed up.
When adding a NAS for protection, not only is the storage item created, which creates and mounts the NAS, also a NAS client is
added (which is an "aliased" client to the system itself),
and two new selection lists are created for backup of the NAS to the system:
- an inclusion list which includes just the mount point of the NAS being added, and
- an exclusion list that excludes everything except the NAS mount
point directory.
Note that if other NAS protected storage is added after this list is created, the user will need to manually exclude any other directories that are associated with these storage mount points. The NAS client is not automatically added to a schedule. You should edit and verify the files in the exclusion list are accurate before adding the NAS client to a schedule, to ensure that everything you need to omit from the backup is excluded.
To remove storage with purpose Protect and its corresponding clients and selection lists, you should delete the storage by clicking on a storage item in the list and then selecting "Delete Storage". When you do this, the corresponding NAS client will be deleted, unless it is part of an existing schedule, and the NAS inclusion and exclusion lists will be deleted unless they are used in an existing schedule. You can delete the NAS client separately from the NAS if you wish by going through the Clients, Networking, and Notifications > Clients interface, but deleting it in this way will not delete the storage item and will also not remove the previously-generated inclusion and exclusion lists for the NAS.
When adding or modifying storage, the user must also specify properties that may be specific for a given storage type, e.g., the IP of a NAS, the name of a CIFS share, SAN login credentials, and SAN or FC targets and LUNs. Note that there are "helper" functions on the Storage addition page in which the user can get the list of targets for a given IP address and port, and then get the list of LUNs available on a specified SAN target. Ones all the required fields are filled-out, press "Confirm" to add or modify the storage, or "Cancel" to cancel the operation. Note that storage properties may be viewed but that storage must be taken "Offline" prior to modification.
Moving back to the top of the Storage Configuration screen, there are two fields, a drop-down that allows the user to choose a balance between backup performance and retention, and a button that allows the user to allocate the storage space on the system between backups, vaulted backups, and failover virutalization (used by Windows and VMware Instant Recovery on systems that support these features).
Storage Allocation
When you click on "Storage Allocation", a check is performed to see if the system's storage is configurable. If not supported, the user is notified. If the feature is supported, storage space allocated to backups, vaulting, and failover virtualization is shown as a pie chart. The user can increase or decrease the amount of space allocated to backups, vaulting, and failover virtualization by changing the numbers for each value in the fields under the pie chart or by dragging the edges of the slices of the pie to resize each area.
At the bottom of the screen the user may either select the "Cancel" button in order to cancel the operation or the "Confirm" button in order to confirm the changes. Before the changes are made, the user should ensure that enough space is allocated for existing backups, vaulting, or failover virtualization.