Enterprise Strategy Group Getting to the bigger truth. ESG Lab Validation Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance Simple Tiered Archive Storage for Complex Workflows By Tony Palmer, Senior ESG Lab Analyst June 2016 This ESG Lab Report was commissioned by Quantum and is distributed under license from ESG.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 2 Contents Introduction... 3 Summary... 3 Background... 3 Quantum Artico... 4 ESG Lab Validation... 5 Getting Started Configuration... 5 ESG Lab Testing... 5 Policy Classes... 9 ESG Lab Testing... 9 Policy Execution Storing and Protecting Data... 12 ESG Lab Testing... 12 ESG Lab Validation Highlights... 16 Issues to Consider... 16 The Bigger Truth... 17 Appendix... 18 ESG Lab Reports The goal of ESG Lab reports is to educate IT professionals about data center technology products for companies of all types and sizes. ESG Lab reports are not meant to replace the evaluation process that should be conducted before making purchasing decisions, but rather to provide insight into these emerging technologies. Our objective is to go over some of the more valuable feature/functions of products, show how they can be used to solve real customer problems and identify any areas needing improvement. ESG Lab's expert third-party perspective is based on our own hands-on testing as well as on interviews with customers who use these products in production environments.
Introduction Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 3 This report examines Quantum s Artico active archive appliance, powered by Quantum s StorNext 5 data management technology. It focuses on how Artico provides data access, protection, retention, and archive as part of a critical user workflow, defined as an orchestrated and repeatable pattern of business activity usually depicted as a sequence of operations designed to provide products, services, or information. ESG Lab examined configuration, management, policy creation, and the performance of the system in the context of storing and retrieving files. Additional testing included an examination of Artico s integration with third-party data mover applications and cloud repositories. Though ESG Lab s focus in this report was Artico, Quantum s Xcellis product contains the same NAS and StorNext technology and offers a superset of the functionality of Artico for larger or more complex environments. Summary ESG Lab validated that a Quantum Artico appliance provides an easy to configure and manage tiered archive that is easily integrated into organizations existing workflows. Artico demonstrated tight integration with tape, object storage, and the Q-Cloud repository while policy-based data management provided for data movement, protection/data resiliency, retention, and encryption as needed. ESG Lab confirmed that Artico s standard NAS interface made it easy for organizations to give users and applications the ability to archive data on demand and completely transparently. Data movement software can provide additional automation for significant savings in time and effort by leveraging Artico for existing workflows. Background As shown in Figure 1, ESG research indicates that managing data growth and improving data backup and recovery are once again in the top five most-cited IT priorities. 1 In the same survey, 32% of respondents cited business process improvements as a top justification for IT expenditures, and 46% of businesses reported using cloud infrastructure services for data backup and archive. To address all of these initiatives at once, an intelligent archiving solution would need to plug in to businesses workflows and automate data movement across tiers of storage and into the cloud. Figure 1. Top Five IT Priorities for 2016 Top five most important IT priorities over the next 12 months. (Percent of respondents, N=633, ten responses accepted) Cybersecurity initiatives 37% Business intelligence/data analytics initiatives Managing data growth Data integration Improving data backup and recovery 23% 22% 21% 20% Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2016 1 Source: ESG Research Report, 2016 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February, 2016.
Quantum Artico Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 4 Quantum Artico is a NAS appliance built on Quantum StorNext 5 software. Artico is designed to reduce costs by storing content on economical mass storage and increase productivity by offering NAS access to deep content pools for active sharing and production workflows. Artico is engineered to eliminate the lengthy delay and IT department involvement to retrieve data from traditional deep archives, to make archiving more acceptable and transparent to data consumers. Artico creates a multi-tiered archive engineered to scale from terabytes to petabytes of capacity, online and nondisruptively. When files land on disk, after a short delay five minutes of no activity by default all copies defined by policy are made on all secondary tiers at once. Then, based on timers defined in policies, data is truncated from local disk based on idle time, also defined by policy. When a truncated file is accessed through Artico, the file is retrieved to local disk. Figure 2. Quantum Artico Source: Enterprise Strategy Group, 2016 Artico integrates with Quantum s Lattus Object Storage, Scalar tape libraries, Q-Cloud Archive, and Q-Cloud Vault to provide a protected, tiered archive that moves data to archive storage while keeping it accessible to users and applications as needed, completely transparently. Organizations can specify how long data remains on Artico s internal disk, providing control and enabling tuning of the environment to meet the needs of the business. Granular storage policies ensure that multiple data sets with different retention and protection requirements can be protected and retained at precisely the level required. Quantum designed Artico to be easy to integrate into a workflow, supporting multiple methods of data ingest. Artico s NAS interface allows users to drag and drop files into an Artico-managed folder, and enables support for virtually any application that can write to NAS. Artico also supports application-directed archiving with an expanding number of applications listed alphabetically: 2 Commvault 2 This list is current as of the end of Calendar Quarter One, 2016.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 5 Dell Secure Copy iternity Compliant Archive Software Rocket Arkivio Varonis Data Transport Engine and DatAdvantage Veritas Enterprise Vault Where some of these applications provide data movement options that can assess an organization s data and incorporate policies to move data from existing primary storage to Artico, Artico allows organizations to set policies that control data movement from internal disk to Q-Cloud Archive, Lattus Object Storage, and Scalar tape libraries. The solutions are designed, tested, and qualified by Quantum, in cooperation with the independent software vendors (ISVs). ESG Lab Validation ESG Lab performed hands-on evaluation and testing of Artico at Quantum s facility in Englewood, Colorado. Testing was designed to demonstrate how Artico provides transparent data access, protection, retention, and archive that can support existing workflows transparently. As defined above, workflows are simply orchestrated business processes designed to provide products, services, or information to the organization or its customers. Also of interest was the ease of configuration and management of the system and integration with third-party applications. Getting Started Configuration ESG Lab looked at the steps and procedures to integrate Quantum Artico into an existing environment that contained multiple tiers of archive targets. ESG Lab Testing First, ESG Lab created the file systems that would be used by Artico for data storage, shown at the top of Figure 3. Figure 3. Quantum Artico File System Local Target Configuration Figure 3 also shows the local targets used by Quantum Artico Quantum Scalar tape libraries over Fibre Channel, and Lattus Object Storage over TCP/IP.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 6 As shown in Figure 4, to use Lattus object storage, the administrator simply creates a new storage bucket using the Artico GUI. Figure 4. Creating a Bucket with Quantum Artico Artico automatically creates a new namespace on Lattus, so that the new bucket is ready for use on Artico and Lattus in one step without the need to visit the Lattus GUI. Figure 5. Artico Automatic Storage Bucket Creation on Quantum Lattus
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 7 With the local destinations configured, ESG Lab configured Artico to use Q-Cloud archive. Q-Cloud archive is completely integrated with Artico, so configuration required just the entry of a license key. Figure 6. Quantum Artico Cloud Destination Configuration Once all the targets were configured, ESG Lab took a look at the Artico Dashboard. Figure 7. The Quantum Artico Dashboard The dashboard provides an administrator with an at-a-glance view of the health and status of every element of the archive environment. The file systems that users and applications mount, the onsite tape libraries and drives, object stores, and cloud repositories are all represented on a single pane of glass with simple indicators of health and capacity utilization, and the ability to drill down into issues with a single click.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 8 Figure 8. StorNext Connect ESG Lab also looked at StorNext Connect, which provides guided installation, management, performance monitoring, and analytics. StorNext Connect is accessible from a desktop browser as well as in mobile and tablet versions to provide both visibility and insight into system performance and control when and where it s needed. Figure 9. StorNext Connect Mobile Management
Policy Classes Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 9 Quantum Artico uses Policy Classes to control the movement of data across the tiers of the archive. Put simply, a Policy Class is a set of rules used to determine the behavior of data. Policy Classes are applied at the directory level and specify when and where files are stored on the available tiers. They can be completely automatic, or triggered by a schedule, capacity, the time since last access, or controlled manually via CLI or the Web Services API. Policy Classes also determine the archive tier the data should be stored on, the number of copies and versions to be retained, and when files may be truncated from the local disk in the Artico appliance. ESG Lab Testing ESG Lab explored Quantum Artico Storage Manager Policy definition, with a goal of examining the rules and actions available to administrators. Figure 10. Creating Quantum Artico Storage Manager Policies First, a simple policy named ESG was created. This policy was configured to maintain just one copy of data in the Q-Cloud Archive. ESG Lab clicked Edit to look at the rules making up the policy. As seen in Figure 11, administrators can specify a very granular set of rules defining the movement and placement of the file. File versioning, data integrity, media cleanup, and cloud encryption are all configurable options.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 10 Figure 11. Quantum Artico Storage Manager Policy Rules It s also important to note that Artico storage policies can manage multiple associated directories to allow multiple groups of users or applications with the same policy requirements to be managed by the same policy, simplifying administration. Figure 12. Quantum Artico Storage Manager Policy Managed Locations
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 11 Why This Matters Managing data growth and improving data backup and recovery are once again among the top five most-cited IT priorities in ESG s annual IT spending intentions survey. 3 These two issues are perennial, having remained in the top five for the last four years running. This is not surprising considering that, as datasets grow, backup windows extend to accommodate the additional data and recovery times increase. An effective archive solution can help mitigate these challenges by removing aging data to a tiered archive and in doing so, removing it from the backup and recovery process, saving time, resources, and money. ESG Lab was able to rapidly configure Quantum Artico to provide a multi-tiered archive target that could be accessed by users and applications to archive data using standard NAS protocols. Configuration via the Artico dashboard was extremely fast and simple because integration with tape, object storage, and the cloud are built-in. ESG Lab found StorNext Connect to be easy to use as well. Accessible from the desktop via a browser and from mobile devices via an app, StorNext Connect provided guided installation, insight into system status, single-screen management, control, and visibility. 3 Source: ESG Research Report, 2016 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February, 2016.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 12 Policy Execution Storing and Protecting Data Quantum Artico Policy Classes control three basic functions: Store which creates copies on secondary storage. Truncate which removes data blocks from Artico disk (but maintains the file system metadata to preserve data access). Emergency which overrides certain settings if the Artico disk approaches 100% full. By default all Artico policies are executed automatically on all data residing in a managed directory. ESG Lab Testing ESG Lab validated Quantum Artico policy execution by first configuring a policy on the Artico directory \ev\data. This policy automatically stored, or copied to secondary storage, all files in the directory. The policy also automatically truncated the files after all secondary copies were created. These policies set up automatic storage tiering, moving data from a higher tier that has faster access but uses more costly, limited resources to a lower tier that uses slower, less costly, and more abundant resources. Files were truncated off Artico disk immediately to facilitate testing of retrieval from secondary tiers. In a typical production environment, files would remain on Artico disk as long as necessary for managed disk capacity. Unused files would be automatically truncated only when additional disk space was needed for new incoming data. In smaller applications where the Artico disk never fills up, active data will always be on disk, but automatically protected on secondary storage, rendering backup unnecessary. Next, ESG Lab configured Quantum Artico as a Veritas Enterprise Vault store. Using the Enterprise Vault configuration, we specified the Artico SMB share \\10.20.219.118\ev\data as the location for the data store, as shown in Figure 13. Figure 13. Configuring Artico as a Veritas Enterprise Vault Store Using a script, we created a directory tree of files. The tree consisted of ten top-level directories. Each of the ten top-level directories included ten second-level directories, for a total of 100 second-level directories. Each of the 100 second-level directories included ten randomly sized files filled with random data, for a total of 1,000 files.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 13 We manually executed an Enterprise Vault task, which archived the files, sending them to the Quantum Artico appliance. As shown in Figure 14, we executed archiving task r7108 in normal mode. Figure 14. Manually Archiving with Veritas Enterprise Vault The Enterprise Vault task results are shown in Figure 15. Task r7108 completed with no errors, and archived a total of 384.69 MB. Figure 15. Enterprise Vault Archive Task Status Once the Enterprise Vault task completed and the files sat unchanged on the Artico disk for 5 minutes, Artico policies automatically copied them from Artico disk to both the previously configured tape library and the Lattus Object Store.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 14 Artico then truncated the files, freeing up Artico disk space. Because the file system metadata remained in place, the files appeared in the share as if they are still on disk, but offline. Figure 16 shows the file size on disk before and after truncation. ESG Lab used Windows File Explorer to view the Enterprise Vault archive store located on the Quantum Artico by pointing File Explorer to \\10.20.219.118\ev\data\directory-1\sub-directory-1, where all files in the directory had their offline bit set. Figure 16. Enterprise Vault Store on Quantum Artico-Truncated Files To retrieve a file, ESG Lab double-clicked on the file name ltfs-file-1. Artico automatically retrieved the file from secondary storage, and the file was readable. ESG Lab compared the contents with the original file to verify that Enterprise Vault and Artico had correctly archived the file contents. In the directory listing shown in Figure 17, the offline (O) attribute has been set for each file except ltfs-file-1, demonstrating that ltfs-file-1 had been retrieved on local disk, while all of the remaining files were still truncated by Artico. Windows used a different icon for the offline files.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 15 Figure 17. Enterprise Vault Store on Quantum Artico Finally, ESG Lab performed a hard reset of an active node while writing a large data set to Artico. The copy operation continued and access to the data was uninterrupted. Why This Matters In a recent ESG research survey, 35% of respondents cited return on investment as one of the most important considerations for justifying IT investments, while 32% cited business process improvement, and 19% cited a reduction in capital expenditures. 4 For IT, tiered storage matches storage media costs with both data value and the frequency of data access, reducing capital expenditures (CapEx), improving business processes and reducing operational expenditures (OpEx) through efficiency, and increasing return on investment. ESG Lab verified that Quantum Artico tiered NAS storage could be configured as a data store for user workflow applications such as Veritas Enterprise Vault. ESG Lab was able to use Artico s policy engine to configure complete, granular control over the behavior, protection, security, and lifespan of data. Artico automatically executed polices to copy data to secondary storage and truncate data on Artico internal disk. Truncated data was automatically retrieved as required, but otherwise occupied slower, less costly media, conserving critical, faster, more costly media for more important, more frequently accessed data. 4 Source: ESG Research Report, 2016 IT Spending Intentions Survey, February, 2016.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 16 ESG Lab Validation Highlights ESG Lab was able to rapidly configure Quantum Artico to provide a multi-tiered archive target that could be accessed by users and applications to archive data using standard NAS protocols. Configuration via the Artico dashboard was extremely fast and simple because integration with tape, object storage, and the cloud are built-in. ESG Lab found StorNext Connect to be accessible from the desktop via a browser and from mobile devices via an app, providing guided installation, insight into system status, single-screen management, control, and visibility. ESG Lab was able to use Artico s policy engine to configure complete, granular control over the behavior, protection, security, and lifespan of the data. ESG Lab verified that Quantum Artico tiered NAS storage integrated tightly with user workflow applications such as Veritas Enterprise Vault. Artico automatically executed tiering polices to copy data to secondary storage and truncate data on Artico internal disk. Tiered data occupied slower, less costly media, conserving critical, faster, more costly media for more important, more frequently accessed data. Data was transparently and automatically retrieved as required. Artico proved to be highly available, providing continuous access to data during a hard power cycle of an active node. Issues to Consider Testing for this report was performed in a controlled lab environment. Due to the many variables in each production environment, capacity planning and testing in an organization s own environment is recommended. Artico s policy-based data behavior control mechanism was robust and comprehensive, providing fine-grained control over archived data throughout its lifecycle. With the deep insight into metadata, it would be a natural extension of the product for Artico to be able to perform deep analytics on files in order to provide organizations with insight into the distribution of files based on file types, sizes, ages, or any other metadata.
The Bigger Truth Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 17 While organizations data footprints typically expand, the window to protect and retrieve that data does not. In fact, as more businesses adopt a global always-on paradigm, backup widows shrink. Archiving can help address this issue since archived data is removed from the active pool and does not need to be backed up. An intelligent archiving solution must plug in to businesses workflows, automate data movement across tiers of storage and into the cloud, and make access and retrieval as transparent as possible. Quantum s Artico active archive storage solutions are designed to be a comprehensive answer to the data retention needs of organizations of all sizes, across all industries. From enterprise data centers to remote and branch offices, Artico provides automated storage tiering, universal drag-and-drop access, application-directed and utility-facilitated data movement, and hybrid cloud enablement, allowing organizations to archive to private cloud solutions or the public cloud, including Quantum s Q-Cloud Archive or Q-Cloud Vault. Artico combines a disk-based NAS with the ability to support multiple archive architectures, including disks, tape, object stores, and cloud storage. Automated tiering provides the most efficient use of resources, reserving more costly, highperformance disk storage for frequently accessed data, and moving less frequently accessed data to less costly storage media. With Artico, Quantum future-proofs archiving the details of the evolving archiving storage media are abstracted away, and users interact with the familiar, easy to use file structure presented by Artico. ESG Lab was able to use the Quantum Artico dashboard to rapidly configure Artico as a multi-tiered archive target, leveraging built-in tape, object-storage, and cloud support. Artico s policy engine provided the tools to configure complete, granular control over the behavior, protection, security, and lifespan of the data. StorNext Connect provided insight into system status, environment management, and performance, through both a desktop browser and a mobile device app. Using standard NAS protocols, ESG Lab was able to archive and access data, using both the standard Windows drag-anddrop interface and archiving applications such as Veritas Enterprise Vault. Artico automatically executed tiering polices, copying data to less costly secondary storage and offsite to the cloud while truncating the data on Artico s local disk storage. Tiered data was transparently and automatically retrieved when accessed. Over the years, Quantum has repeatedly shown ESG that it has an innovative approach to solving IT challenges. Artico proves that point yet again. Artico s standard NAS interface makes it easy to give users and applications the ability to archive and retrieve data on demand and completely transparently, while providing significant savings in time, effort, and cost by automatically integrating a self-protecting archive into existing workflows.
Lab Validation: Quantum Artico Active Archive Appliance 18 Appendix Table 1. ESG Lab Test Bed Archive Hardware and Software Version Quantum Artico 5.3.0 Quantum StorNext Connect 1.1.0 Archive Destinations Configuration/Version Quantum Scalar i6000 Tape Library IBM LTO6 Tape Drives Quantum Lattus Object Storage 3.6.0 Q-Cloud Archive N/A
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