Using Catalogic DPX with Microsoft Azure Cloud

1 © 2017 Catalog Software, Inc.
Catalogic DPX™ 4.5
Using MS Azure Cloud with
Catalogic DPX

© Catalogic Software, Inc.™, 2017. All rights reserved.
This publication contains proprietary and confidential material, and is only for use by licensees
of Catalogic DPX™, Catalogic BEX™, or Catalogic ECX™ proprietary software systems. This publication
may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form, except with written permission from
Catalogic Software.
Catalogic, Catalogic Software, DPX, BEX, ECX, and NSB are trademarks of Catalogic Software, Inc.
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names used herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners

Using MS Azure Cloud with Catalogic DPX
Introduction
DPX is a Catalogic Data Protection solution which facilitates protection of
heterogeneous sources (virtual and physical servers running different Operating
Systems and a variety of applications). DPX supports backup destination servers
and devices comprised of tape libraries, standalone tape drives, disk arrays,
NetApp filers and more. Diversity of destinations provides a convenient way to
use available resources and to plan protection solutions based on projected data
size, data growth, suitable fabric and other internal and external factors. Recently,
Catalogic has certified and added cloud targets to the mixture of possible
destinations. Cloud availability facilitates and widens DPX customer use cases and
creates a virtually infinite data array for storing and retrieving corporate data.
DPX Data Mover Architecture
As stated above, DPX supports disk directory as a destination (target) for backups.
Disk directory is used for file level and NDMP backups. Often data is retained on
disk for a short period of time to provide the fastest restore time, with
subsequent migration to tape. A disk directory device is a directory location
predefined on a volume visible from a “device server” and defined within DPX as
part of a “Device Cluster” which is a hierarchical subdivision within the DPX
Enterprise.
As illustrated on the screenshot below, the definition includes:
● Logical node name. This is a server with attached disk which is a part of the
DPX Enterprise, referred to as a “Device Server.”
● Device ID. This is a predefined location on a disk volume attached to the
device server. Best results are achieved when the disk is a local array or
iSCSI or FC connected directly to the server. NFS / CIFS share is also a
supported configuration, however it must be defined as a UNC name and
does not support all DPX backup types.

Microsoft Azure Setup
Microsoft Azure has developed mechanisms for accessing the cloud through a
variety of methodologies including the use of an iSCSI LUN. This iSCSI
methodology presents a gateway to the cloud by allowing a LUN to be attached to
a defined DPX Device Server, making it appear as a local drive, and enabling it to
be used as a backup destination. The MS Azure methodology used for this process
is called StorSimple.
There is ample documentation available describing MS Azure, best practices, and
deployment. In a nutshell, you will need to deploy a virtual machine on your
Virtual environment (VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V). This virtual appliance
(Gateway VM) provides access to the Cloud and serves as a cache buffer for

storing and forwarding data. After the appliance is set and configured, you will be
able to define an iSCSI LUN that can be attached to the server of your choice. This
process can be depicted as below:
DPX Master
Server
DPX Device Server
Virtual or Physical
Hypervisor
iSCSI
Microsoft Azure
Storage Area Network, Network
attached or Direct Attached storage
Cloud Storage
MS Azure Virtual Array – gateway
to cloud
Your Data Center
INITIATOR
TARGET
Since deployment and setting up of an MS Azure storage gateway is an essential
step for providing the iSCSI LUN to be used as a DPX destination device, following
are certain individual actions describing the overall process (in this example,
VMware is used for the gateway).
Before starting, you must understand and plan for the requirements. Refer to
information online regarding MS Azure. Initial information can be found here.
Note that to follow this document you deploy a gateway on premises – a virtual
machine in your hypervisor environment.
Initially you must register with Microsoft to have access to Azure which allows
you to download an OVA file for the gateway, manage your subscription, create
volumes, monitor data, etc. As you can see from the screenshot below, you start
by downloading an OVA and establishing system parameters for your virtual
machine, which you will use for provisioning of a gateway.

After the VM (Virtual Array) is created and deployed, make a note of the IP
address and URL – you will use them to complete local setup and registration with
Microsoft.
Keep in mind while you will setup your Virtual Array, you will be given a key which
will identify you and your devices on the MS Azure cloud. This key must be
entered once, however we recommend keeping it in a safe place.
To configure the device, use your host IP address and login to the Virtual Array
you created. After successful login, you will be guided through several steps.

The most important steps are “Device settings” where you choose device type
(iSCSI) and “Cloud settings” where you’re entering your ID to connect to the cloud
and configuring cloud storage. Screenshots are below:

After registration is done, continue to the Azure Portal. You should see a newly
created device with status, “Ready to Setup.” After several configuration steps
you will bring your device online.
The next step is adding a volume. You will be guided through several steps to
create a volume, with the last step to attach the volume to the host. An initiator

name is required; it can be obtained from the iSCSI initiator property on a host to
which your volume will be connected.
After volume and server are set in the MS Azure portal, you can add this volume
to the server you intend to use as device server within DPX.
Device Server Setup
After the above procedure is completed, you need to set up a Windows server
which will be used as a device server in Catalogic DPX. Setting up of the Windows
server follows the regular administrative procedure to attach and configure an
iSCSI disk device to the server. If you want to use a Linux server for this role,
follow the guidelines for Linux regarding how to scan and attach an iSCSI disk to
the server. The following screenshots are taken from Windows 2008 R2; they may
look different for other versions of Windows Server, however the substance of
the procedure is the same.

1. Bring up an iSCSI initiator on a Windows control panel to scan available
targets using the IP address of the MS Azure Virtual Array. Find the specific
target and connect to it by pressing the “Connect” button. You will get
information similar to the below.
2. Connect to the target. (Status will be changed to “connected”.)
3. Proceed to the disk manager; you should see unknown devices.
4. In the Disk Management window, the mounted volumes will appear as
shown in the following illustration. Right-click the discovered volume (click
the disk name), and then click Online.

5. Proceed through the steps to bring the volume online and format it, so the
volume appears in a list of healthy available volumes.
After the new volume is configured and visible as a local drive, it can be used as a
destination for file level backup and NDMP backup. Check the DPX documentation
regarding setup and running of these job types. Keep in mind that the data saved
on this drive is transferred to the cloud and the performance of writing data on it
depends on several factors which are external to DPX.
Currently Microsoft offers a StarWind VTL solution to be used with disk devices.
VTL consists of control mechanism and disk devices which can be locally attached
to the server or served by MS Azure Virtual Array (cloud). Documentation for
StarWind can be found here, its configuration is outside of the scope of this
document.

Using Catalogic DPX with Microsoft Azure Cloud

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