Sun Microsystems X4500 User Manual

Configuring the Sun Fire

TM

X4500
Server as Network Attached
Archival Storage for Symantec
Enterprise Vault

Tim Thomas
Sun Microsystems
January 2008

2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA

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Table of Contents

Introduction.....................................................................................................................................................1

Solution Description..........................................................................................................................................2

Symantec Enterprise Vault......................................................................................................................................2

Topology of an Enterprise Vault Site........................................................................................................................3

Sun StorageTekTM Archive Manager and Enterprise Vault ..........................................................................................3

Features and Best Practices...............................................................................................................................5

WORM Storage ......................................................................................................................................................5

SAMBA Support......................................................................................................................................................5

SAM Archiving Policies............................................................................................................................................5

Testing the Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage for the Enterprise Vault/SAM Solution........6

Hardware and Software .........................................................................................................................................6

Performance Tests..................................................................................................................................................6

Test Results...........................................................................................................................................................7

Configuring the Solution ...................................................................................................................................8

Configuring the Sun Fire X4500 Server......................................................................................................................8

Configuring Storage Archive Manager....................................................................................................................11

Configuring Enterprise Vault.................................................................................................................................12

Managing the Solution....................................................................................................................................13

Sun Fire X4500 Server...........................................................................................................................................13

SAM....................................................................................................................................................................13

SAMBA ................................................................................................................................................................13

Scaling the Solution........................................................................................................................................15

Appendix: The x4500samconfig Script...............................................................................................................16

Test Mode............................................................................................................................................................16

Resetting a Configured Sun Fire X4500 Server.........................................................................................................17

For More Information......................................................................................................................................18

Introduction

The Sun FireTM X4500 Server is a four-way server with an AMD OpteronTM processor and 12, 24, 36, or 481 TB of storage in
4U (7 inches) of rack space. Compared to a traditional server with added disk arrays, the Sun Fire X4500 Server with 48
SATA II drives in a single system delivers 2 to 5 times the density of storage and saves about 30% to 50% in power at
about 1/2 to 1/3 of the cost. Best of all, bringing data close to the CPU and processing engine increases the data
throughput of the system to the network.

The Sun Fire X4500 Server running the SolarisTM 10 Operating System, Sun StorageTekTM Storage Archive Manager, and
Solaris ZFS delivers a high-density, high-capacity, high-performance, low-cost Network Attached Archival Storage
system.

Figure 1: The Sun Fire X4500 Server

This document describes a Network Attached Archival Storage solution optimized for Symantec Enterprise Vault and
based on the Sun Fire X4500 Server. For anyone wishing to deploy this solution, a configuration script for this solution
should allow a competent person to configure a Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage in just a
few minutes.

See the “For More Information” section for a list of background reading about the hardware and software used to
build this solution.

1 The 36 and 48 TB capacities are scheduled to be available when 750 GB and 1 TB disks are supported.

Configuring the Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage for Symantec Enterprise Vault 1

Solution Description

Symantec Enterprise Vault

Enterprise Vault software is designed to be a long-term, scalable store for unstructured information. Now in its
seventh version, the Enterprise Vault software delivers not only a scalable and robust storage system, but also
provides a wide choice of implementation scenarios addressing storage cost reduction and compliance-driven
retention.

The Enterprise Vault software can be populated by multiple information sources (Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino,
Microsoft SharePoint, File Systems, or customer applications) and, through its business accelerators, provides
seamless interaction for both organization and user exploitation of archived information. The situations that
Enterprise Vault is commonly employed to solve include:

● Application Storage Management: A major use of the Enterprise Vault software is to act as an online archive

for information that is moved from primary storage according to customer-defined policies. This enables the
store size to be controlled and allows applications to focus on their strengths: the handling of incoming
information and accessing of recent and frequently accessed items.

● Retention and Discovery for Compliance: Many organizations are required to keep all electronic information

for long periods of time. This typically includes email, network shares from NAS appliances and Microsoft
Windows based file servers, Microsoft SharePoint content, and instant messages. The Enterprise Vault
software can be used with the Microsoft Exchange journal feature to act as a secure repository for items that
need to be retained for defined periods of time for legal or regulatory reasons.

● Upgrade, Migration, and Consolidation: Reducing storage requirements for Microsoft Exchange, Lotus

Domino, or file servers means that more users can be housed or supported on each server, thus requiring
fewer servers. For example, controlling mailbox size improves Microsoft Exchange system consolidation. In
addition, the Enterprise Vault software can also be used to streamline a migration or upgrade by first
slimming down the primary store and housing the bulk of the data during the process. The import and
elimination of PST files is the strongest example of a migration and consolidation exercise.

● Knowledge Exploitation: The Enterprise Vault software acts as an "information warehouse" for personal and

corporate data, which can then be mined as a knowledge resource using the Enterprise Vault index and
search technology. Its business accelerators, such as Enterprise Vault Compliance and Discovery Accelerators,
offer solutions for regulatory surveillance and legal discovery.

● Operational Excellence: The Enterprise Vault software can increase the operational excellence of any primary

application in, for example, the application's service-level agreement (SLA) for backup. Many organizations
find that because applications such as Microsoft Exchange grow so large, they are no longer able to meet the
SLA for restore operations. By using the Enterprise Vault software to move a majority of data out of the
Microsoft Exchange stores, these SLAs can be planned and achieved. In addition, end users can service their
own requests for old and “lost” information without consuming help desk or administration resources.

Configuring the Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage for Symantec Enterprise Vault 2

Topology of an Enterprise Vault Site

Vault

Servers

Database
Server

Archival Storage

Application

Servers

LAN

LAN

Enterprise Vault is a Microsoft Windows application. A site will have a database server and one or more Vault Servers,
the servers that run the Enterprise Vault software.

Figure 2: Symantec Enterprise Vault Site

Each Vault Server archives data from applications, storing the data as files in Vault Stores. A Vault Store is a logical
storage object managed from within the Enterprise Vault software. Each Vault Store is made of partitions, and each
partition is a directory of archival storage.

Archival storage can be local disks in the Vault Server or direct- or SAN-attached storage arrays, but a typical choice is
some kind of Network Attached Storage (NAS). NAS is popular because of the ease of connectivity from multiple Vault
Servers; Enterprise Vault scales horizontally so cost-effective shared storage is an important part of a solution.

Only archived data is stored on the NAS device/system/appliance. The Database Server stores all its data on local disks
or on direct- or SAN-attached storage arrays. The Vault Servers store their indexes and other metadata on local disks or
on direct- or SAN-attached storage arrays as well.

Another efficiency of the Enterprise Vault software is that it compresses data before storing it, and its Single Instance
Storage (SIS) feature uses file level de-duplication technology to stop multiple copies of the same content from being
stored in a Vault Store partition.

Sun StorageTekTM Archive Manager and Enterprise Vault

Storage Archive Manager (SAM) is a 64-bit policy-driven archiving file system. The SAM's archiver2 process copies files
from the file system to disk and/or tape archives and its releaser2 process frees the space as required. These actions
are based on the policies set by the user for the file system.

2 For an overview of how Storage Archive Manager works see http://blogs.sun.com/timthomas/entry/what_does_sun_storagetek_storage1.

Configuring the Sun Fire X4500 Server as Network Attached Archival Storage for Symantec Enterprise Vault 3