Articles in this issue

• Investment in De-Duplication and Replication Has Big Pay Off
• Tactics and Tips for Protecting Virtual Servers
• Rust Adds De-duplication to the Docket – Cuts Backup and Restore Times
• It's Good to be Green

SOLUTION OVERVIEW

• Two Quantum DXi5500 disk-based backup systems using NAS and VTL
• Tape library
• Tape Technology: LTO-4
• CA ARCserve 11.5 backup software

KEY BENEFITS

• Reduction in disk capacity of nearly 90%
• Backup time reduced by 66%
• Restores that used to take a full day are now done in 5 to 20 minutes

RUST CONSULTING

Founded by Ronald A. Rust, Esq. in 1976, as The Rust Consulting Group, Inc., the Group from the start was a leader in applying computer technology to the practice of law. Using the most advanced computers and technology available, Rust coded millions of documents and built databases in more than 500 cases such as MCI v. AT&T, Westmoreland v. CBS, and the Chem-Dyne environmental case. In 1988, the Group used its legal knowledge and organizational and technical capabilities to begin a new segment of the business - claims administration for class action settlements and bankruptcy cases. The first case was the $45 million Chubb Drought Insurance Settlement. As the claims administration segment of the Group grew, it became a business of its own. In 1995, Rust Consulting, Inc., became a separate operating entity. In 1999, Rust Consulting joined SOURCECORP, Inc.

“Quantum has been the yardstick by which I would like all of our other vendors to behave. The level of service that they have given us is beyond compare. There’s nobody else that even comes close.” said Tim Holtan, Systems Analyst for Rust.

BACKUP BOTTLENECK

Everyone complains that weekends are too short, but it really gets to be a problem when Friday night backups are still running on Monday morning. That was the situation that Rust Consulting faced until it implemented two Quantum DXi disk backup systems with data de-duplication technology. With the new solution, Rust cut its backup times from 72 hours down to about 24. Now all the jobs complete every time, there is time to create duplicate backup sets for off-site storage, and restores are lightning fast.

“The DXi gives us the time to do a lot of other things like sleep and to actually update our servers,” said Holtan. “We now have a maintenance window instead of having to sit there waiting for our backups to finish.”

BUGGED BACKUPS

Headquartered in downtown Minneapolis, Rust Consulting is a 500-employee firm providing third-party class action lawsuit claims processing. The company’s backup needs were a bit different than most firms. In addition to the usual email, database and document files, 30 to 40 percent of the data consisted of small TIF files containing images of the claims forms. Further complicating the matter, it didn’t just have to satisfy its own backup policies, but those of each of its customers.

“Architecting a solution for hundreds of different styles of backup was one of our biggest challenges,” said Eric Christensen, Senior Systems Administrator for Rust.

The old backup system sent data from a single ARCserve media server to a small, SCSI-attached tape library. The system was just too slow to keep up with the 40 percent annual data growth, and there was never enough time to clone tapes for archiving. That meant that once data was moved off-site for DR protection, something Rust does daily, all file restores came from off-site copies.

“The biggest goal was to get our backups completed within a 30 hour window and to speed up file recovery,” said Christensen.

DATA DE-DUPLICATION CHANGES THE EQUATION

Rust looked at moving to newer tape technology but Insight, Rust’s reseller, showed Rust a Quantum DXi disk backup systems with data de-duplication at its demo center. With data de-duplication technology, users are able to reduce the amount of disk storage needed for backup. This also allows them to use disk to retain data locally for fast restores in addition to increasing backup performance.

Rust looked at alternative suppliers, but felt that Quantum provided a better overall solution, including help with re-architecting the backup system. “Quantum was very involved from the beginning in helping us find a solution that best fit our needs versus some other vendors who just wanted to come in and sell product,” said Christensen.

A CONSULTATIVE APPROACH

A key part of the Quantum sales process, from Rust’s point of view, was the detailed sizing exercise that accurately determined the right solution based on backup window, data types, growth rates, and retention needs. Since tape would provide DR protection and long-term retention, finding an optimal mix of disk and tape was also included along with configuration recommendations. The final solution included two DXi5500 disk backup systems. The systems were configured with both a Fibre Channel virtual library interface and a NAS interface with multiple streams being written to each unit simultaneously.

Setting up the systems and managing them was simple and fast. “The management interface is really easy to use; if you’ve operated an iPod, you can pretty much operate a DXi,” said Holtan. “It is easy to get information such as de-duplication rates or how much space is left.”

With the DXi systems in place, the full backups are complete in about 24 hours, well within the 30-hour target. The time remaining lets the Rust IT staff create physical tapes to move offsite and provides time for server maintenance. Even with the high number of image files, the data de-duplication has reduced the overall disk storage by nearly 90 percent, allowing Rust to maintain weeks of backup data on disk for fast restores.

RESTORES OCCUR IN MINUTES

To Rust’s end users, the biggest advantage of using the DXi disk backup system is the file restore time. Previously, users would have to wait for a tape to be retrieved from offsite storage (overnight if it was near the end of the day), so restores could take up to 24 hours. Now, with all recent files stored locally on disk, restores take 5 to 20 minutes depending on file size.

“Just yesterday I got a request to restore an Excel spreadsheet that had been deleted accidentally,” said Holtan. “That request came in at 4:25 p.m. and I was finished restoring it by 4:30.”

SERVICE FOR THE WHOLE SOLUTION

“Quantum has been the yardstick by which I would like all of our other vendors to behave,” said Holtan. “The level of service that they have given us is beyond compare. There’s nobody else that even comes close.”

The solution has worked so well that Rust is planning to buy another set of DXi5500s for the company’s collocation facility. These units would act as a target for replication for disaster recovery with data coming both from the data center and, eventually, from smaller satellite offices as well.