NetWorker® Streamlines Backup Operations at Tektronix's Video and Networking Division Slashes Labor Involvement 90 Percent

Industry: Software
Computing Environment: 6 Windows NT servers; one file server with 50 GB of storage capacity, and 5 RAID-based servers, two with 27 GB of storage, two each having 12 GB of storage, and the fifth with 20 GB; 9 Sun SPARC 10 and SPARC 20 systems.
Business Challenge: Minimize labor overhead associated with backing up and recovering data in a heterogeneous environment.
Legato Products: NetWorker for Windows NT, Network Edition; NetWorker for UNIX, Network Edition; Autochanger Software Module; Client Connections.

Overview

In multi-platform networking environments, streamlining the labor overhead required to completely backup all resources can significantly increase the amount of time available to systems staff for other critical tasks.

At the Video and Networking Division (VND) of Tektronix, Inc. (Beaverton, Oregon), for example, 15-man-hours per week have been saved by automating all backup activities for both UNIX and Windows NT with NetWorker. "Thanks to NetWorker, says Bob Black, the Engineering IS Manager at VND, overall labor involvement in the backup process has been slashed by more than 90 percent, from 16 hours to just one hour. The result: the solution paid for itself in less than one year."

These savings are attributed to a complete elimination of the labor required to write and launch UNIX dump scripts, and to manage and maintain separate tape drives for each server. Now, all of these tasks are automated, with all servers being backed to two DLT drives. In addition, the entire backup system is administered from a single console, thereby increasing the reliability of the process, and minimizing the possibility for human errors.

To expedite completion of their backup processes, VND has segmented backup environments for their Windows NT and UNIX servers by implementing both NetWorker for UNIX (running on a dedicated dual processor Sparc 20 server) as well as NetWorker for Windows NT.

Key Features & Benefits

Dedicated Windows NT Backups: An Industry First

On the Windows NT side, the company has six servers (one that serves as the platform for NetWorker for Windows NT) linked over a 10 megabit shared network. With a combined disk capacity of 11 gigabytes, weekly full backups for these servers takes just four hours; daily incrementals -- of about one gigabyte -- are completed in about 45 minutes. All backups are directed to a single DLT drive that supports two weeks of backups on a single tape.

"NetWorker for Windows NT is the first native server-based enterprise storage management application designed specifically for Windows NT, Black explains. With intelligent software on both clients and servers, the solution is unique in offering parallel tape streaming capabilities for both backup and recovery. As a result, performance is optimized while administrator intervention -- to resolve concurrency problems as end-users perform their own file recoveries, on-demand backups, and archiving -- is minimized.

The Windows NT backup solution further cuts the need for administrator involvement with a range of automated features including automated tape drive cleaning, bar code support for rapid media tracking, and support for cartridge access ports. Other time-saving media management capabilities include support for media pools that logically segregate and manage backup data, and automated media spanning and media changing.

"Establishing this product as our standard for Windows NT backups, Black explains, is strategically important to Tektronix because one of our key products, the WinDD software package, allows UNIX users with X-type devices to open sessions on Windows NT servers. By empowering us to use our own WinDD product to open backup administration sessions for both UNIX and Windows NT on a single terminal, we can demonstrate to our customers how easy and straightforward it would be for them to improve their Windows/UNIX integration and still protect all of their mission-critical data resources.

High-Performance UNIX Backups

On the UNIX side, VND relies on NetWorker for UNIX to protect data on 15 clients. These include one file server with 50 gigabytes of storage capacity, and five RAID-based servers, two with 27 gigabyte of storage, two each having 12 gigabytes of storage, and the fifth with 20 gigabytes. In addition, nine Sun Sparc 10 and Sparc 20 systems, each with its own local disk space, are backed up with NetWorker. These systems are dedicated function machines for critical business areas such as mechanical engineering, documentation, and circuit board design.

All UNIX systems are linked over a fast 100 megabit, collapsed CDDI backbone, that allows full weekly backups (currently 115 gigabytes) to a DLT tape drive to be completed in 32 hours, down from 48 hours over an earlier 10 megabit shared network.

"With productivity being so critical these days, Black says, our paired UNIX/Windows NT storage management solutions have enabled us to cost-effectively meet our backup requirements.

"In fact, he continues, rather than having to add staff to deal with our increasing backup needs, we have been able to leverage existing resources -- actually freeing staff time for other vital tasks. Equally important, with NetWorker's seamless growth path and centralized management capabilities, we will be able to back up new clients as they are added to our network in the future, without increasing labor overhead whatsoever.

Summary

Customer Buying Criteria: Performance, reliability, automation, central management control, seamless growth path.
Winning Solution: Legato NetWorker.