The Symantec NetBackup Platform is a complete backup and recovery solution that is optimized for virtually any workload, including physical, virtual, arrays, or big data infrastructures. NetBackup delivers flexible target storage options, such as tape, 3rd-party disk, cloud, or appliance storage devices, including the NetBackup Deduplication Appliances and Integrated Backup Appliances. NetBackup 7.6 delivers the performance, automation, and manageability necessary to protect virtualized deployments at scale – where thousands of Virtual Machines and petabytes of data are the norm today, and where software-defined data centers and IT-as-a-service become the norm tomorrow. Enterprises trust Symantec.

1. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
NetBackup 7.6 Deduplication Technology
NetBackup 7.6 Overview
The Symantec NetBackup Platformisa completebackupandrecoverysolutionthatisoptimized for
virtually any workload, includingphysical,virtual, arrays, or big data infrastructures. NetBackup
delivers flexibletargetstorageoptions, such as tape, 3rd
-party disk, cloud, or appliance storage
devices,includingtheNetBackup Deduplication Appliances and Integrated Backup Appliances.
NetBackup 7.6 delivers the performance, automation, and manageability necessary to protect
virtualized deploymentsatscale–wherethousandsof Virtual Machinesand petabytes of data are
the normtoday,andwheresoftware-defined data centers and IT-as-a-service become the norm
tomorrow. Enterprises trust Symantec.
Key Benefits
 Comprehensive –As a singlesolution to protectall of your data assets,NetBackup provides
supportforvirtually every popularserver,storage,hypervisor,database, and application
platform used in the enterprise today.
 Scalable–High performance,elasticautomation,andcentralized management based on a flexible, multitier architecture
enables NetBackup to adapt to the growing needs of a fast-paced, modern enterprise data center.
 Integrated –Frombackupappliancesto bigdataplatforms,NetBackup integrates at every point in the technology stack to
improvereliability and performance. OpenStorage Technology (OST) provides even tighter integration with third-party
storage and snapshot solutions.
 Innovative–With hundredsof patentsawarded in areas including backup, recovery, virtualization, deduplication, and
snapshot management, NetBackup continues a long tradition of bringing advanced technologies to market first.
 Proven –For over a decade,NetBackuphasled the industry as the most popular enterprise data protection software by
marketshareandisused by many of thelargestenterprises on the planet. When you need your data back, you can trust
NetBackup.
Key Features
 One platform, one console unifies virtual and physical global data protection
 Unified global management of snapshots, replicated snapshots, backup, and recovery
 Scalable, global deduplication across virtual and physical infrastructures
 V-Ray one pass backup, instant image and single file restore for virtual and physical
 Automated virtual data protection and load balanced backup performance
Deduplication Overview
Deduplication isdefined astheelimination of redundantdatafromdisk storage. NetBackup deduplication uses a hash algorithm to
providea uniqueidentifier,or fingerprint, to datasegmentswithin a clientbackup stream. These fingerprints enable NetBackup to
identify clientdatasegmentsthatareidentical to oneanother,whichcanthen beused to prevent the same data from being stored
multiple times while still allowing the data to be restored when necessary.
Backup and archiveinfrastructures areideal candidatesfor deduplication due to the redundant nature of backed up and archived
data.For example,in many backupinfrastructures mostof thedatabacked upduringa full backupisidentical to that of the previous
full backup. Deduplication prevents storing multiple copies of the identical data.
KeyBenefits
 Powerful, enterprise-class data
deduplication technology
 Dramatic optimization of disk-
based backup storage
 Flexible implementation
choices, including server and
client deduplication
 Purpose-built appliance
solutions for streamlined
implementation and
management
 Support for OST-compliant
deduplication storage devices

2. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
Figure 1: Deduplication overview
In addition to thesignificantstoragesavingsthatareprovided by deduplicationtechnology,timeand otherresources arealso saved.
Although manyvendorsprovidetheabilityto performdeduplicationatthe storagetarget,usually atthe backup storage location or
appliance,beingableto deduplicatedataatthesource,or theclient,providestheability to significantly reduce network bandwidth
utilization, and can speed up the entire backup process. NetBackup supports deduplication at the target – also referred to as
NetBackup Media Server Deduplication (MSDP) – as well as client deduplication.
NetBackup Deduplication Options
NetBackup offersseveral optionsfor implementingdeduplication. Symantec’sfirstdeduplication product was PureDisk, which is a
stand-alone application.
Soon after Symantec released the PureDisk product, it was integrated into NetBackup through an option called the PureDisk
Deduplication Option,or PDDO,in which NetBackupused thePureDisk environmentasa deduplicationstorageunit.PureDisk is now
deprecated as a software form.
Another deduplicationoptionthatisavailableisNetBackupMediaServer Deduplication, or MSDP. An MSDP server is a NetBackup
media serverthatprovidesa built-inmethod for NetBackupto supportdeduplication withouttheneed for complex hardware.Prior to
NetBackup 7.5,theMSDP storagelimitwas32TB.In NetBackup 7.5 the limit was increased to 64TB. NetBackup can also perform
deduplication at the source, using a technology called client deduplication.
As another alternative,Symantec offerstheNetBackup5200-seriesappliances thatsupportdeduplication,andfromNetBackup7.6.1,
the 5300 seriesappliances.The5200and 5300 series appliances are effectively NetBackup media servers than have NetBackup
installed and preconfigured to performdeduplication.The5230 cansupportup to 144TBof deduplicated storage,whilstthe5330 can
support up to 229TB, as shown in figure 2.

3. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
Figure 2: NetBackup deduplication-enabled appliances
Finally,certain third-party vendors provide appliances that support NetBackup’s OpenStorage Technology (OST). Some of these
appliancessupportdeduplication.ChecktheSymantec NetBackup hardwarecompatibility list to determine the vendor appliances
that support this capability. http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH76495
How NetBackup Deduplication Works
Whilea backup job isrunning,NetBackup determines whatclientdataneedsto bebackedup. For each filethatisbacked up, the file
metadata –includingfilepermissions,directorylocation, and file name – is separated from the actual content of the file. The file
metadata is saved in the deduplication database.
The filecontentisbrokendown into smaller 128 KBsegments.In figure3,thisisrepresented by segments A, B, C, and D for File 1. A
hash fingerprintiscalculated for each segment. Thedata segmentfingerprintsarecompared againstthefingerprints of datasegments
thathavealready been stored in deduplicationstorage,in order to identify uniquedata segments.Only theuniquedatasegmentsare
sent to deduplication storage, along with the file metadata.
Itis importantto notethatfilesegmentsarechecked for uniquenessacrossall clients’backupdata,notjust for an indivi dual client.
This meansthatif an identical datasegmentexistson multipleclients,only a singlecopy of that data segment is written to storage.
The metadata storagetracksall themetadatafor each filethatisbacked up.Thecontentstoragetrackseachfileand all thesegments
thatareassociated with that file to enable NetBackup to put the file back together. In figure 2, data segments A, B, C, and D are
required to restore File 1.
Next, when File2 is backed up, the file is separated into metadata and content. The file contents are broken down into 128 KB
segments and a fingerprintiscalculated for eachsegment.SinceFile2 isslightly differentthanFile1,segmentsEand F are determined
to haveuniquefingerprints,whilesegmentsAand C havethesamefingerprintsassegmentsthatarealready stored in the database.
SincesegmentsEand F areunique,they aresentto storageand anotation ismadethatFile 2 iscomprised of segmentsA,E, C, and F.
This process continues for each file in the backup job, until all files are processed.

4. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
Figure 3: NetBackup deduplication example
Media Server and Client Deduplication Comparison
NetBackup providesthecapabilityto performbothmediaserverdeduplication and client-side deduplication, as shown in figure 4.
Depending on the circumstances, one deduplication method might be more beneficial than the other.
When usingNetBackupmediaserverdeduplication,theclientsends the entire backup data stream over the network to the media
server.Thededuplicationmedia server performsthefingerprinting.Itdetermineswhich data segments are unique and which data
segments have an exact fingerprint match that has been stored previously.
The media server sendsonlytheuniquedatasegments,thededuplicated data stream, to deduplication storage. The advantage of
performingdeduplication on themediaserver isthattheCPUof theclientisnotimpacted by fingerprintingactivity thatoccursduring
the backup.Potentialdisadvantagesarethatall backup datamustbesentover thenetwork,and thatheavydeduplication loads can
affect the overall performance of the media server.
When using client-side deduplication, the segmenting of client files and the fingerprinting of the resulting data segments, is
performed by theDeduplicationplug-inon theclientsystem.After comparingwith alocal fingerprintcache, or communicating with
the deduplication mediaserverto determinewhichdata segmentsareunique,only theuniquedatasegments,thededuplicated data
stream,issentover thenetwork to thededuplication mediaserver,which then writes thededuplicated datato deduplicationstorage.
Client-sidededuplicationhastheadvantagesof distributingthefingerprintingworkloadto theclients,aseach client deduplicates its
own backup data,andsendsonly uniqueclientdatasegmentsover thenetwork.Thiscan greatly reducethenetwork utilization. The
potential disadvantageof client-sidededuplicationistheadditionalloadthatisplaced on theclient’s CPU to perform dedupli cation
during the backup.

5. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
Figure 4: Media server and client deduplication
The good news isthatNetBackupcustomershavecapability to use client-side deduplication for those clients where that method
provides the greatest benefit, while simultaneously performing deduplication on the media server for other clients.
Summary
The Symantec Backup and Recovery productfamily offersmarket-leadingbackup and disasterrecoverysolutionsfor criticalcustomer
ITresources. Thisincludespowerful and proven storageoptimization technologies,such asdatadeduplication, that help customers
manage data growth and backup storage costs to lower overall total cost of ownership.
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6. Copyright © 2014 Symantec Corporation. All rights reserved. Symantec and the Symantec logo are trademarks of Symantec Corporation. All other brands and products
are trademarks of their respective holder/s. 01/2014
SymantecBackupandRecovery TechnicalBrief
NetBackup7.6Deduplication Technology
For More Information
Link Description
http://www.netbackup.com/ NetBackup Home Page
http://www.symantec.com/docs/TECH59978 NetBackup Compatibility Information
http://www.symantec.com/docs/DOC6488 NetBackup Documentation
http://www.symantec.com/support Symantec Support Portal