Storage:

Legato NetWorker 6 Protecting 32 Terabyte Data Center

Launched in October 1998, ONE quickly became a leader in Austria's telecommunications industry. The company grew rapidly, and today ONE has more than 1.5 million customers (mobile, landline network, and Internet), 1,600 employees, and is Austria's only mobile communications provider with nationwide GSM 1800 quality. ONE has a network coverage of 97 percent and, in addition to mobile communications, offers the i-ONE Internet product, f-ONE landline network solution, and Take Two convergence product. ONE is the only mobile communications operator to offer GPRS and ONE High Speed (HSCSD) in Austria. The company, headquartered in Vienna, has invested ATS 18 billion to date and reported net revenues of ATS 5.8 billion in 2000.

As the company grew, so did the amount of mission-critical data it must backup each day. "We have more than 32 terabytes of information," said Robert Ruisz, Technical Support Manager at ONE, "and that figure is increasing with each new customer. Because we operate in a 24x7 business environment, we needed a robust backup system that wouldn't impact daily operations."

Backup Operations Were Impacting Business and Difficult to Manage

ONE operates in a highly heterogeneous environment that includes Windows NT, Windows 2000, UNIX, Solaris, Tru64, HP-UX, and Irix platforms running Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, SAP R/3, and Ingres applications. In addition, ONE has many fast-growing Oracle databases that are in constant use. The need to free these databases from the performance impact caused by traditional backup methods also became a priority. "We have more than 1,600 employees using over 280 systems," noted Ruisz. "They're adding important financial, sales, and other data every day. We rely on that information to run the company, so data protection is one of my biggest priorities."

Besides being extremely labor- and resource-intensive, ONE's data backup and storage procedures sometimes took so long to complete that it ran into business hours, locking users out of the system. "That type of downtime was unacceptable," continued Ruisz. "We began the search for a backup system that was high-performance, scalable, proven in the field, and easy to manage. After researching and testing Legato, Veritas, and other backup solutions, we chose Legato because NetWorker met all of our requirements."

Legato NetWorker 6 Provides Foundation for SAN Protection

For its Vienna data center, ONE implemented a Storage Area Network (SAN) supporting HP-UX, Solaris, Tru64, Irix and NT platforms hosting Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server and Ingres applications. Connected into the SAN were five EMC Symmetrix RAID arrays, two StorageTek 9740 libraries with ACSLS, an additional StorageTek 9740, and a StorageTek 9714 library. SAN components included four EMC Connectrix and four Brocade fibre channel switches, eight Hewlett-Packard FCAL hubs, and three StorageTek 3200 FC-SCSI bridges.

To match the administrative organization, ONE elected to utilize separate Legato NetWorker Servers (Power Edition) to manage protection of its many UNIX and NT clients. NetWorker Modules for Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and SAP R/3 were added to keep applications online during backup or recovery and reduce downtime in the event of data loss. "NetWorker automated our backup process and significantly decreased the manpower and other resources we devoted to data protection," explained Ruisz. "NetWorker is managing our multiple platforms without a hitch and has enabled us to better leverage our SAN environment."

Celestra Power Protects Oracle Databases Without Impacting Performance

To eliminate the impact on ONE's high demand Oracle databases (residing on HP-UX servers) during backup operations, the company added Legato Celestra Power and the Celestra Module for Oracle (CMO). Managed by NetWorker, Celestra Power and CMO (CMO) perform live, serverless backups using full and block-level incremental methods. ONE can now back up its information at any time and more often than before, reducing the risk of exposure from data loss. In addition to restoring individual files or directories, Celestra Power will enable ONE to quickly restore an entire file system in the event of disaster directly from tape to disc, significantly reducing downtime costs compared to conventional methods.

"Thanks to Celestra Power," said Ruisz, "backup processes no longer devour vital CPU and I/O resources. Our application servers are able to work at full capacity at any stage of this process. By using Celestra Power, we solved the problem posed by an ever-shrinking backup window. The backup time of one of our 600GB Oracle databases was reduced by more than 50 percent, and there are no restrictions whatsoever on the performance of the database server during the backup process."

SnapImage Improves Manageability of NAS Protection

ONE also utilizes Network Attached Storage (NAS) within its data center provided by two Network Appliance file servers. To improve backup performance, ONE implemented NetWorker NDMP Client Connections and the NetWorker SnapImage Module. By enabling its NAS file servers to be backed up remotely in native format versus NFS to its UNIX-attached tape libraries, ONE reduced backup times and has increased return on investment (ROI) of its storage resources.

Legato Consulting Services and IQproducts Key to Legato Solution

A key factor in the design and implementation of the Legato solution for ONE was the team effort of Legato Consulting Services and its integration partner, IQproducts. The Legato/IQproducts team analyzed ONE's service-level requirements, SAN component needs, and scalability issues. They also developed a comprehensive test plan, conducted a series of SAN and backup scenarios, and documented in detail the total solution for ONE.

"The level of performance that Legato software products deliver can be further maximized with professional guidance from Legato's consulting services," said Greg Clock, vice president of Legato Consulting Services. "The Legato and IQproducts consultants successfully assessed ONE's needs and analyzed their short-term and long-term growth to determine the technology that would best fit their vision and business model."

Future Relationship Promises New Growth

With NetWorker 6 acting as the foundation for a completely automated, centrally managed backup and recovery system, ONE feels it has a solid data protection solution in place to meet its present and future needs. "We don't know of any other products that could handle our heterogeneous environment with the speed and performance Legato delivers," said Ruisz. "Our Legato solution has saved us time and money and gives us the confidence that our data is securely protected. As our company continues to expand, we look forward to growing with Legato."

About IQproducts GmbH

IQproducts, a member of the Systematics AG group-a leading eBusiness integrator-prepares tailor-made, full solutions for company-wide, trans-platform data availability solutions on the basis of standard products manufactured by leading producers. IQproducts is the competent partner for overall concepts in heterogeneous systems environments that are specially tailored to these requirements. For more information, visit www.iqproducts.de.

Business

ONE, a leading telecommunications company headquartered in Vienna, Austria, has more than 1.5 million customers and is the only mobile communications provider with nationwide GSM 1800 quality in Austria. ONE has a network coverage of 97 percent and offers a variety of next-generation products, from its i-ONE Internet product and f-ONE landline network solution to its Take Two convergence product. ONE is the only mobile communications operator in the country to offer GPRS and ONE High Speed (HSCSD).

Issues

• Backup system not keeping pace with storage growth and service level demands
• Data protection is taking too long and impacting business performance
• Backup process is labor- and resource-intensive, not centrally managed

Solution

• Legato NetWorker 6 Power Edition
• NetWorker Modules for Oracle, Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL Server, and SAP R/3
• Legato Celestra Power, Celestra Module for Oracle Legato
• NDMP Client Connection and NetWorker SnapImage Legato
• Consulting Services allied with IQproducts

Benefits

• Ability to fully protect heterogeneous SAN environment and fulfill application service level requirements
• NetWorker solution automates and centralizes backup operations, reducing overhead costs
• Oracle is backed up without impacting performance and in 50 percent less time; faster recovery
• Improved NAS protection with increased library ROI

About Legato

Legato Systems Inc, the award winning software innovator, specializes in providing its customers with a seamless approach for protecting, moving and making available business-critical company information. Legato pioneered the industry standard for storage management software products. More than 10,000 customers and 65,000 licenses worldwide, including Fortune 1000 companies utilize Legato's software products and services. Headquartered in Mountain View, CA, USA, Legato has an established global presence with offices in 23 countries to fully serve its customers.