HP Data Protector software integration with HP StorageWorks P4000 SAN (LeftHand) solutions

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HP StorageWorks P4000 Virtual SAN Appliance software (VSA) is a VMware certified SAN storage
device and virtual appliance. By having virtualized ESX internal disks, it does not require external
SAN shared storage. If multiple P4000 VSAs are running on different VMware ESX servers, they build
a pool of storage across the hosts, providing highly available storage across multiple ESX systems.
Figure 2: Storage clustering across an ESX cluster
ESX
Server
ESX
Server
ESX
Server
3 nodes Storage Cluster
VSA Win Win
DAS
VSA Linux Linux
DAS
VSA Win Linux
DAS
HP P4000 snapshots
Snapshots create point-in-time copies of data of a volume which can then be used for backup
purposes or by other application systems. While snapshots are stored on the same cluster as the
original volume, they protect against data loss but do not replace a tape backup. This should be
taken into account when planning a backup strategy.
Snapshots can be created manually, scheduled, or via the Microsoft VSS framework.
For further information about snapshots, see the documentation mentioned in Appendix D: For more
information on page 32.
Note: The solution described in this white paper makes use of snapshots exclusively. No other HP
P4000 replication techniques are currently supported together with Zero Downtime Backup.