Meet The Expert: OpenStorage

It seems that open storage allows a 3rd party to replace media manager functions and provides a standardized method to update the imageDB. This minimizes the need to use bpduplicate and the constraints it imposes.

So what is left of NBU? Data Movement Software. It is a tool that copies data from one location to another and records every copy of that data and its location. NBU's core strength is the initial copy from the heterogenerous host to the STU.

A remaining constraint I see is that NBU still uses tar, so the smallest unit I can address is the tar image file. I can't copy or catalog the individual files within the tar image.

Subsequently, reporting on the copies of each individual file is cumbersome and processor intensive requiring bplist as well as bpimagelist or using a custom process that reads in the catalog files directly to derive this information.

This granularity of the individual file's location and age is necessary to accurately report the RPO of a business application because I need to know the RPO of each file or DB object that comprises that application.

Without tape, tar (tape archive) is not the ideal container for NBU data. I am not certain that we still need a container if we are writing to devices like data domain.

Jonathan Marianu