Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations

Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI
Configurations and Impact on
Capacity Utilization
Application Note
Abstract
This application note describes how to configure the deduplication function
on SNC NAS systems, and provides several examples of how deduplication
can achieve significant capacity reductions in typical application
environments.
Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Table of Contents
Product Models Covered by This Document...................................................................... 3
SNC NAS Unified Storage Systems ..................................................................................... 4
Deduplication on SNC NAS Pro ........................................................................................... 5
Setting Up Deduplication on SNC NAS Pro .................................................................... 6
Step 1: Create Storage Pool.................................................................................................... 6
Step 2: Create Shared Volume................................................................................................ 7
Step 3: Set Up Sharing .............................................................................................................. 7
File Server Capacity Reduction with Deduplication .......................................................... 9
Data Backup Capacity Reduction with Deduplication .................................................. 9
VMDK Capacity Reduction with Deduplication ................................................................ 10
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Product Models Covered by This Document
This application note applies to the following product models:




SNC NAS 200 
SNC NAS 500 
SNC NAS 800 
SNC NAS 1100 
For more information regarding individual product models, please visit
www.SNC.com.tr
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
SNC NAS Unified Storage Systems
SNC NAS offers a complete solution for data storage, file sharing and data backup
ideal for SMBs and SOHO users. The SNC NAS systems consolidate server and
storage requirements in a single device, and support a wide array of protocols to
ensure data can be shared by all workstations in the office. System resources on
SNC NAS can be optimized with data deduplication, while diverse protection and
backup
features
protect
valuable
data
assets.
For more information about SNC NAS systems, please visit www.snc.com.tr.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Deduplication on SNC NAS
Application environments often feature many redundant copies of identical data
sets. Storing these redundant copies consumes large amounts of storage
space, leading to inefficient use of capacity and increasing costs associated
with hardware resources and power consumption.
Deduplication
technology
is
designed
to
combat
this
phenomenon.
Deduplication ensures that all duplicated data is removed, freeing up capacity
that would be otherwise unnecessarily filled. Storage system users can thereby
optimize capacity utilization and save costs, as they can get much more
mileage out of their initial storage acquisition.
Data deduplication on the SNC NAS systems is implemented on the block level.
In-line deduplication ensures that duplication calculations are performed as
data enters the storage systems, meaning deduplication occurs in real-time.
When the system detects a duplicated copy, only a pointer is created to
reference to the existing data block already present in the system.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Setting Up Deduplication on SNC NAS
Step 1: Create Storage Pool
First create a storage pool with the help of the SNC NAS web-based
management UI.
Go to Storage > Pool. Click on Create to start creating a storage pool.
Select a unique name for the storage pool and the data protection level (RAID
level). To select member drives, choose the Customization option. Otherwise,
all available disk drives will be selected as member drives of this pool.
The newly created storage pool will appear in the list of storage pools.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Step 2: Create Shared Volume
After the storage pool has been created, a shared volume can be created.
Go to Storage > Volume. Click on Create Volume.
Select the pool in which you wish to create a volume and select a name for the
volume. Select Deduplication to enable the data deduplication function.
The volume will appear in the volume list.
Step 3: Set Up Sharing
Go to Explore and select the volume you just created. Select Share at the
bottom of the screen.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
In the settings window that appears, select a share name for the volume and a
description, and configure the access rights. In the Share section at the bottom,
select protocols.
A shared volume for file sharing using the deduplication function has now been
configured.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
File Server Capacity Reduction with Deduplication
The SNC NAS systems are designed to facilitate file sharing. In many business
environments, however, significant amounts of duplicated data are present in
shared folders, unnecessarily increasing storage utilization.
By using the deduplication function on SNC NAS systems, file sharing can be
achieved with a much lower capacity utilization ratio. An example can be used to
reflect a typical office environment. The shared user volume in this example
consists of regular MS Office documents, diagrams, tools and application
programs. The details of the shared volume are presented in the table below.
By comparing the size of the shared volume without deduplication and the size
of the shared volume with deduplication, we can calculate the capacity
reduction achieved with deduplication. In the long run, these capacity
reductions can generate significant benefits in terms of storage costs.
Shared Volume Details
Volume Size w/o Volume Size with Capacity
Deduplic. (GB)
Deduplic. (GB) Reduction
Number of Folders: 19,678
Number of Files: 195,896
78.8
46
41.62%
File Type: Documents,
diagrams, vdeo clips, app
tools etc.
Data Backup Capacity Reduction with Deduplication
Backing up data can help users maintain data availability when original data
volumes can no longer be accessed due to errors or malfunctions, or enable
them to conduct data analysis or testing.
The example below can highlight the impact deduplication can have in terms of
reducing the capacity needed to store backup copies. In this example, the user
creates full backup copies of database and email data once a week into a
shared volume of an SNC NAS system.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
Data
Backup
Volume
Size after Volume Size after
Backup Copy in
Backup
Week 2; with
Copy in
Deduplic. (GB)
Week 1
Capacity
Reduction
with
Deduplic.
Volume Size after
Backup Copy in
Week 2; w/o
Deduplic. (GB)
Database
16.4
17
96.34%
32.8
Email
PST
10.5
12
85.71%
21
Total
26.9
29
92.19%
53.8
As users often have fixed schedules for creating backups (e.g. one backup
copy per week), the impact of deduplication will increase over time. Instead of
storing ten different copies of roughly the same data over a 10-week period, by
adopting deduplication users can ensure only minimal storage utilization
increases when conducting the same backup schedule.
VMDK Capacity Reduction with Deduplication
Storage systems are often deployed in virtualized server environments with
VMware. In VMware, VMDK (Virtual Machine Disk Format) images are used to
document virtual machine environments, including their OS and other features.
If users create a large number of virtual machines, storing the VMDK images of
all these virtual machines may require a large amount of storage capacity. By
using deduplication, the capacity required for these VMDK images can be
significantly reduced, helping users minimize the capacity demands on storage
systems in virtualized environments.
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Deduplication on SNC NAS: UI Configurations and Impact on Capacity Utilization
The following example shows a user storing six full-sized VMDK images in an
SNC NAS volume, including three Windows OS and three Linux OS. By
comparing the capacity used without and with deduplication, we find that
deduplication can help this user save up to 62.6% in storage capacity.
VMDK
(OS Type)
Provisioned Volume Size
w/o Deduplic.
Size (GB)
(GB)
Windows 2003
32 bit
20.97
Windows 2003
SP2 32 bit
20.97
Windows 2008
R2 64 bit
20.97
RHEL 5.5 32 bit
10.48
RHEL 5.0 64 bit
10.48
RHEL 5.5 64 bit
10.48
94.35
Volume Size
with Deduplic.
(GB)
35.32
Capacity
Reduction
62.6%
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