Dell PowerProtect DD Management Center (DDMC) 7.9 Installation and Administration Guide

Overview

Smart Scale enables grouping multiple PowerProtect DD systems into a logical system pool that creates a layer between client protection policies and the destination of the protected data. As you create protection policies, you can specify a system pool as the destination protection storage. Copy placement becomes transparent to the data protection client. This feature helps you to better manage capacity changes and storage unit placement without requiring modifications to the protection infrastructure.

Smart Scale expands the storage unit concept by introducing a mobile storage unit, which is hosted on one of the DD systems in the system pool. DD Boost clients access the mobile storage unit through its specified networks.

You can deploy Smart Scale into existing PowerProtect DD environments. Traditional backup operations can co-exist with operations that Smart Scale supports.

System and hardware requirements

You can deploy Smart Scale services only on a DDMC that is running on a VMware ESXi platform.

• Smart Scale requires users to have DDMC admin role permissions in order to access the Smart Scale feature.
• Requirements for vCenter credentials include:
  • vCenter lookup credentials. These credentials are used to monitor Smart Scale services health status and are saved in the DDMC database.
  • vCenter deployment credentials
• Smart Scale supports DD9900, DD9400, and DD6900 series models running DDOS 7.8 or later. Observe the DDMC update requirements listed in the Dell PowerProtect DD Management Center Installation and Administration Guide ("Updating DDMC software" topic).
• vCenter requirements include:
  • vCenter 6.7 or greater
  • Shared datastore
  • HA configuration
• Reserved resources for the DD Namespace VM include:
  • 8 vCPU
  • 24 GB memory
  • 250 GB disk space
  • 10 vNICs
• Smart Scale supports:
  • Up to four system pools per data center (recommended)
  • Up to 32 appliances in each data center
  • Only DD Boost-based mobile storage units
• Backup applications that are supported for DD Boost-based work flows include:
  • Dell NetWorker
  • Dell PowerProtect Data Manager
  • Veritas NetBackup
• Smart Scale services are not supported for DDMC or DDVE deployed on cloud platforms.
• Smart Scale deployment requires one or more valid DNS servers that are configured on the DDMC.