Chapter 12: Instant Access to Data

Instant Access provides rapid temporary access to snapshots stored on storage systems, without transferring data. In the event of data corruption or hardware failure, Instant Access can restore access to data and applications in minutes instead of hours. Instant Access exploits iSCSI target-attach technology to ensure nearly continuous availability.

After Instant Access is being activated, secondary storage volumes appear as local, fully accessible (read/write) drives. Files on the secondary are transparently available to users, who can continue to work while normal recovery runs in parallel to restore data to primary storage. For quick recovery of individual files, users can easily copy from an Instant Access drive to another drive on the local node.

Instant Access can be used in conjunction with SnapMirror for uninterrupted access to mirrored Block backups. For example, you can mirror Block backups from a storage system to an alternate secondary, such as a high-performance offsite storage system, then use Instant Access to give users rapid access to data on the offsite system.

Instant Access is also an efficient backup verification tool since backup instances on the secondary system are readily usable from a standby node.

Catalogic DPX is aware of Oracle Databases, Microsoft Exchange Servers, and Microsoft SQL Servers; and displays them as recognizable, selectable volumes on the Block Backup Recovery and Block Restore windows. Experienced administrators can use Instant Access and the Catalogic DPX Block Data Protection in conjunction with database administrative procedures to provide point-in-time recovery without significant application downtime.

Changes made to the mapped drive do not affect the backed up data, which is part of a read-only snapshot. You can still restore that point-in-time backup without the modifications by defining a standard Block restore job.

You also have the ability to recover both modified data and the point-in-time backup.

See also. For the latest system compatibility details regarding supported hardware, file systems, applications, operating systems, and service packs, see the Compatibility Guide.

Review the following advantages of the Instant Access for Catalogic DPX:

• Near instant access to point-in-time data backed up via a Block backup without the need to perform a restore. You can view data and even generate reports.

• Temporarily use applications until a suitable time becomes available to fully restore both backed up data and new or modified data.

• Quickly verify, from an alternate node, application data backed up via a Block backup.