SOLUTION SHEET

Unprecedented IT Insight Enables Greater Efficiency and Accelerates use of Snapshots for Data Protection

The Syncsort® ECX™ Enterprise Catalog gathers, centralizes and catalogs information about your NetApp® and VMware® environments, allowing you to search, report, analyze and take action on information. By cataloging all tiers of NetApp Snapshots, search tasks can be completed in seconds, stale or unwanted data identified, protection compliance validated, and much more.

A Snapshot Catalog for the NetApp Enterprise

The ECX Enterprise Catalog provides a centralized, scalable and easy way to catalog and search the NetApp ONTAP® landscape, including aggregates, qtrees, snapshots, SnapVault™ and SnapMirror™ volumes and the files contained in them. The ECX Enterprise Catalog gathers data from any ONTAP-based disk system, including the latest Clustered Data ONTAP platforms, and catalogs it across all tiers of storage, including snapshots on primary volumes, secondary volumes (SnapVault copies) and tertiary or DR copies (SnapMirror volumes). By having a central catalog of information, users gain unprecedented IT insight leading to new levels of efficiency and accelerating the use of snapshot technology for efficient data protection.

ECX cataloging is not dependent on any specific tool or bound to any specific time period. It catalogs snapshots created by PowerShell, NetApp OnCommand®, etc. ECX does not interfere with or replace traditional backup technologies. But unlike backup products, ECX isn’t limited to cataloging only the data it protects. Even if you have years of snapshots on

Quick FAQ About ECX Q: What does ECX catalog? A: ECX catalogs files and IT objects. IT objects

include snapshots, volumes, LUNs, virtual machines, etc. It supports both Clustered Data ONTAP and 7-mode.

Q: Does ECX replace what I’m using for data protection?

A: No! ECX is completely non-disruptive and can co-exist with any other solution.

Q: Is ECX complicated to deploy? A: No! ECX is a self-contained virtual appliance that

can be up and running in 15 minutes.

Q: I have hundreds of millions of files. Can ECX handle that many?

A: Yes! ECX is designed to scale to billions of objects.

disk, ECX will catalog all of them and give you a complete view of your environment.

ECX includes a powerful search capability that returns rich information in seconds. To locate a specific file (NFS/CIFS data), simply enter a file name and ECX will return the location of every instance and version of that file across your entire NetApp infrastructure. Searches can be filtered by date ranges, file types and so on allowing you to refine searches with precision. Search tasks that used to consume hours of valuable IT time are now completed in seconds. It has never been this easy to find files.

Snapshot Catalog, Search and Reporting for NetApp and VMware

Syncsort ECX Enterprise Catalog

SOLUTION SHEETECX ENTERPRISE CATALOG

Increasing Storage Efficiency

ECX uses powerful file reporting and analytics to quickly pin-point inefficient use of storage. With ECX you can identify unwanted objects such as old files that have not been accessed for a set amount of time, extremely large files, file types that may violate storage policies (video, music), unused virtual machines, and so on. Snapshot reporting identifies volumes that may have more snapshot retention than they require, or where snapshots are taking up an excessive percentage of space.

Utilization reports provide advanced warning for volumes, aggregates or LUNs that are beyond a specified capacity range (e.g. 80% utilized). Similar reports are available for VMware datastores.

All reports can be scheduled to run automatically and be sent via email in multiple formats (PDF, Excel, Word).

ECX can also provide remediation through its script policy engine. For example, a list of files beyond required retention dates can be generated and used in a script to migrate them to lower tier storage or to delete them. With Syncsort ECX software, you can create a new level of efficiency in your storage environment.

Validating Protection Compliance and DR

NetApp Snapshot, SnapVault and SnapMirror are powerful and efficient technologies for protecting data. But when data grows into hundreds or thousands of volumes, it’s not always easy to be sure that everything is properly protected.

ECX Reporting and Analytics ECX reports are divided into four categories.

Storage Utilization Reports designed to help improve efficiency. These reports provide information on NetApp and VMware storage utilization, including threshold warning reports, reports on potentially wasted resources (e.g. VMware sprawl, orphaned LUNs), and informational reports.

Storage Protection Reports designed to help ensure proper and efficient protection. These reports detect whether or not NetApp protection technologies (Snapshot, SnapVault, SnapMirror, etc.) have been set for optimum protection of data or whether they may be over-protecting data.

File Analytics Reports designed to help improve efficiency. These reports provide analytics on the file contents of NetApp volumes, including file age, file types and file sizes (largest files).

System Management Reports designed to help you understand ECX operations. These reports provide detailed information about your ECX environment.

Syncsort ECX software provides reports that identify any volumes that are not being protected or where protection may have failed due to an errant configuration change or other issue. With this information, you can investigate the situation and apply proper corrective measures rapidly and efficiently.

ECX also reports on the popular NetApp protection tools of SnapManager for Exchange, SnapManager for SQL and Open Storage SnapVault (OSSV). Reports indicate the last time protection was successful for these systems, alerting you to any failures.

ECX users can quickly locate files, volumes, Virtual Machines and numerous other IT objects across their infrastructure with a simple and intuitive Search interface.

SOLUTION SHEETECX ENTERPRISE CATALOG

Storage utilization reports identify areas where capacity limits are being reached, as well as uncovering inefficiency and waste.

Many organizations also have compliance requirements that certain files or volumes of files be stored on multiple systems in multiple locations. ECX software will let you validate that data is properly in place, providing you the verification you need to satisfy protection requirements and provide documentation to compliance auditors.

Built for Scale and Easy to Use

To handle rapid data growth, ECX software is designed to be extremely scalable and highly efficient. It can catalog a very large number of objects, even into the billions. Rapid, low-impact data gathering can catalog tens of millions of files a day, and differential cataloging going forward means minimal impact to production systems. With ECX software, you can catalog your entire environment or only select portions of it, and can easily expand as your needs grow.

ECX can be deployed literally in minutes. Delivered as a self-contained virtual appliance, ECX software is up and running quickly. Adding storage and VMware nodes for cataloging is straightforward. Once added, cataloging begins based on set schedules.

More than just NetApp – VMware too!

While ECX delivers tremendous insight and value to NetApp users, it doesn’t stop there.

VMware objects (virtual machines, datastores, storage LUNs, etc.) are also cataloged, consolidating information to a single point of view across your VMware infrastructure.

ECX provides reports designed to increase the operational efficiency of your VMware deployment. VMs that have not been turned on or have been suspended for a specified time

period are identified, allowing you to easily tackle the challenging problem of VMware sprawl. VMware LUNs that were created but then abandoned are identified (so called “orphan LUNs”), letting you reclaim storage space or re-allocate it.

Summary

With Syncsort ECX software users gain the visibility they need into their NetApp and VMware environments across all tiers, which offers them the ability to achieve a new level of operational efficiency to control costs. All in a product that is easy to deploy, easy to learn, and ready to scale to even very large data environments.

By deploying ECX software, you can • Catalog aggregates, qtrees, snapshots,

SnapVault and SnapMirror volumes and the files contained in them.

• Find files quickly and reliably across both primary disk and all tiers of snapshot copies.

• Dramatically increase insight into your storage and VM infrastructure to drive new levels ofefficiency.

• Assure your data is properly protected at alltimes.

• Keep your current data protection technology inuse. No need to rip and replace anything.

• Enhance snapshot technology for highperformance and efficient data protection.

Try ECX Yourself!

If you’d like to try out ECX in your own IT department or have us deliver a personalized demo, please contact Syncsort for information.

SOLUTION SHEETECX ENTERPRISE CATALOG

© 2013 Syncsort Incorporated. Syncsort is a registered trademark of Syncsort Incorporated. NSB, DPX, and ECX are trademarks of Syncsort Incorporated. All other company and product names used herein may be the trademarks of their respective companies. NetApp and the NetApp logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of NetApp, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries. ECX-SC-001-0913US

System Requirements

Syncsort ECX software catalogs file data on NetApp FAS devices (CIFS and NFS data), FAS objects (snapshots, volumes, LUNs, etc.) and VMware objects (VMs, datastores, etc.). Syncsort ECX software is delivered as a standard Virtual Appliance (OVA format). System Requirements follow.

VMware Requirements * VMware ESX 4.1 or later* VMware vSphere 4 or 5

NetApp Requirements The following versions of Data ONTAP are supported: * ONTAP 7.3.3+* ONTAP 8.0.1+* ONTAP 8.1+

D * Clustered ONTAP 8.2.x Browser Support For access to the user interface, Syncsort ECX software uses standard

web browsers with no plug-ins required. Javascript must be enabled. The following browsers have been tested. * Internet Explorer 9+* Google Chrome 19+* Firefox 10+

About NetApp NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency. Discover NetApp’s passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com.

About Syncsort Syncsort is a global software company that helps the world’s most successful organizations rethink the economics of data. Syncsort provides extreme data performance and rapid time to value through easy to use data integration and data protection solutions. With over 15,000 deployments, Syncsort has transformed decision making and delivered more profitable results to thousands of customers worldwide.

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