EMC Assessment Tools

EMC provides a number of assessment tools for analysis of any environment.  The objectives are similar to any backup assessment, including review of the environment and existing practices, checking the health of the backup environment, and diagnosing any problems that may present themselves.  Backup sizing is also an objective, and possibly the most important.

Assessment consist of the collection and analysis of data, after which recommendations are made based on the data collected.

SSA, or the Sharepoint System Assessment,  pulls configuration and utilization info on all levels of a Sharepoint system, including data on the farm, the site collections, the sites and lists. Because it is a Sharepoint Console application, it must be run from a Sharepoint server under the user context of an appropriately-privileged user.

The ESA (Email System Assessment) pulls data from the email system and gives statistics on attachemtns, growth and PST file sizes.  The FSA (File System Assessment) tool also shows growth rates.  These can be run from the Workbench Utility and are best suited to environments that are medium to large, with Exchange data stores in excess of 300GB and more than 2TB of file data.  They are also good to use in systems where archiving is an objective.

The Deduplication Assessment comes in two varieties:  The DDA:A and the DDA:B.  The DDA:A is a modified Avamar client that gets installed on the customer system and creates a report without backing up any data.  This is good to show deduplication expectancy.  The DDA:B is a java application that performs a similar function but does not require client installation.  Be sure to use a representative data set from the customer site when performing a dedupe assessment.

Quick Scripts are the most fundamental assessment tool and the quickest to deploy.  This is essentially a batch file that runs on the customer's existing backup environment and gathers data from existing backup software, giving detailed reports on the environment. 

The Assessment Workbench can be downloaded from EMC and is a platform that incorporates all these tools into a single tool.  There is training on its use on the EMC website, and data is uploaded to http://emc.mitrend.com for analysis.

Workbench Assessment workflow would typically follow a pattern of:

1. Talk to the customer and make sure they are a qualified deal - this will take some work and time to complete, so you want to make sure you're not wasting your time
2. Set the customer expectation with how long this assessment will take and what sort of impact there will be on the system (which is "none")
3. Download the Workbench
4. Give the software to the customer to deploy or deploy it yourself
5. Install the Workbench at the customer site
6. Have customer complete the "Client Qualifications" portion of the document
7. Run the assessment
8. For DDA, confirm the successful completion with an EMC SE
9. Create the data package, which is a zip file
10. Deliver the zip file to EMC by FTP or Email
11. GO to the Report Generation Portal and view reports
12. Review the reports internally before going to customer to make sure they make sense
13. Review the report with the customer
14. Propose and close on a backup system

 DDA:A|B Workflow

1. Map all drives to be included in the assessment
2. Use scan option A and choose all drives to be scanned
3. Schedule and set a password - the job will not run without a password
4. Specify when the assessment should run, by default it runs at midnight for 7 days, and 3 scans are required
5. Configure FSA to run afterward if required
6. Done - review data

The EMC Backup Assessment Service is a detailed review of the health and utilization of a backup environment.

Performing the assessment can be done using the DPA (either an existing installation or a VM of DPA) and/or quick collection of data.  To perform an assessment, you will assess the configuration, performance and history, and reports are generated on the mitrend site.

iperf is a 3rd-party tool used mainly to produce information on the TCP settings of a network.  It will measure bandwidth and TCP Window size, which is the most important metric for network tuning.  It will also measure UDP packet loss and delay jitter.

TCP Window Size is the most critical setting when tuning a network, and it can be tuned according to data gathered using iperf.  If the window is too small, the sender will sit idle and the network will be underutilized.  Bandwidth Delay Product (BDP) is used to determine the appropriate window size and is calculated using the bandwidth x latency, or Return Trip Time (RTT).  BDP is a starting point for window size tuning, and one must remember to check the OS for an upper limit.

EMCPing is a tool that is good to test for replication tuning.  It provides latency, latency jitter, packet loss and traceroute functionality.  While not a replacement for a WAN analysis, it is helpful in presales, baseline and troubleshooting.

EMC also provides tools to measure Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Return on Investment (ROI).  TCO provides two measurements, the CAPEX, or capital expense report that shows the initial investment, and the OPEX report, showing ongoing maintenance and operational costs.  ROI measures how much is returned on those investments and is measured using the cost savings divided by expenses to implement.

Some tools for measuring TCO and generating reports regarding it:

• Unified/VMAX Consolidation Tool shows the savings of replacing multiple arrays with VNX or VMAX systems
• Tech Refresh for VNX/VMAX - savings if upgrading
• Backup & Recovery, using EMC Alinean
• EMC Data Protection - cost savings if using Recoverpoint, Replication Manager and DPA
• Competitive Power Calculator - self explanatory
• Tech Refresh for Centera