Commvault tutorial
Posted by Superadmin on August 15 2019 16:15:01

Commvault is a highly demanding data protection solution offered for medium and large enterprises. It has an extremely customizable online user interface to handle our disaster recovery and data protection efforts. Through default streamlined procedures and configuration values, it reduces the time of regular data recovery and protection tasks. Through the command center of Commvault, we can identify the content that we want to secure and begin and control the restores and backups.  

Leading MNCs like Adobe, Apollo Tyres, Microsoft, NTT DATA, NASA use Commvault to handle their constantly growing and evolving business environments. The latest features of Commvault simplifies your data backup and recovery processes. So, the Commvault software will continue to be the most utilized data backup and recovery solution in the tech world. If you want to build a promising career in Commvault, join our Commvault training. According to Indeed.com, the average salary for Commvault jobs in the US is around $80K per annum. In this Commvault tutorial, you will learn what is Commvault and then study its essential features. 

Leading MNCs like Adobe, Apollo Tyres, Microsoft, NTT DATA, NASA use Commvault to handle their constantly growing and evolving business environments. The latest features of Commvault simplifies your data backup and recovery processes. So, the Commvault software will continue to be the most utilized data backup and recovery solution in the tech world. If you want to build a promising career in Commvault, join our Commvault training. According to Indeed.com, the average salary for Commvault jobs in the US is around $80K per annum. In this Commvault tutorial, you will learn what is Commvault and then study its essential features.

Want to Enrich your career and get a certified Commvault professional, then enroll in our “Commvault Online Training”  Course.  This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

Commvault Tutorial for Beginners

Commvault Tutorial - Table of Content 

What is Commvault

Commvault is a management and information solution that offers to handle and secure our enterprise data. It is a public merchandise company established in 1988 and headquartered in the USA. We can use this software for data recovery, backup, cloud management, and infrastructure services. It also allows us to access and utilize the enterprise data anytime and anywhere.

Why Commvault

We use the Commvault software in AWS and cloud solutions for securing, backup, and accessing their data. Following are the most general advantages of using Commvault:

We can store the secured data on the tape, disk, and database server. We can use the data autonomous multiple copy management for satisfying all the compliance and DR needs.

We can access emails and data files and can store the documentation, and also assist in retrieving and recovering them continuously from mobile pages and web browser pages.

Commvault alters the events that need attention, reports with in-depth information on the operations, and detailed data analytics to provide a thorough evaluation to the CommCell.

Data protection methods like archiving, replication, backup, and snapshots are supported on all the primary applications and operating systems.

Every administrative task is centrally handled by using one administrative interface. We can perform the tasks through web pages and mobile devices.

Advantages of Commvault

Following are some essential advantages of Commvault:

Related Article: Best Commvault Interview Questions

Commvault Installation

For Working with Commvault Software, we have to install the following components:

Follow this procedure to install the above components:

 

Step1: Login to the computer as a member or as an administrator of the administrator group on that system.
 

 

 

 

Step2: Execute “Setup.exe”  from the installation package.

 

 

Commvault Installation
 

 

 

 

 

Step3: On the welcome page, choose the “I Agree” checkbox and, after that, go to the next page.

 

 

Commvault Installer
 

 

 

 

Step4: In the “Choose the installation type” page, select “install packages on this computer,” and after that, go to the next page.

 

 

Choose The Installation Type
 

 

 

Step5: On the “Select Packages” page, choose the “MediaAgent” and “CommServe” checkboxes, and after that, go to the next page.

 

 

Select Packages
 

 

 

 

Stpe6: Follow all the instructions of the installation wizard and accept all the default options.

Commvault CommCell

CommCell environment is the categorization of all the Commvault elements that move, store, secure, and handle the data and information. CommServe server and CommCell console play vital roles in managing CommCell Operations.

CommServer server

The CommServe server is the central management element of the CommCell environment. It ensembles and runs all the CommCell operations and maintains all the Microsoft SQL Server databases that include all the configurations, operational history, and security.

CommCell Console

CommCell Console is the central management element user interface to handle the CommCell environment - controlling and monitoring all the viewing events and active jobs associated with all the activities. CommCell allows centralized and decentralized enterprises to handle all the data movement activities through a standard and single interface.

 

 

CommCell Operations

Disaster recovery backup performs standard backups of the CommServe database. It is essential to fetch this information in case of a system failure or disaster.

We run the data aging operation for removing the data that has prolonged its user-defined retention rule.

We can restore by jobs feature for restoring the Disaster recovery backup data.

The auxiliary copy operation enables us to create minor copies of the data related to the data prevention operations, irrespective of the native copy.

We can send and view the log files of the operations on our system through a CommServe computer.

Through the CommCell browser, we can modify and view all the jobs scheduled for running on a CommServe server through the jobs planned window. The Scheduled jobs window allows us to review the scheduled jobs and recognize the client computers they execute.

We can carry out a search operation for particular events that happened in our CommCell configuration.

We can see the log files generated by the MediaAgent. Files in the provided computer may vary according to the computer’s role in the CommCell Architecture.

We can see the job history of all administration jobs that have been executed.

We can view the users currently logged onto the CommCell Console.

CommCell Disaster Recovery

It is a group of procedures that we use for preparing and recovering through a CommCell disaster. We can define the CommCell disaster as:

CommServe Recovery

CommServer functionality offers the primary administration and management for the entire CommCell group. Failure in the CommServe system results in the CommCell group becoming non-functional. So, it is essential to plan and develop the disaster recovery process for protecting the CommServe host and database.

Following are the CommServe Disaster recovery solutions:

CommCell Console Access

We can access the CommCell console through the following four methods:

Commvault Cloud Services

The Commvault cloud services portal offers a set of solutions for monitoring and managing our data. We can download the software updates, see our health report and reporting dashboard. To access these solutions, we should register the product to create the account. After creating the account, we can utilize the Commvault store for downloading the updates, app studio applications, reports, workflows, and alert rules.
Critical features of Commvault cloud services are as follows:

Backup Agents

Backup is the basis of the extensive data protection and management policy. The Commvault software provides continuous and effective restore and backup of the data in our organization from the operating systems, applications, and databases. Commvault software forms on this base by incorporating the application knowledge with the global duplication, indexing, hardware snapshots, search, replication, and reporting. Backup agents are the software that is installed on the systems to secure and access the data. Following are the critical Backup Agents:

Big Data Applications

We can use Commvault software to support big data applications and file systems. We can install the Commvault software on multiple data access nodes, and after that, define one of the data access nodes as a master node.

Cloud Applications

We can use Commvault software for accessing the data on the different cloud applications. We utilize the Commvault software for running the backup on cloud applications and store the backup information on a tape or disk.

Commvault Reports

We can use the reports on the Web Console, Command Center, CommCell Console, and Cloud Services Portal. By installing Commvault, we can automatically include a wide range of reports. By using the following information, you can determine which reporting method suits your organization:

Commvault Activate

It is an incorporated toolset that contains sensitive data governance, compliance search, and file storage optimization.

Commvault Tools

Commvault provides various tools and utilities, they are:

Developer Tools

Collaboration Tools

Administration Tools

 

 

Conclusion

In this Commvault tutorial, we have included all the features and elements of Commvault to provide you with the fundamental knowledge of Commvault software. I hope this article helps you learn and upgrade your skillset. If you have any queries, let us know by commenting in the below section.

 

 

 

 

 

Commvault tutorial

 

 

commVault-tutorialCommvault is an organisation-level software data platform. It has some modules to restore, archive, back up, duplicate, search, and replicate data. This software is built on unified code base as a single platform. Features of commvault include protecting data using mobile devices, web browsers which end users can access, etc.

Commvault software platform

Commvault software was previously called simpana. The data produced is safeguarded by installing an agent software on the virtual or physical hosts which make use of APIs or operating system (OS) to protect data in a steady state. Produced data is processed by the agent software at the client side (computers) and data is backed up to disk, tape, data manager, MediaAgent, or cloud storage. The CommServe a centralized server tracks all the data management activities through central user interface (CUI).

Important features of Simpana software include:

Are you intereted in taking up for CommVault Certification Training? Enroll for Free Demo on CommVault Training! 

Capabilities of commvault software: 

This software platform delivers exceptional advantages and benefits with integrated approach to data and information management. The platform has a powerful software that is tightly integrated, and provides functionality through virtual environments to recover and  protect data, ability to manage complexity and costs, and acquires a better understanding of your information.

capabilities-of-commvault

Some of the capabilities are listed below:

OnePass and Archiving: By this technique, you can classify, store, access, and store data according to evidentiary value, and business. We can also access and preserve data which is stored electronically.

This is the first process industries have incorporated to archive, and backup data. It combines both the processes - archive and backup into one (single), with low-impact data collection (operation). This operation moves data into secondary storage, and data functions as a backup and archives a copy. For instance, big file storage and email problems that constantly grow with no footprints, are managed by archiving data with no overhead additions, and parallelly storing and retaining data based on its utility. 

There are two types of agents to perform archiving. They are:

  1. Database archive agents
  2. Classic archive agents

Snapshot Management: To manage snapshot, IntelliSnap technology is prefered. It includes complex life cycle of snapshot management into the framework (software). This integrated method makes it easy, quick, and affordable to equip accelerating backup and recovery of applications, the power of multiple array-based snapshots, data, virtual machines, and systems. It automatically creates application-aware (hardware) snapshot of copies across multiple storage environments, and list of snapshot data is recovered from individual files without collection of scripts and recovery tools.

Security and Encryption: It securely protects data present in the cloud or in the premises, at the edge. The main aim is to secure data, whether it may be in the office or on the road, on devises or laptops, and at rest or while traveling. It uses effective encryption standards which have to be customizable to access content and operations, single sign-on, audit trails, role-based security, and alerting to secure your information. Data which is protected efficiently is stored in “ContentStore”. Contentstore is a virtual repository of all managed data. This security will reduce cost by securing stored data.

Deduplication: This feature reduces backup time by saving data to the storage and network resources. This is done by identifying and removing the duplicate data during backups. All the data from the operating systems like UNIX, Windows, LINUX is “deduplicated” before moving into the secondary storage. During this process, various factors are considered such as reducing the space required for storage, reducing the time and bandwidth required to move data, and to reduce the time taken to restore data. Setting up deduplication where it makes some sense: on the target, at the source, or some times both. Deduplicated data is stored in tapes for long-term storage purposes. The technique of deduplication benefits during disaster recovery, by moving deduplicated copies of data to cloud storage.

[Related Article: CommVault Deduplication]

Disaster Recovery: It’s likely that due to impact of application interruptions, data loss can be stunning. That is why disaster recovery is most significant operation that every organisation requires. The ability to handle interruptions that are unplanned caused by intuitions must be taken care of. This software drastically simplifies disaster recovery operation and enhances business continuity with efficient platform, that is flexible and integrated, improves business by reducing costs and the risks of data loss. Appropriate strategies are to be sleek or up-to-date at the time of disaster. These might include:

Frequently Asked CommVault Interview Questions

Backup and Recovery:

Commvault software allows smooth and efficient backup and restore of data of your organisation from most prevailing operating systems (OS), databases (DB), and applications. This system uses agents to interface with applications and file systems to facilitate the transfer of data to the protected environment. Data can be safeguarded in the following ways:

CommCell Architecture:

A CommCell is the logical group of all the software components that store,   move, protect, and manage information (data). It contains one or more Media Agents, one or more clients, and one CommServe host.

commcell-architecture

MediaAgent

The MediaAgent (MA) acts as data transport manager in the CommCell environment. It manages the data storage libraries and performs data movement. CommServe(server) correlates MA tasks. Scalability is achieved by involving more than one MediaAgent(MA) in a CommCell environment. This software can be installed in clustered, physical, and  virtual environments.

Client

A client is a group of software agents that aids the movement of data  associated with the client, and acts as protection manager. 

CommServe

There is a possibility of only one CommServe host. It is the chief management component that executes all CommCell operations-- configuration, maintaining SQL Server (databases) that contain all  operational history, and security of CommCell environment. It can be installed in virtual, clustered, and physical platforms. 

Agent

An agent is a software that is installed in user computer to protect data. Different agent softwares are available to manage different data types on a client, for example, Windows file system data and SQL databases. Agent software can be installed in virtual, physical, and clustered environments, and may be installed on proxy server too. 

CommCell Console

The CommCell Console is the user interface for managing the CommCell environment. It performs -- viewing events related to all activities and controlling and monitoring the active jobs. It allows decentralized  and centralized enterprises to manage all activities through, common interface (single).

Web Server

This offers web service that processes client requests from one or more web applications like Web Console and the command center that communicate with the CommServe. It provides access to CommCell where end-user can perform operations on the web.

By default, the Web Console and Web Server components are installed with the CommServe. These components are not necessarily for CommServe host but, you can accept while installing CommServe host. For better scalability, you can host it on multiple platforms.

Web Console

It is a web application that allows clients to manage their data, perform other useful operations like managing virtual machines, reporting, and downloading software packages. You can have several Web Console components combined with the same Web Server or different Web Servers. It includes both Command Center and the Web Console interface. 

Reporting Server

The Reporting Server allows you to access reports that help you to maintain one or more CommCell environments from one location on your Web Console.

Workflow Engine

To automates enterprise processes Workflow tool is used. It is done by putting tasks together in a specific order. It helps you automate both external tasks and  CommCell tasks.

 

Tools & Utilities

These are the three major tools and utilities provided with Commvault software.

Developer Tools: Commvault developer tools are a set of business intelligence tools and API tools, that support many development approaches, operating systems, and technology platforms to facilitate the development of applications for business services that can be reused and easily integrated in your organisation.

Administration Tools and Utilities : To analyze the contents of log file  Commvault jobs, GxTail tool is used for troubleshooting. It has many features that reduce your debugging time, such as highlighting those relevant to the issue and filtering out messages that are less relevant, DB Maintenance (Troubleshooting queries on the CommServe database), etc.

Events Organizer: It is a web-based application for managing and creating corporate events - For example, seminars, conferences, or exhibitions. You can also develop reports for monitoring and tracking events and conduct surveys.

Career opportunities

There are no prerequisites for learning CommVault software. However, opportunities are growing day-by-day in this area. Students, developers related to R&D and Infrastructure, Software Engineers, System Administrators(DBA), End Users, and Aspirants aiming for a career in this prospective field can opt to learn. 

 

 

 

 

CommVault Deduplication

Let’s understand what Deduplication is all about :

Data deduplication is nothing but a data compression process where it will identify and eliminate a duplicate set of data blocks during the data backup activity. 

The data deduplication can also be called as :

So how does this process actually identifies whether a particular data block is a duplicate or not?
So, according to the data deduplication process, the incoming data segments are analyzed with the stored data within a system. Based on the analysis, if the data exists, then the deduplication process will not allow the data to flow through.

Want to become a professional in Commvault then enrol in our “Commvault Certification Training”.  This course will help you to achieve excellence in this domain.

Let’s consider an example to understand the deduplication process better:

Assume that the document is already available in the repository. Now, the same document has some edits. So when the data deduplication process is executed, the document will be updated with the latest changes.

On contrary, if the user is trying to load the same file again to the repository, then the data deduplication algorithms will allow the document to flow and the old record of the same file will be deleted and the newer document will be saved.

Commvault Global Deduplication:

Now, as we know about the deduplication process, let’s understand more about the global deduplication method.

Within the global deduplication process, if the data is copied over to one node, and if the same data is copied over to the second node, then it will recognize that the data exists in the first node and no copy extra copy of the data is made. 

Compared to the single node deduplication process, the global deduplication process is much better. Global deduplication technology is the preferred option for businesses if they are dealing with multiple data backup targets for large data centers. 

The benefits associated with Global deduplication technology:

What is Deduplication in CommVault?

The core point of deduplication is to effectively manage database backup activity and make sure that there is no redundant data stored. To effectively implement the dedupe system, the organizations/users need to understand the capabilities, and also their limitations. 

So, having these limitations in mind will definitely help the users to get the best out of the deduplication process and the data backup is done effectively.

How does deduplication work in CommVault?

The entire process is explained as a workflow:

MediaAgent roles:  

Related Article: Frequently Asked CommVault Interview Questions

Deduplication do’s and don'ts

In this section, we will discuss commvault deduplication best practices:

With the data deduplication process in place, a lot of disk space is saved by not allowing data duplication during the backup activity. So, to effectively utilize the benefits of the deduplication process, organizations need to understand their limitations as well. 

The best practices that we can be used, i.e., Do’s for data deduplication:

Limitations for the dedupe systems:

The best practices that can be avoided, i.e., Don'ts for data deduplication

Deduplication Features:

A new generation of deduplication process is implemented by Commvault. The new generation process includes a one-stop solution for all the data backup needs where you can still get flexibility and scalability. 

Simpana software is the new version of the deduplication process introduced by Commvault. With this software, the following features can be utilized to streamline the data backup activities.

Critical data capture:

One of the best features that the CommVault deduplication process offers is capturing critical user data backup activity is carried out and it takes less time and bandwidth.  The process also supports all kinds of devices like laptops, desktops, etc. 

Tape Retention process:

With its unique process, the amount of data stored on the tapes is effectively managed. Doing this will reduce the cost associated with media and vaults. 

Efficient Data center backup:

Reduces the backup time and the impact on the network when a source side deduplication process is initiated. 

Offer remote office protection:

All the backup requests of remote offices can be routed to a single instance where a site to site limitation can be set for the bandwidth requirements.

CommVault Deduplication Ratio

The deduplication ratio plays an important role in terms of determining the effectiveness of the data dedupe process. The ratio of 10:1 represents that 10 times worth of data can be protected based on the actual physical space.

So, how does the deduplication ratio is calculated?

It is the total capacity of the backup data divided by the actual physical capacity that is available. 

They are several factors that affect the deduplication ratio, and they are listed below.

Monitoring Deduplication database:

With the help of the Deduplication database, the below areas are monitored.

With the help of charts, the user will be able to see information like:

Partitions Table

What is the procedure for monitoring?

The following monitoring procedure will help you view the data. 

CommVault Deduplication 

Configuring Deduplication for High performance:

The below section will cover how to configure the CommVault Deduplication process: 

In this example, we will consider the Dell PowerVault DL2100 in conjunction with Commvault Simpana 8 ( Advanced deduplication edition). The advanced version of CommVault is capable of delivering end to end block-based deduplication process where the usage of MediaAgent disk storage is reduced to a considerable amount.

So, the below configuration settings will help the user to understand how to achieve higher performance by going through the deduplication process. 

Let us understand the general guidelines which are common for everyone:

To have these configuration settings enabled, let’s understand the process in detail:

Firstly, one has to create a separate primary storage policy copy, and, also, to make sure that the deduplication process is enabled by using the relative storage policy wizard.

Point to remember: never ever store the deduplication stores to the PowerVault DL2100 internal system (C:)

Configuring the system for block-level deduplication factor:

In this process, we will be able to set the deduplication factor at the block level on the primary storage policy copy. Also, we will have to enable deduplication.

Enabling sub-client software compression and deduplication:

The following process will help you understand to enable deduplication. 

Apply the Spill and Fill Mount Path:

The following process should be used to apply the spill and fill mount path to PowerVault DL2100 magnetic library:

Configuring service package 3 for Simpana 8 is installed:

With the use of service package 3 within Simpana 8, the deduplication performance pack will be an added advantage to the system. This package should be installed to achieve high performance. 
The following process can be used to identify whether the package is installed or not:

The Service Package 3 cannot be installed on the system with the use of an Automatic feature update on CommVault Simpana 8.

Conclusion:

In this article, we have covered all the aspects of CommVault Deduplication. With the help of this guide, we can understand the industry best practices that can be followed. With the use of Deduplication features, one can achieve the best results when it comes to data backup activity and can also streamline the process. Using the industry best practices for Deduplication, we can definitely achieve better data backup management activity.

 

 

CommVault Interview Questions

 

 

If you are in search of Commvault interview questions, then you have landed at the right place. In this blog, we have collected the most frequently asked Commvault Interview Questions and Answers for both freshers and experienced, which will help you to ace the interview. The questions presented here are curated based on the opinions of Commvault industry experts.

But before starting, let’s understand how the demand is continuously increasing for Commvault professionals worldwide:

Now, I hope you have got a clear idea of Commvault’s demand, career opportunities, and salary insights. To simplify your interview preparation process, we have segregated interview questions they are:

 

 

Types of Commvault Interview Questions

  • Commvault Interview Questions
  • Commvault Backup Interview Questions

Top 10 Frequently Asked Commvault Interview Questions

  1. What is Commvault?
  2. What are the various ways of doing High availability?
  3. How does Commvault work?
  4. How to access reports in Commvault?
  5. How to perform a VMware backup?
  6. Please explain the infrastructure that you have worked on previously.
  7. what is ddb in Commvault?
  8. List out all the day-to-day activities of a backup admin.
  9. What is DDB seeding?
  10. What is IRM and how does it work?

Commvault Interview Questions

1. What is Commvault?

Commvault is a data management platform that assists organizations with data backup and recovery, cloud, virtualization, disaster recovery, security, and compliance.

Commvault software consists of modules to backup, restore, archive, replicate, and search data.

2. What is Commvault Simpana?

Simpana is one of the features of Commvault’s enterprise backup software platform that is specially designed for backup, archive, and reporting data. Simpana is the new version of the Deduplication process introduced by Commvault.

3. What are the key features of Commvault?

The key features of Commvault are listed below:

4. What are the various ways of doing High availability?

The various ways of doing High availability are listed below:

5. Explain storage policy?

A storage policy is a data management entity with a set of rules that describe the lifecycle management of protected data in the Subclient’s content. It manages the Subclient’s data even when it stays on other servers in Commcell.

The set of rules includes how to manage data, protect data, where it will reside, and other management options such as compression, encryption, and deduplication of data in protected storage.

Below mentioned are the different types of storage policies:

6. What are the types of copies that are available and explain them in detail?

We have only one primary copy and to that, we will be having different types of auxiliary/ secondary types of copies. The list of secondary copies available are as follows:

 

7. What is DDB in Commvault?

8. How to configure Commvault Proxy?

To configure the Commvault Proxy on the new client, follow the below steps:

Step1: Right-click on the client computer to be used as a Commvault proxy from the Commvault browser and select the properties. 

Step2: From the properties dialog box, click on the Network button and select the configure firewall settings checkbox.

Step3: Click on the options tab and choose “this computer is in DMZ and will work as a proxy checkbox.”

Step4: Click on the incoming connections tab and select add.

Step5: Select the CommServe_client_name from the list.

Step6: From the State list, select RESTRICTED and click OK.

Step7: From the State list, select RESTRICTED and click OK.

9. Explain the Commcell environment.

A Commcell environment is the logical grouping of all the software components that secure, transfer, and manage data and information. It contains a CommServe host, MediaAgent, and Clients.

CommServe - It is the central management component that coordinates and executes all Commcell operations.

MediaAgent - It is a data transmission manager in the Commcell environment, which enables high-performance data movement and handles data storage libraries.

Client - A Client is a logical group of agents that defines the protection, management, and movement of data associated with the client.

10. How does Commvault work?

11. What is Silo?

A Silo is a collection of disk volume folders that are associated with the Deduplication Database. It contains the deduplicated data that are written on the disk storage.

12. What is Hash Algorithm in Commvault?

A hash algorithm is used in the deduplication process in the Commvault whenever a block of data is read from the source and a unique signature is generated for the block of data using a hash algorithm.

13. What is the default block size for deduplicated storage policies?

The default block size for deduplicated storage policies is 128kb.

14. What percentage of the deduplication ratio that we could maintain so far?

This can be a generalized answer and the ratio that we could maintain is as follows:

  1. About 90% or more when it comes to filing systems backups
  2. Between 70% to 95% when it comes to the database backups

15. Where can you download the reports in Commvault?

You can download and view the reports in Commvault through the web console.

16. How to access reports in Commvault?

You can access reports through the cloud services portal and web console.

17. What is the main difference between a Snapshot and a Clone?

Cloning is nothing but making a copy of something while a snapshot makes an initial copy and then makes subsequent changes to it. Both cloning and snapshot are considered to be good approaches for disaster recovery.

18. What is IRM and how does it work?

IRM stands for the IntelliSnap Recovery Manager that performs hardware storage snapshots directly into a recovery/protection process for smaller environments. It offers fast and easy Snap backups, centralized configuration, application support, etc.

The following steps show how IRM works:

19. What are the Deduplication Building Blocks?

Commvault software runs a building block approach for data management. A building block is a combination of server and storage to protect data sets regardless of the type or origin of the data.

Deduplication Building Blocks will allow you to protect huge amounts of data with minimal infrastructure, better scalability, and faster backups.

20. What is DDB seeding?

DDB seeding is a predefined workflow that allows transferring initial baseline backup among two sites using a removable disk drive.

21. What is ContinuousDataReplicator (CDR)?

ContinuousDataReplicator (CDR) replicates data from source to destination. It provides data protection and recovery support for all types of data including application data and file systems.

22. Is Commvault an enterprise-level software?

Commvault Backup Interview Questions

23. How does Commvault backup work?

Commvault presents the most efficient backup and restores data in enterprises from mainstream applications, operating systems, and databases. Commvault backup uses agents to interface with applications or files and facilitates the transfer of data from production systems to protected environments.

There are various types of backups available in Commvault:

24. What are the common/regular backup failures that one experiences most of the time?

Some of the common or more frequent backup issues reported are as follows:

25. How does the Backup Copy work for IntelliSnap Backup?

The backup copy operation allows you to copy snapshots of the data to any media. The primary snapshot stores the metadata information associated with the snap backups and when the backup copy operation is running, the primary snapshot data is copied to the media associated with the primary copy.

The backup copy can be configured in two ways:

26. How to perform a VMware backup?

Performing a backup is like capturing data for all of the virtual machines in a subclient.

The below-mentioned steps will help you perform a VMware backup:

1. Navigate to client computers from the Commcell console and select Virtualization-client->virtual server->VMware->backup-set.

2. Now right click on a subclient and click backup.

Select the backup type: 

3. If you want to modify default modify settings or specify advanced options, then click Advanced.

4. To run a job immediately, click on Immediate or to create a backup schedule, then click configure to specify the schedule and click ok.

5. Click on Home->Job Controller to track the progress of the job.

27. What are the different types of transport modes available for VMware?

Transport modes are selected automatically for restore and backups based on the VSA proxy used and also when the virtual machines being backed up or restored.

The following are the different types of transport modes available in VMware:

28. List out all the day-to-day activities of a backup admin.

First thing first, the backup admin will have to monitor whether all the scheduled jobs are running as they are designated. If not, then they have to go through the jobs and understand the fault and rectify the same.

Further, they have to involve themselves with some of the following health checkups:

29. Please explain the infrastructure that you have worked on previously.

This should be an honest reply back to the interviewer because this is a real-time question that can be answered based on the experience available.

30. What will happen in Backup copy operations in the proxy server?

During the backup copy operations, the following activities are executed:

CommVault Interview Questions

  

 

Are you ready to acquire your management skill sets with recently designed HKR’s CommVault interview questions article? The CommVault- most demanding data protection and information solution which provides mid and enterprise-level organization worldwide. Before enterprises were struggling to protect and access all of their data. But with the CommVault it’s easy to protect and secure all the data. HKR’s CommVault interview questions article will help you to unleash the skill sets that are required to crack any complex comvault interview. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get learning

Now let's have a look into the commvault interview questions based on the basic, intermediate and advanced levels.

  • Commvault Basic Interview Questions
  • Commvault Intermediate Interview Questions
  • Commvault Advanced Interview Questions

 

Commvault Basic Interview Questions

 

1. What is CommVault?

Ans: CommVault is a data protection and information management platform. It helps organizations access, protect and use all of their data to its true value. It is also used for taking data backups and recovery. CommVault is headquartered in Tinton Falls, New Jersey.

 

 

2. What do you mean by the CommVault tool?

Ans: CommVault is an information and management solution that offers to protect and manage your business data. CommVault is a publically traded software company founded in the year 1988, located in the United States of America. This software can be used for data backup, recovery, and cloud management. CommVault, which is formerly known as Simpana, Software enables us to access and use of their data, anywhere and anytime, turning the data into a powerful strategic asset. This software solution also optimizes the data protection for the broad NetApp storage portfolio and many organize uses the CommVault as a backup server for the data recovery purpose.

3. What are the ways of achieving high availability?

Ans: There are three ways of achieving high availability in CommVault,

  • Log Shipping
  • SQL Mirroring
  • Clustering at the level of SQL
4. What are the features of the CommVault software tool?

Ans: The following are the key features of CommVault;

  •        Offers efficient storage management with the help of duplication for disk and tape.
  •        Provides simplified management via a single console system.
  •        Provides complete data protection and security.
  •        Users can use third-party screen readers with the help of command-line interfaces, web console, and admin console managements.
  •        Snapshot management and edge endpoint solutions
  •        CommCell management, data management, and media management are also possible.
5. What are the other ways of doing high availability?

Ans: There are various ways of performing high availability in CommVault;

  •        Log shipping
  •        SQL mirroring
  •        Clustering SQL level
6. What is the HASH algorithm?

Ans:A HASH algorithm in CommVault is used in the duplication process whenever the system reads the block of data from multiple sources and also helps to generate a unique signature.

7. What are the copies and what are they?

Ans: In CommVault, we can see only one Primary copy and different auxiliary/secondary copies such as;

  •        Selective copy: this type of copy allows users to copy the specific backup system tools from different source copy. This source copy can be either a primary        or a synchronous copy.
  •        Inline copy: in this type of Copy, we can perform both primary and secondary copy tasks that are written to storage the backup phase itself.
  •        Synchronous copy: In Synchronous copy, all the primary data can be copied.
8. Explain the types of copies in CommVault

Ans: We will have the data as one primary copy to which there will be secondary copies. We can create three types of secondary copies,

  • Synchronous secondary copy - includes data from a source copy
  • Selective secondary copy - includes valid full or synthetic full backup data
  • IntelliSnap backup copy - manages the control of snapshots which are started by a backup job. Contains archived index data
9. What are CommServe DR procedures?

Ans: CommServe DR is hardware fresh which consists of Copy DR sets this provides CommServe facilities and restores the CS DR procedures.

 

 

10. What is the global Dedup security policy?

Ans: This global duplication policy enables the data duplication across the multiple storage sets of disk libraries and database servers (DDB).

11. What is DDB in CommVault?

Ans: The following factors will give a brief explanation of DDB:

  •       DDB is an efficient way to transmit and data storage which is possible through detecting and eliminating duplicate data blocks.
  •       Duplication Database (DDB) system is protected by DDB backup sub-client methods
  •       When you create the storage policy with the help of duplication data, DDB backup will be created automatically under the file management system agent            on  the media client.
12. What are the main components of the CommCell environment?

Ans: There are 3 building blocks of the CommCell environment;

  • CommServe: This is the central management component that executes all the CommCell data operations.
  • Media Agent: this is a data transmission manager system that enables high-level data movement performance and handles the data storage packages.
  • Client: A client is a logical group of data agents that perform tasks like data protection, management, and movement of data association.

13. What are the uses of the proxy server?

Ans: The benefits of a proxy server such as;

  • Proxy server is used to access the storage array which is used to create a snapshot.
  • The snapshot is built on the ESX server designated for the snap mount.
  • This helps to unmount the snapshots
  • The mounted snapshot is treated as a file system and the required content will be read.
  • The file backup acts as a primary copy of the storage policy
  • When the backup task is finished, the snapshot is unmounted

14. What are the entities that get backed up with VMWare backups?

Ans: We can perform backup on VMWare from a subclient. The entities that get backed up are,

  • Windows and Linux virtual machines 
  • VM templates
  • VMDK files
  • Virtual RDMs
  • GPT or dynamic disk volumes
  • vSphere tags
  • Fault-tolerant VMs
15. What are the types of transport modes available for VMWare backup?

Ans: The data of a Virtual Machine can be accessed by a VMware Backup Host using four methods,

  • SAN - VMware Backup Host should reside on a physical machine and be able to access Fibre Channel or iSCSI SAN
  • LAN - the data from storage will be read by ESX/ESXi host and sent to the VMware Backup Host through a network
  • HotAdd - if the VMware Backup Host is on a VM, we can use HotAdd to attach the VMDKs of the Virtual Machine that is being backed up to the VMware Backup Host
  • NBDSSL - this works similarly to LAN. In addition to LAN, NBDSSL uses SSL encryption for all the data that is passed through TCP/IP connection
16. What are CommVault Appliances?

Ans: Commvault HyperScale Appliance provides seamless scale and data protection solutions. It is mainly used for scaling out infrastructure with cloud-like economics. It is a storage architecture that provides a platform for indexing, storage, data security, automation, reporting, etc.

 

17. What is DDB seeding?

Ans: DDB seeding is the predefined workflow that helps the user to transfer the data. These data are available in baseline backup and acts as a connection between the two sites with the help of removable disk drives such as USB data-driven devices. We can use DD seeding to start the workflow manually from the CommCell console component.

 

 

18.What is the default block size for duplication?

Ans: The default block size for the data duplication is 128kb.

19. What is synthetic full, full back up, and dash full?

Ans: 

Synthetic full: Synthetic full backup consolidates all the data incremental backups and appends the last backup data. Here the server (server is nothing but client machine or network utilization) performs very low utilization when compared to Full back up.

Full Backup: this full backup performs full utilization operation which is taken from the server.

Dash Full: this dash full performs operations like copying the unique blocks of the de-duplicate data, updates the DDB data, and also index the backup data.

20. What is SILO?

Ans: A silo is the collection of disk volume data folders that are associated with the DDB (De-Duplicate database). It contains the deduplicated data that is pre-written on the disk storage.

21. Name the various types of backups available in CommVault?

Ans:The following are the different backups available in CommVault;

  •       Full backup
  •       Incremental backup
  •       Differential back up
  •       Synthetic full back up
  •       Block level back up
22. Name the different types of transfer modes available for CommVault?

Ans: The different types of transfer modes are such as;

  • Transport mode SAN (storage area network)
  • Data can be accessed directly when they are located in VMware host or we can call it as LUN.
  • Hot add transfer mode
  • Local area network (NBD and NBDSSL) transfer mode
23. What is commvault simpana?

Ans:Simpana is indeed one of the capabilities of Commvault's enterprise backup software platform specifically built for backup, archiving, and analysis of data. Simpana is a modern variant of the method of deduplication implemented by Commvault.

 

Commvault intermediate interview questions

 

24. Tell me about the infrastructure that you worked on previously

Ans: This question will be mostly asked to a CommVault experienced candidate. The answer should include the number of Prod CommServe, DR CommServe, Media Agents, etc. Mention about all the backup servers that you have used.

25. List all day-to-day activities of a backup admin?

Ans:The following are the operations performed by the users;

  • User needs to check the available free space regularly and also mention the remaining space available in the disk libraries.
  • Extract the backup report which is already failed and analyze the issue. All you need to do is the rectification the process.
  • Check regularly for deployment, decommissions, and restores the requests.
  • You need to check for the media agent when they are not in offline mode.
26. What is the process of moving DDB to a new media agent?

Ans:  The following steps explain the process;

Step 1: Go to -> Deduplication engines -> under the storage resources

Step 2: now choose the DDP that you want to move -> then right-click on it -> click on move partitions

Step 3: Now choose the new Media agent option that is available in the target media agent.

27. How can we access reports in CommVault?

Ans: To get access to reports, go to the web console by hitting the URL in a browser. Log into your account and click on 'Reports'. In the case of a private metrics reporting server, you will be able to view the reports in the CommCell console.

28.What are the types of backups available in CommVault

Ans: Commvault provides efficient backup and restores functionalities for any enterprise. These are the types of backups available in CommVault,

  • Full Backup
  • Incremental Backup
  • Differential Backup
  • Synthetic Full Backup
  • Selective Online Full Backup
  • Block-Level Backup
29. What is the difference between a snapshot and a clone?

Ans: Cloning is used to make a copy of something whereas a snapshot makes an initial copy and then adds subsequent changes to it. Both snapshots and clones are considered a good approach to disaster recovery.

30. Is CommVault enterprise-level software?

Ans:The answer is yes, it is enterprise-level software. Using this CommVault software we can build the data modules from scratch and this software can be used independently based on one’s requirement.

31. How you configure a cluster backup?

Ans: 

The steps are as follows;

  1. Create the cluster group -> add the client machines -> perform sync.
  2. For the windows software (Commvault) installation -> you need to prompt the passive node.
  3. Then perform installation -> schedule backup.commvault advaced interview questions

 

 

 

Commvault Advanced Interview Questions

32. Explain about Intellisnap?

Ans:  Intellisnap backup is used to create a point-in-time snapshot of the data. It is mainly used for taking backup of live data and then continuing the live operations.

33. Explain about IRM

Ans: IntelliSnap recovery manager (IRM) is used to execute hardware storage systems snapshots into a recovery process with no effect on the production server. It also provides a centralized configuration wizard through which we can configure storage media, policies, etc.

34. How to perform a VMware backup?

Ans: The below-mentioned steps will help you perform a VM ware backup:

  • First navigate to the client computers -> from the CommCell console -> then select the virtualization- client->virtual server -> VMware -> backup-set.
  • Now right click on a sub-client -> click on the backup option -> here you need to select any one backup type such as full, incremental, or differential backups.
  • If you want to modify the backup -> go to default modify settings -> then click on the advanced.
  • If you want to run any program immediately-> click on immediate -> click configure -> specify the task -> click ok.
  • Click on home -> job controller -> then track the progress of the job.
35. Explain the steps involved in creating the CommVault proxy?

Ans: The below steps explains the steps involved in creating the CommVault proxy;

Step 1: Right-click on the client computer -> from the CommVault browser -> select the properties

Step 2: go to the properties dialog box -> click on the network button -> select the configuration firewall settings -> select checkbox

Step 3: Now click on the options tab -> choose the “computer is in DMZ and this will work as a proxy checkbox.

Step 4: Click on the incoming connection option -> now select the add

Step 5: select the Commserve_client_name from the list

Step 6: from the list -> select the Restricted -> click OK.

36. What is the process that happens in backup copy operations in the proxy server?

Ans:

 

  • The snapshot will be mounted to the ESX server
  • Once the snapshot is mounted, it will be treated as a file system, so the required contents can be read
  • The primary copy will be used to perform the file system backup
  • After the backup job is done, the snapshot will be unmounted

 

 

37. How can we use a specific set of tapes for a server backup?

Ans: We have to create a new scratch pool and add the media to it. Attach a subclient to the scratch pool. This can be done at two levels,

  • Storage policy level
  • Copy policy level
38.Explain about Silo in CommVault

Ans:A set of disk volume folders associated with DDB and contains deduplication data is called a Silo. This is used to eliminate data restore from tape to disk library. 

39.Explain the difference between a clone and a snapshot

Ans:

  • A clone is like a duplicate of the database. It contains the exact copy of data as that of the database
  • A snapshot is a copy of a database at a particular timestamp. We should take a subsequent snapshot if there are any changes made to the database. When we want to restore data, we will have a restore point to get the data from a certain point in time
40. Explain the ways to restore data using CommServe?

Ans: There are two possible ways available to restore the data using CommServe;

  • Here user can directly restore the backup data from a DR export file location
  • By retrieving the data that is present in the disk or tape backup and then restoring the DR data.
41. How does CommVault work?

Ans:

 

  • CommVault software tools contain the advanced modules which are used for data protection, analyzing the duplicate data, and searching the data. All these advanced modules share the same set of back-end services and also offer advanced capabilities to interact with each other
  • Here data will be protected by installing CommVault agent software on the physical or virtual hosts that use the application native APIs or operating systems to protect all the data in a consistent way. This operation is controlled by a centralized server called CommServer.

 

 

42. Explain about Global Dedup Storage Policy?

Ans: The global deduplication policy furnishes a common deduplication database(DDB) that can be shared by various storage policy copies. It allows the deduplication of data from multiple copies which results in removing redundant data.

43.Explain briefly about storage policy?

Ans: A storage policy in CommVault is a data management entity that contains a set of rules that will be applied in lifecycle management. This supports data protection in the sub client’s contents. Storage policy also associates with the client backup to storage tape or disks and here the policy will be used to set the data retention.

44. How to access reports in CommVault?

Ans: Here users can access the reports through the cloud services portal and web console.

 

45. How you configure a cluster backup?

Ans: The steps are as follows;

  1. Create the cluster group -> add the client machines -> perform sync.
  2. For the windows software (Commvault) installation -> you need to prompt the passive node.
  3. Then perform installation -> schedule backup.

46. What is the HASH algorithm?

Ans: A HASH algorithm in CommVault is used in the duplication process whenever the system reads the block of data from multiple sources and also helps to generate a unique signature.