Hyperscale storage compatibility and security questions

Answers inline

• Can I connect an external storage as secondary disk/cloud library to the environment? Also, what type would it be (FC luns, iSCSI luns, NAS shares/exports (NFS, CIFS), S3 buckets)?
  • At the moment this is documented for Hyperscale Appliance, I’ve since sent a query internally to see if this is available for Reference Architecture
    • https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/expert/128099_adding_additional_deduplication_partition_for_hyperscale_x_appliance.html
• If any external storage is permitted as disk/cloud library, would it be connected to all nodes on the Hyperscale cluster, it being the one who controls writes between nodes avoiding conflicts?
  • Yes typically this would be handled by Gridstor, which is built-in to our software https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/10842_gridstor_alternate_data_paths.html
• It being an appliance, does it have any operating system hardening besides the security features included in the software (which run with or without the appliance)? For example, intrusion prevention and detection (like avoiding root logins, avoiding running OS commands or tampering with autostart config, etc.)
  • A list of these features are available in our documentation https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/expert/156337_securing_hyperscale_x_nodes.html
• When upgrading the software, does it work just the same as a non-appliance environment? meaning only commvault software is updated, or will upgrades consider OS updates too?
  • Updates for Commvault are separate to the OS although all managed via command center.
    • OS - https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/expert/143160_installing_operating_system_updates_on_hyperscale_x_reference_architecture.html
    • Commvault -  https://documentation.commvault.com/v11/expert/132716_installing_commvault_updates_and_feature_releases.html