Two MAs with local storage, single or two storage pools?

hello @AndresL 

When you have a single storage pool with both MAs in a grid, Commvault load-balancing mechanism to determine which MA to use for specific jobs. You can find more details about this process here
https://documentation.commvault.com/2022e/expert/load_balancing_operations_between_libraries.html
 

Regarding the decision on which NAS storage path to use (MA1 or MA2), if you have enabled "Select mount path for MediaAgent according to the preferred setting," the system evaluates the available storage paths and selects the optimal one based on factors such as load, availability, and path latency. More information can be found here

https://documentation.metallic.io/2024/expert/library_properties_mount_paths.html
 

As for MA availability, since you mentioned that library paths will be shared between MAs, configuring GridStor Alternate Data Paths is the best approach in this scenario. You can learn more about this configuration here

https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/gridstor_r_alternate_data_paths_getting_started.html
 

So B. with NAS If one of the MAs is completely lost or unavailable for an extended period, and you have configured the settings mentioned above, you will still be able to perform restore operations using the available MA with UNC path.

Best Regards,
Mohamed Ramadan
Data Protection Specialist

Personally, because they’re local storage, I would lean to option A.

With local storage you cannot access the data if the MA is unavailable.  If you have a single Storage Pool to load balance jobs across the MAs, losing either of the MAs means potentially losing access to most of the jobs.

I would go with option B if you were using SAN or NAS.  These storage types would still allow access to the storage from any MA, should your primary MA go down.

My $0.02

Thanks,
Scott
 

Hin AndresL, all,

I agree with Scott here because if one of the MAs goes down, the local storage will be gone with it, no matter what you configure in Mount Path Sharing and GridStor. And even worse: With Deduplication you will probably not be able to restore or copy backups using the other MediaAgent on its own as the unique blocks belonging to a backup job are most probably scattered across both mount paths. The chance is actually quite low to have all unique blocks of a specific job on the same Mount Path.

Regards,

Markus

Thank you all for replies,

But if we ignore data (media agent) availability risk, are there another disadvantages in B option?

From management convenience perspective B option looks quite attractive. Storage usage efficiency also should be better due to single DDB database. Performance also should be better in my opinion.

Yes, I would suspect B has better performance and efficiency.  But, as mentioned, it does come with the increased risk of all data being at the mercy of just 1 MA failing.

Thanks,
Scott
 

I would for sure go for option A.