How to: Deploying DellEMC PowerProtect

PowerProtect is a Software defined data management software from DellEMC. It comes in two different variants, a hardware appliance with storage and a Virtual edition. The Virtual Edition must be pointed to a Data Domain. This software has been written from the ground up, and mainly competes against Rubrik and Cohesity. PowerProtect uses protection policies to protect assets. This software has been written from the ground up, and appears to have address a lot of the shortcomings that newer backup vendors poke DellEMC for. Personally (my open unofficial opinion), I believe this solution will eventually replace traditional Avamar/Data Domain/IDPA.

These legacy products did have shortcomings with today’s Cloud first approach many companies are taking, but PowerProtect appears to be well positioned to make a splash. Currently, PowerProtect is in its infancy. It will continue to evolve with more frequent releases, adding improvements and features along the way. The quicker release cycle will help the product to mature and be more competitive.  I would only recommend it if you are a all VMware shop. Client plugins are just getting started, and will get better with providing more options in due time. Currently, SQL plugins are available.

With that said, PowerProtect is very easy to install and manage. if you have ever administered Avamar, you will be glad to know the setup and management has been greatly enhanced, with a huge emphasis  on simplifying everything from setup, deploy, to backing up workloads.  You can see just how easy it is to deploy is these next few steps.

First, download the PowerProtect Data Manager OVA. Currently 19.3 is the latest. You can go to  Dell Support Portal and search for PowerProtect to download.

Login to your VMware environment and select Deploy OVA within your environment.

Name the VM.

Select a resource to deploy to.

Review details, and select next.

Select a Datastore for deployment.

Select a network to deploy to.

Review all settings, and ensure all information is correct.

Select finish, and the VM will deploy.

Within VMware, power the VM on. Go to the console screen of the VM to watch the startup process.

The services will start up, and the system will deploy.

The system will continue to deploy.

Once the system deploys, type the IP address into your browser to finish the setup process. Select new install to finish the setup process.

Select 90 day trial license, unless you have a license key or text file to upload. Select next to continue.

Select a password to use for the system, and select next to continue.

Continue the System Settings, select a time server to add.

Select next to continue.

Setup email and enable auto support, if required.

Review the summary and ensure all settings are correct. Select done once you have confirmed all settings are correct.

The process will continue the setup process, and go through several more minutes of configuration.

 

Once setup has completed, refresh your browser. Login with the username: admin and password that you set previously.

Once you have logged in, you can see the dashboard. Deploying Power Protect was very easy, and took about 30 minutes total to deploy. I would recommend anyone testing it out for 90 days if you are interested.

This covers the deployment process, you still need to add workloads and point it to a DataDomain. I will cover this is a future blog post.