Dell PowerProtect DD Deploy D-PDD-DY-23

What You Will Learn

Five PowerProtect DD Deploy Modules

Master Dell PowerProtect DD — from deduplication concepts and hardware installation through Cloud Tier, backup software integration, and full system administration with replication, encryption, and retention lock.

Module 01

Dell PowerProtect DD Concepts and Features

›SISL (Stream-Informed Segment Layout) — how DD reads only a small segment index into memory rather than the full dataset, enabling scalable inline deduplication with low RAM overhead
›DIA (Data Invulnerability Architecture) — end-to-end data integrity checking using checksums at write, on-disk, and on-read; ensures zero silent data corruption across the full data path
›Inline vs post-process deduplication — inline (dedup occurs before data hits disk, saving capacity immediately) vs post-process (data written first, dedup runs later); DD uses inline
›File vs block storage — DD as a file-based target (NFS/CIFS/DD Boost) vs virtual tape library block target (VTL/NDMP); use cases for each in backup and archive workflows
›Product positioning — DD3300 (entry/mid-range, <96 TB logical), DD6400/6900 (midrange data centres), DD9400/9900 (enterprise/hyperscale); DD Virtual Edition for cloud and virtual environments
›Software features overview — retention lock (compliance & governance), encryption (at-rest AES-256), replication (DD Replicator), cloud tier (active→archive policy), smart scale, DDMC, snapshots, fastcopy

Module 02

Dell PowerProtect DD Hardware Installation

›Pre-installation preparation — site requirements (power, cooling, rack space), unboxing checklist, rail kit assembly, 2-post vs 4-post rack mounting, and cable management
›Physical installation — racking the DD appliance, connecting expansion shelves (ES20/ES30) with SAS cables, cabling Ethernet management and replication ports, and FC HBA connections for VTL
›Initial configuration — first-boot setup wizard (hostname, management IP, gateway, DNS, NTP), licensing activation (Capacity-on-Demand, software feature licences), and SSH/web UI access
›Network configuration — configuring admin network (eth0a), data interfaces (bond0/bond1 for NFS/CIFS, ifgroup for DD Boost), FC zoning for VTL target ports
›Interoperability verification — running DD diagnostics (disk show status, filesystem status), confirming backup software can discover DD appliance, and baseline performance benchmarking with DD Replicator

Module 03

Dell Cloud Tier Implementation and Administration

›Cloud Tier architecture — active tier (on-prem NVMe/SAS fast storage) plus cloud tier (object storage: AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCP, or DD Cloud Tier ECS); data movement policy moves aged data to cloud
›Cloud Tier installation — configuring cloud unit (cloud provider credentials, bucket/container, encryption key), defining data movement policy (schedule, minimum file age, target tier), and verifying data movement jobs
›Expanding storage — adding capacity to active tier (new shelf), expanding cloud unit quota, and adjusting compression settings (pre-comp vs post-comp targets) to optimise cost
›Replication to cloud — configuring DD Replicator with cloud target (DD Cloud Protection Storage), RPO settings, and disaster recovery failover to cloud-resident copy
›Advanced administration — deleting/reusing storage units (MTrees), adjusting data movement policy frequency, monitoring cloud tier job history, and estimating cloud egress costs using DD capacity reports

Module 04

PowerProtect DD in Backup Environments

›Backup architecture — backup media server role, backup software components (server, client, storage nodes), packet flow with DD as backup target vs without (impact on dedup efficiency)
›DD Boost/OST — DD Boost enables source-side deduplication (backup client sends only unique segments), distributed segment processing, load balancing across DD interfaces, and encrypted DD Boost
›NFS/CIFS integration — mounting DD MTree as NFS export or CIFS share to backup servers (NetBackup, NetWorker, CommVault, TSM); configuring access controls and quotas
›VTL integration — creating virtual tape library (virtual changer + virtual drives + virtual tapes), FC zoning, importing virtual media in backup software, and running full/incremental backup jobs
›DD Boost in specific environments — Oracle RMAN (DD Boost plugin, RMAN channel configuration), NetWorker (DD Boost storage node), Avamar (DD Boost for Avamar replicated copy target)
›Best practices — tuning DD Boost parallelism (streams per host), GZIP compression settings, cleaning schedule (weekly), retention policy alignment, and capacity planning with dedup ratio trending

Module 05

PowerProtect DD System Administration

›Protocol administration — NFS (export paths, client access lists, options), CIFS (shares, AD/workgroup join, ACLs), DD Boost (storage units, user accounts, client access list), VTL (changer/drive count, tape capacity), NDMP (NDMP server enable, tape server integration)
›Key technologies — encryption (enable filesystem encryption, key manager: embedded/external RSA/KMIP), replication (DD Replicator pair setup, replication context, throttling), retention lock (governance vs compliance mode, minimum/maximum retention period, enabling on MTree)
›Advanced features — DDMC (multi-system management console), smart scale (scale-out namespace across multiple DD systems for single logical view), snapshots (MTree snapshot policy, snapshot expiry), fastcopy (efficient within-DD data copy without data movement)
›Secure multi-tenancy (SMT) — tenant unit (logical partition), tenant admin user, isolation of tenant MTrees/protocols; storage migration (migrating data between DD systems with minimal downtime using DD Replicator sync+switchover)
›Access management — local users, LDAP/AD integration, role-based access (admin, user, security officer, backup-operator); autosupport (ESRS gateway, email), support bundle generation, SNMP v3 configuration, Syslog export
›Monitoring and performance — Active Tier utilisation graph (pre-comp vs post-comp vs used), compression factor trending, replication lag monitoring, cleaning job history, estimating storage burn rate using daily write rate and dedup ratio

Full Curriculum

5-Module D-PDD-DY-23 Programme

Complete PowerProtect DD deployment curriculum — from SISL deduplication fundamentals and hardware installation through Cloud Tier, backup software integration, and full system administration.

›Key differentiators — SISL (Stream-Informed Segment Layout) reads only a small segment index into RAM, enabling inline dedup at scale without full dataset read; DIA (Data Invulnerability Architecture) checksums data end-to-end
›Inline vs post-process — DD performs inline deduplication before data is written to disk, immediately realising capacity savings; post-process writes raw data first then deduplicates asynchronously
›File vs block storage — DD serves as NFS/CIFS file target, DD Boost file target, or VTL block target; choice depends on backup software capabilities and throughput requirements
›Product lineup — DD3300 (entry-level all-flash, small environments), DD6400/6900 (mid-range), DD9400/9900 (enterprise/hyperscale), DD Virtual Edition (cloud or vSphere); capacity-on-demand licensing
›Software components — retention lock, encryption, replication (DD Replicator), cloud tier, smart scale, DDMC, snapshots, fastcopy, secure multi-tenancy; each licensed separately or bundled

›Pre-installation — site survey (power draw, cooling requirements, rack unit count), unboxing hardware, rail assembly for 2-post and 4-post racks, cable management planning
›Physical installation — racking chassis, connecting expansion shelves (ES20/ES30 via SAS), Ethernet cabling (management port, data ports for NFS/CIFS/DD Boost), FC cabling for VTL HBA ports
›Initial configuration — first-boot wizard: hostname, mgmt IP, netmask, gateway, DNS, NTP; activating base licence and optional licences (retention lock, encryption, replication, cloud tier)
›Network setup — eth0a for admin, data interface groups (ifgroup) for DD Boost load balancing, VLAN tagging, jumbo frames (MTU 9000) for backup network
›Verification — show disk status, filesys status, net show all; confirming backup application can discover DD appliance; running initial replication test; baseline compression report

›Architecture — active tier stores recent backups on fast on-prem NVMe/SAS; cloud tier stores older data in object storage (AWS S3, Azure Blob, GCP GCS, or ECS S3); data movement policy defines age threshold
›Cloud unit configuration — creating cloud provider profile (credentials, region, bucket/container, CA certificate for HTTPS), setting cloud unit size limit, and enabling cloud-tier encryption
›Data movement — configuring data movement policy (schedule: daily/weekly, minimum file age: 14–180 days, target: cloud unit); monitoring movement jobs in DD System Manager (Data Management → Cloud Tier)
›Storage expansion — adding ES30 shelf to active tier; expanding cloud unit quota; adjusting global compression (gzip-fast vs gzip-best) to balance speed vs cloud storage cost
›Recovery from cloud — recalling cloud-tier data back to active tier before restoring; configuring recall priority; disaster recovery using cloud-resident DD copy as replication destination

›Architecture fundamentals — media server role in backup data flow; how DD Boost shifts dedup processing to client side (distributed segment processing), reducing network traffic by 50–80%
›NFS/CIFS integration — creating MTree, exporting as NFS (export path, client IP range, root_squash options) or CIFS share (AD join, share ACL); configuring storage unit in NetBackup, NetWorker, CommVault, TSM
›VTL implementation — creating VTL library (changer model, drive count/type, media count/capacity), zoning FC ports to backup server, importing virtual media into NetBackup/NetWorker tape libraries
›DD Boost implementation — creating DD Boost storage unit and user, configuring OST plugin in NetBackup, DD Boost storage node in NetWorker, DD Boost for Avamar; verifying dedup ratios per client
›Oracle RMAN — installing DD Boost RMAN plugin, configuring RMAN channel (type SBT, send "DDBOOST_USER=..."), running full and incremental RMAN backups to DD; restoring from vault
›Best practices — tuning DD Boost parallel streams per host (4–8 recommended), enabling source-side dedup only when client CPU allows, scheduling DD cleaning weekly during off-peak, alerting on compression <5x

›Protocol management — NFS exports (add/remove clients, ro/rw options), CIFS shares (ACL management, homedir shares), DD Boost storage units (quota, user mapping), VTL cartridge management, NDMP server configuration
›Encryption — enabling filesystem encryption (AES 256-bit CBC/GCM mode), key management options: embedded KMS (self-managed) vs external KMS (RSA, KMIP-compliant); key rotation workflow
›Replication — creating DD Replicator context (source MTree to destination MTree), throttling schedule, monitoring replication lag (filesys show compression, replication show detailed all)
›Retention lock — governance mode (admin can override) vs compliance mode (immutable, cannot be shortened even by admin); enabling on MTree, setting min/max retention period per file
›Secure multi-tenancy — creating tenant unit, assigning MTree to tenant, creating tenant admin user; tenant isolation of protocols, capacity, and audit logs; use case for MSP environments
›DDMC and smart scale — DDMC (centralised web console for managing up to 400 DD systems, monitoring alerts, capacity trending); smart scale (global namespace spanning multiple DD systems, single logical pool for backup software)
›Monitoring — Active Tier capacity graph (pre-comp, post-comp, used physical), compression factor, cleaning job history, replication lag, daily ingest rate; estimating burn rate to forecast when to expand

Live Training

Live Instructor

Mon–Fri · Weekend batches

Recording

Live class recording included

30 Days

1.5 hrs/day weekday · 3 hrs weekend

Course Materials

Study notes and resources

Tech Support

Call / WhatsApp support

Working Hours

Mon–Fri · 9 AM – 6 PM

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Dell PowerProtect

DD Deploy

Five PowerProtect DD Deploy Modules

5-Module D-PDD-DY-23 Programme

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