Alike A3/V7 Documentation

Storage Concepts

Storage is fundamental to all backup and DR operations, and it is important to understand how the A3 uses its storage, and what options are available.

Please Note: You must define your backup storage (ADS) in the A3 console before continuing any further. The Alike services will not start without an active ADS.

You Can Configure Two Data Stores
Local Alike Data Store (ADS)
Remote Offsite Data Store (ODS)

The A3 offers great flexibility for how you deploy and configure your storage via your Docker container, which can present the storage of your choice to our Docker image.

For those using our prebuilt Docker container VM, we offer the convenience of major network storage options out of the box. If these are not sufficient or approprioate for your needs, please consider using you own Docker container.

Your ADS GUID

Every A3 installation is identified by a GUID (globally unique univeral identifier).

Every A3 Has its Own Unique GUID
This GUID is registered with Quadric Software and is placed in your ADS when it is first created.

If you change your ADS to a new location with a new GUID, your A3 will receive a new GUID. This could impact your ability to take backups and use A3 features, as every GUID must be associated with your Alike subscription plan. Please read more at Subscription Plans.

If you change your ADS location, a new GUID will be generated, even if you choose a pre-existing ADS location. This is done to prevent the situation where two A3s are both using the same GUID, which will cause one or both to lose licensing and become read-only.

Any time you move your A3 storage, be sure to reassign your new GUID to your subscription. See this section for instructions.

A3 VM Supported Storage: ADS and ODS

CIFS/SMB: Alpine samba supports SMB 2.0 through SMB 3.1. Alike will prompt you for UNC path, username, and password. Domain authentication is supported.

NFS: Supports NFS 3, NFS 4, and NFS 4.1. Alike will prompt you for appropriate credentials.

Local Storage: This option is available for testing and prototyping and is not recommended for production backups. If your A3 VM is damaged or lost during an outage, it may be difficult to recover your local disk and reattach. Network storage is the correct choice for production use as isolates your backup data from your production environment.

You can attach a virtual disk to your A3 VM and choose it as your backup destination. On Xen platforms, VHD local disk is limited to 2TB.

Supported Storage: ODS Only

S3-Compatable Object Storage: The A3 container ships with goofys version 0.24.0, which supports mounting of most S3-compatable object stores and features high performance and high reliability.

Other Storage Types

iSCSI, FibreChannel, direct-attach, or nearly any other conceivable storage configuration can be utilized by configuring your own Docker container. Please see Docker Installation for information on the A3 Docker YAML file and how to deploy to Docker.

With Docker, You Can BYO Your Storage Configuration
Docker allows you do plug in the storage of your choice!