Storware Backup and Recovery Architecture

Modern data centers rarely run on a single virtualization platform. Organizations today operate complex hybrid environments spanning VMware vSphere, OpenStack private clouds, Kubernetes containers, and cloud-native OpenShift deployments. This diversity creates a significant challenge: how do you protect all these workloads without accumulating multiple backup solutions, each with its own licensing model, management console, and learning curve?

Storware Backup and Recovery addresses this complexity with a fundamentally different approach. Instead of forcing organizations to choose between specialized tools or accept compromises in coverage, Storware delivers a unified architecture that protects the world’s widest portfolio of platforms under one universal license. This architecture combines enterprise-grade capabilities with deployment flexibility, enabling organizations to protect their entire infrastructure from a single management console.

This technical deep-dive explores the architectural components, supported platforms, backup destinations, and licensing model that make Storware a compelling choice for organizations seeking to simplify their data protection strategy without sacrificing capability or coverage.

Architecture Overview: Core Components

Storware Backup and Recovery is built on a modular architecture designed for scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency. The solution consists of several interconnected components, each serving a specific purpose in the data protection ecosystem.

Storware Backup and Recovery 7.4 Architecture – Sources and Backup Destinations

The Server: Central Control and Orchestration

The Server component serves as the central control hub of the entire Storware Backup and Recovery solution. It orchestrates all system operations and maintains critical metadata through an embedded MariaDB database. Key responsibilities include configuration management, monitoring, scheduling, and system-wide coordination between all other components.

The server provides a comprehensive HTML5 web-based administrative interface for managing backup policies, monitoring job status, and configuring system-wide settings. It can be deployed on a physical machine or as a virtual machine, offering flexibility in deployment topology. For organizations requiring high availability, Storware supports clustered server deployments with automatic failover capabilities.

The Node: Data Movement Engine

Nodes are the workhorses of the Storware architecture, responsible for the efficient transfer and processing of backup data. Each node executes core operations including backup, restore, and mount tasks. The multi-node architecture enables horizontal scaling; organizations can deploy additional nodes to increase throughput, distribute load across geographical locations, or isolate workloads for security purposes.

Nodes require network connectivity to both the server and backup destinations. Depending on the protected platform and backup strategy, nodes may also communicate with platform-specific components such as Hyper-V Agents, OpenShift Helper Pods, or Tape Managers. For scenarios requiring direct storage access, nodes can be deployed as virtual machines within the hypervisor cluster to enable disk attachment backup modes.

Supporting Components

OS Server and OS Agent: The OS Server manages metadata for filesystem backup operations and is included with the Node installation. OS Agents are lightweight components installed on protected systems (Windows, Linux, or macOS) to enable file-level backup and recovery capabilities.

Hyper-V Agent: A dedicated agent installed on each Hyper-V hypervisor to enable data access and efficient data transfer. This agent supports direct communication with both nodes and Dell PowerProtect Data Domain appliances via the DD Boost API.

OpenShift Helper Pod: Automatically deployed during backup operations to mount Persistent Volumes and facilitate data transfer in Kubernetes and OpenShift environments. The helper pod image and parameters can be customized through node configuration files.

Tape Manager: Manages tape library operations for organizations maintaining tape-based backup tiers, enabling data transfers between nodes and tape infrastructure.

Supported Platforms: Comprehensive Coverage Under One License

One of Storware’s most distinctive features is the breadth of platform support available under a single license. This universal licensing approach eliminates the need for multiple backup products or per-platform licensing tiers.

VMware vSphere and ESXi

Storware provides agentless backup for VMware environments through seamless integration with vSphere APIs for Data Protection (VADP). The solution supports both standalone ESXi hosts and vCenter-managed environments. Key VMware capabilities include:

• Changed Block Tracking (CBT) for efficient incremental backups
• Multiple transport modes: Hot-Add for LAN-free backup, NBD for network-based transfer
• Application-consistent backups through VMware Tools integration
• Instant VM recovery with background migration
• V2V migration capabilities to OpenStack and OpenStack-based platforms

OpenStack

As an OpenInfra Foundation member, Storware provides native integration with OpenStack environments. The solution communicates with Nova and Glance APIs for metadata collection and import operations, while backup operations leverage direct hypervisor access. Supported backup strategies include:

• Disk attachment through Cinder with generic incremental support for all hypervisors and storage backends
• Libvirt strategy for KVM environments with QCOW2 or RAW files
• Direct Ceph RBD integration using RBD export and RBD-NBD
• Multi-domain and multi-tenant support
• OpenStack Horizon UI plugin for tenant self-service backup management

Version 7.4 introduces a new transfer module centralizing all transfer activities, extends support to the Dalmatian release and RHOSO 18, and adds a Skyline console plugin.

Red Hat OpenShift (Containers)

Storware protects Kubernetes workloads running on OpenShift through integration with the OpenShift API for Data Protection (OADP) operator. The solution backs up Deployments, DeploymentConfigs, and StatefulSets with their associated Persistent Volumes. Both full and incremental backup types are supported without requiring previous snapshots to remain in the cluster. Recent optimizations in version 7.4 include resource adjustments for helper pods, reduced staging space requirements, and direct metadata transfer to nodes.

Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization

For organizations running virtual machines on OpenShift, Storware provides specialized backup capabilities through the OADP operator. The solution exports VM metadata using OADP while volume data is handled through a custom OpenShift Virtualization Plugin container image. This approach supports both full and incremental backups with application consistency options.

Nutanix Acropolis Hypervisor (AHV)

Storware delivers agentless backup for Nutanix AHV environments with full support for Nutanix storage features. The integration includes protection for Nutanix Files and Nutanix Volume Groups through dedicated storage provider backup capabilities. This enables comprehensive data protection across the Nutanix ecosystem without requiring additional agents or license tiers.

Additional Supported Platforms

Beyond the highlighted platforms, Storware’s universal license covers an extensive portfolio of virtualization technologies:

Agentless Architecture: Simplifying Deployment and Maintenance

Storware’s agentless approach represents a fundamental architectural decision that impacts deployment complexity, operational overhead, and backup performance. Instead of installing agents inside each virtual machine or container, Storware leverages hypervisor and platform APIs to access data directly at the storage layer.

Reduced Operational Overhead: Without per-VM agents, there are no agent updates to coordinate, no compatibility issues between agent and guest OS versions, and no resource consumption within production workloads.

Simplified Scalability: Adding new VMs to backup protection requires only policy assignment, not agent deployment. This is particularly valuable in dynamic environments where virtual machines are frequently created and destroyed.

Consistent Backup Quality: By operating at the hypervisor level through APIs like VMware VADP, Storware creates crash-consistent snapshots with optional application consistency through hypervisor-native mechanisms like VMware Tools or QEMU Guest Agent.

For workloads requiring file-level granularity or specific OS integration, Storware provides optional OS Agents for Windows, Linux, and macOS. This hybrid approach enables organizations to choose the appropriate protection method for each workload type.

Backup Destinations: Flexibility Without Vendor Lock-In

Storware supports an extensive range of backup destinations, enabling organizations to implement optimal storage strategies for different data tiers, compliance requirements, and budget constraints.

File Systems

Local filesystems, iSCSI, NFS, SMB, and ZFS storage targets provide on-premises backup options. Storware supports synthetic full backup generation directly on file system destinations, reducing restore time while optimizing storage efficiency. Dell PowerProtect Data Domain integration via BoostFS and DD Boost API enables deduplication at the storage layer.

Object Storage

S3-compatible object storage provides cloud-tier backup capabilities. Supported platforms include Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, and OpenStack Swift. This enables hybrid backup architectures combining on-premises speed with cloud economics for long-term retention.

Storware Cloud: Tiered Storage-as-a-Service

Introduced in version 7.4, Storware Cloud provides a fully integrated cloud backup destination with tiered storage options powered by industry leaders:

• Tier 1 – Powered by N-able: Optimized for high-performance workloads requiring frequent access
• Tier 2 – Powered by Vawlt: Balanced option for mixed active and archive data with multi-cloud capabilities
• Tier 3 – Powered by Seagate Lyve Cloud: Cost-optimized for long-term retention with zero egress fees

Storware Cloud simplifies 3-2-1 backup implementation by providing a ready-to-use secondary backup destination with built-in immutability, deduplication, and geolocation options. It integrates seamlessly with Storware Backup Appliance deployments.

Enterprise Backup Provider Integration

For organizations with existing enterprise backup infrastructure, Storware integrates as a frontend data mover with major backup platforms:

• IBM Storage Protect (formerly Spectrum Protect)
• Dell EMC Networker
• Dell EMC Avamar
• Rubrik Managed Volumes

This integration model preserves existing investments while extending protection to platforms not natively supported by legacy backup solutions.

Tape Libraries

For organizations maintaining tape infrastructure for long-term retention or air-gapped backup copies, Storware provides direct tape library support through the Tape Manager component. This enables cost-effective archival storage while maintaining compliance with data retention regulations.

Universal Licensing: Simplicity Without Compromise

Storware’s licensing model reflects the same philosophy as its architecture: flexibility without unnecessary complexity. Organizations can choose from several licensing options based on their environment characteristics:

Capacity-Based License (per frontend terabytes): Covers all supported workload types based on protected data volume. Ideal for environments with mixed virtualization platforms.

Per-Host License: Covers unlimited VMs and data on licensed physical hosts. One license covers two server sockets.

Per-VM License: Covers specific virtual machine counts regardless of host or data volume. Well-suited for MSP billing models.

V2V Migration License: Covers a predefined number of successful migration jobs, sold in bundles of 10 VM migrations. Currently supports VMware to OpenStack and OpenStack-based platforms.

Critically, the universal license structure means that all supported platforms are included under whichever licensing model an organization selects. There are no hidden per-platform fees or feature tiers. Organizations gain access to the full platform portfolio, all backup destination options, and core functionality under a single license.

Conclusion: Enterprise-Ready Backup, Simplified

Storware Backup and Recovery represents a different approach to enterprise data protection, one that prioritizes operational simplicity without sacrificing capability. The modular architecture scales from single-site deployments to globally distributed infrastructures. The universal licensing model eliminates the complexity of managing multiple backup tools for different platforms. The extensive backup destination support ensures organizations can implement optimal storage strategies without vendor lock-in.

For organizations evaluating backup solutions for VMware environments facing licensing changes, expanding into OpenStack or OpenShift, or simply seeking to consolidate multiple point solutions, Storware delivers a proven, expert-driven platform that simplifies complexity while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability.

Enterprise-ready backup. Simplified. Scalable. Proven.

Ready to simplify your backup architecture?

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