Today Rubrik has announced a new platform called Rubrik Polaris.  What is Rubrik Polaris? Rubrik Polaris is a consumable resource that you tap into, rather than a pile of infrastructure that you setup and manage.  Essentially it is a SaaS solution that runs in the public cloud with the ability to connect into all your Rubrik instances, see all the data as well as search the data, creating a unified solution for Cloud Data Management.  Polaris is just the platform, the goodies comes in the form of modules.

Rubrik Polaris GPS

The first module for Polaris is Polaris GPS. Some of the major features are:

• Command and Control – Command and Control all of you CDM instances, globally
• Monitor for Compliance – You can leverage alerts to dig into issues
• Open and documented RESTful APIs – Automate and orchestrate all of Rubrik from a single entry point with the visibility of a global data footprint
• Create and Enforce Business SLAs – Create and enforce SLAs based on geography, installation, compliance needs, planned growth, data migrations, etc

I look forward to learning more about the future development of modules for Polaris.  Rubrik continues to be an innovator in Cloud Data Management!!

Rubrik 4.0 has release and I want to give an overview of the new features. Rubrik continues to develop and is meeting my expectations as a great Backup technology!!

Hyper-V Support

The following options are available for Hyper-V 2016 with Native API (WMI) Support

• Auto Protect
• Failover Cluster Support
• Agentless backups
• Incremental Forever
• Live Mount
• Instant Recovery
• Search

The following options are available for Hyper-V version below 2016 with Connectors based support

• Incremental Forever
• Search

Nutanix AHV Support

• Automated protection and restore workflow
• Securely replicate or archive to other sites
• Rubrik Core Capabilities – global search, erasure coding, reporting
• Scale as you need
• Pick your hypervisor: Acropolis, ESXi or Hyper-V

Oracle Support

• Rusbrik Cluster is now a NAS target for Oracle RMAN with an agentless approach.
• RMAN manages Backup and Restore for DB and Redo logs. Support for Incremental Merge –advanced RMAN feature.
• Multi-channel support, ingest to flash for fast backup/ingest.
• Recovery and DR through RMAN

Cloud Instantiation

• Enables customers to power-on snapshot of a VM on the cloud
• Instance type recommendation based on VM config file
• 2-click deployment and end-to-end orchestration
• UI Integration to launch, power off or de-provision an instance

SQL Server Live Mount

• Power on read/write clones instantaneously
• Provision a clone to any desired Point in Time
• Mount same database across multiple hosts
• RestAPI’sallow to automate workflows
• Self Service using RBAC

Archive to Tape

• Uses QStar to expose tape library as NFS/SMB share
• Each Tape vendor has their proprietary interface
• QStar presents a common interface irrespective of tape vendor
• Supports Industry Standard LTFS format

Other Feature add

• NFS Archive Encryption
• Custom TLS Certificate – Web UI

My current role has me focusing on Data Protection in depth, which has been a passion of mine for a long time.  I have recently started diving into Rubrik and I believe this product is great solution for protecting your data.  Below is a breakdown of the latest release of 3.1 and the continued improvements and added features of the platform.

Native (Physical) Windows Protection

• Granular File & Folder Level Protection
• Incremental-Forever Backups
• Automatic Connector Upgrades
• Secure Cloud Archival
• Pre and Post Scripting Features
• Full Integration with Compliance Reporting
• Support for Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 and 2012 R2

There are a few Recovery Options for Windows Servers

• Restore (in place)
  • Overwrite the original or create a new folder
  • Preserve ALCs and Timestamp
• Export (out of place)
  • Export to another Windows Server
  • Preserver ACLs and Timestamp
• Download Locally
  • Download files to the machine from where the administrator is running the Rubrik Web Interface

SQL Server Failover Clustering and other Improvements

• Complete support of Microsoft SQL Servers running on WSFC Clusters
• Automatically recognize a WSFC and creates a dedicated Failover Cluster Tab
• Automatic failover following to the active node

Advanced Export Options

• A SQL Server database can have multiple data and log files in various locations
• User can specify where each file goes, individually, during an Export Operation

Other Improvements

• Source side Compression and Decompression
• SQL Server 2016 fully supported
• Cross Version Restore – Support for restore to the same or newer version

Rubrik Envision

• Create and customize reports to manage, share and visualize analytics for data management, compliance, and utilization.
• Build your own or select from the system-built reports
• Schedule emails in HTML-5 or download on-demand Excel reports
• There are over 15 Attributes and almost 40 measures available

Software Encryption

• AES-256 Encryption
• Multiple Encryption modes used for speed
• Key wrapping for higher security & secure cluster erasure
• Supports encryption on a 1 Brik cluster
• Internal Key Management via TPM
• Support for all r300 series Briks

Other Enhancements

• New design based on customer feedback to be “Host” centric
• 100% Customer Driven Upgrades
  • Self-service upgrades via CLI
  • Simple workflow just download the upgrade file, upload to cluster, issue upgrade command
  • Enables scalable ROBO growth using the Rubrik Edge Virtual Appliance
• vSphere Improvements
  • Manual vCenter refresh form the GUI
  • Restore directly to ESXi hosts
• In-Place File Restore – Linux VMs
• Log & Support Bundle Download
  • Download support bundle so it can be sent to Rubrik Support
• Extended Timeframes for Dashboard and System charts from 4 hours to 24 hours