HPE BB879A – StoreOnce 4700 24TB Backup Storage Appliance

HPE BB879A – StoreOnce 4700 24TB Backup Storage Appliance

Overview

The HPE BB879A is a 2U rackmount disk-based backup storage appliance from the StoreOnce 4700 series, engineered to provide automated data protection and high-ratio deduplication for mid-sized data centers and regional enterprise hubs. This hardware system is configured with 24TB of raw storage capacity across twelve hot-swappable 2TB 7,200 RPM SAS hard drives managed by an integrated hardware RAID sub-layer. It directly solves the problem of narrow backup windows and expanding storage costs by eliminating redundant data blocks before they are written to persistent media. The platform integrates seamlessly into existing enterprise racks, operating as a centralized, high-throughput target for scheduled disaster recovery and retention workloads.

The physical architecture utilizes dedicated internal processing components and a specialized storage operating system to optimize simultaneous data streams. Ingestion performance reaches up to 8 TB per hour when leveraging advanced ingestion protocols, preventing data bottlenecks from stalling production environments during backup operations. The rear chassis panel houses four built-in Gigabit Ethernet ports alongside expansion cages that support optional dual-port 10GbE or dual-port 8Gb Fibre Channel connectivity. This flexible interface layout allows the appliance to connect natively across mixed IP and SAN storage area network topographies.

Data reduction is driven at the block layer by the patented HPE StoreOnce federated deduplication engine, which compresses data across the system footprint. The system fully supports StoreOnce Catalyst software, allowing the data reduction process to execute on the originating application server or backup media agent before traveling over the wire. This capability minimizes network bandwidth utilization and maximizes the functional capacity of the physical drive array, dropping storage footprints by up to ninety-five percent. Built-in encryption and secure erase features protect the stored recovery points from external tampering or data corruption.

Operational upkeep and capacity scaling are simplified through a modular mechanical layout that supports incremental expansion enclosures as storage demands grow. The basic 24TB footprint can be expanded up to 168TB of raw capacity using standard StoreOnce upgrade shelves without requiring a forklift replacement of the main controller node. Power infrastructure is sustained by redundant hot-swap AC power supplies, ensuring continuous platform uptime during localized circuit failures or power module swaps. Administration, health status verification, and store creation are conducted via a secure web-based HTTPS interface or a standardized command-line framework.

Typical Deployment Scenarios

• Centralized data center backup target handling concurrent multi-stream backups from enterprise database and application clusters via StoreOnce Catalyst.

• Regional corporate office hub replicating deduplicated disaster recovery points synchronously or asynchronously to a secondary off-site repository.

• Virtualized infrastructure storage repository providing virtual tape library (VTL) or NAS presentation layer targets for multi-vendor backup software.

Specifications

Compatibility / Ecosystem

• Supported Protocols: StoreOnce Catalyst, Virtual Tape Library (VTL), CIFS/Server Message Block (SMB), and Network File System (NFS).

• Emulated Tape Subsystems: HPE LTO-2/LTO-3/LTO-4/LTO-5/LTO-6 Ultrium Tape Drives in MSL2024 and MSL4048 Tape Libraries.

• Enterprise Software Targets: Micro Focus Data Protector, Veritas NetBackup, Veritas Backup Exec, Veeam Backup & Replication, Commvault, and Oracle RMAN.