Understanding Data Immutability with Open-E JovianDSS & Veeam

• Data Immutability is a key for ransomware defense, compliance, and business continuity.
• Open-E JovianVHR + Veeam provides a double-layer immutability with ZFS + XFS for stronger backup protection.
• Open-E JovianDSS extends immutability with replication, high-availability, and various performance features.

One of the key data safety characteristics is data immutability, meaning that once data is written, it cannot be changed, deleted, or modified for a set time. Historically, immutability was highly valued before the digital era – laws were inscribed in stone, contracts sealed with wax, and important records preserved in durable forms. These practices ensured trust, accountability, and continuity, helping societies maintain fairness, justice, and stability by protecting unchangeable, reliable documents.

What is data immutability today? Well, the principle is fundamentally the same. Just as immutable records in the past protected the truth and prevented manipulation, immutable data storage now ensures that information critical to business operations remains untouchable, reliable, and readily available for use as the basis for recovery, compliance, and trust.

Data Immutability Impact on Business

Data immutability benefits for enterprises are critical, as it safeguards data, directly securing operations, reputation, and regulatory compliance, while also helping to evaluate risk mitigation, ensure regulatory compliance, prevent cyberattacks, and guarantee business continuity. This is ensured by technologies such as snapshots, copy-on-write file systems, and immutable backups, which create a data version that remains intact regardless of system changes.

The main benefits of data immutability are:

• providing strong protection against ransomware and cyberattacks, ensuring that even if production data is encrypted or deleted, remaining secure and accessible, providing a clean recovery point that cannot be corrupted, supporting regulatory compliance, as industries such as finance, healthcare, and government often require tamper-proof storage of documentation to meet standards such as GDPR and HIPAA,
• serving as a reliable last line of defense for business continuity and disaster recovery, reducing downtime and financial losses by enabling rapid service restoration,
• protecting against human error by preserving previous versions of data, so accidental deletions or overwrites can be easily reversed,
• ensuring data trust and integrity by preserving the authenticity and integrity of information – an essential requirement for legal evidence, financial documentation, medical data, and other critical business information.

Snapshots: The Core Data Immutability Mechanism

Snapshot-based data immutability features are core to any reliable data storage solution. They stem from the advanced capabilities of the ZFS file system. They provide read-only, point-in-time copies of data, guaranteeing data immutability through a copy-on-write architecture. This means original data blocks remain untouched when changes occur, preserving data integrity.

ZFS also offers remarkable precision in capturing entire datasets instantly without impacting system performance. Additionally, features like retention plans prevent snapshots from being accidentally or maliciously deleted for defined periods, supporting strict compliance and regulatory requirements. Checksums and integrity verification at the block level further ensure protection against tampering or corruption. The combination of these ZFS features creates a robust foundation for data immutability, making it a critical component in securing backups against ransomware and accidental loss.

ZFS Snapshots: Definition and Purpose

Snapshots are point-in-time, read-only copies of your data’s exact state. They prevent modification and serve as a reliable rollback mechanism.

Lightweight and Efficient

Rather than duplicating all data, snapshots store only metadata and pointers to existing blocks. The Copy-on-Write (CoW) mechanism ensures new blocks are written when data changes, preserving the original snapshot data.

Interconnected Snapshot Chain

Snapshots form a chain of linked metadata. When an older snapshot is deleted (e.g., due to retention policy), subsequent snapshots absorb its relevant data.

Usage in Practice

Though snapshots are lightweight, frequent creation can eventually consume significant disk space, especially when data changes frequently, since both the old and new versions need to be stored. Open-E JovianDSS addresses this with automated retention policies and replication, keeping critical data safe while optimizing storage. Immutable snapshots combined with on-site and off-site replication ensure quick recovery from accidental deletions, ransomware, or system failures, all without slowing down business operations.

Retention Plans: Automation & Control of Immutable Data Management

Retention plans in Open-E JovianDSS are predefined sets of rules that automate the creation and deletion of snapshots based on specified time intervals and retention periods. These plans determine how often snapshots are taken (interval) and how long they are kept (retention period), allowing businesses to tailor data protection schedules according to their needs. This automation helps manage data storage space efficiently while ensuring data immutability and availability for rollback or disaster recovery purposes.

Most important features of ZFS Retention Plans include:

• customizable intervals for snapshot creation, from as frequently as every minute to longer periods,
• flexible retention periods that can span from hours to several years, depending on business or legal requirements,
• support for multiple rules within a single retention plan to match different backup and recovery strategies,
• the ability to set separate retention plans for on-site and off-site backups to enhance data protection,
• automated snapshot replication to local or remote servers according to retention rules,
• efficient storage use by transferring only changes after the initial full snapshot.

These features enable comprehensive and reliable data protection with minimal manual intervention, optimizing both performance and data security.

Automated Snapshot Management

Retention plans automate snapshot creation and deletion based on user-defined schedules, eliminating manual overhead. You can define intervals as granular as every five minute.

Customizable Retention Intervals

Retention plans in ZFSautomate snapshot creation and deletion using customizable rules. For example, a plan like “1hour_every_5min, 3day_every_15min, 2weeks_every_1hour” means snapshots are taken every 5 minutes and kept for 1 hour, every 15 minutes and kept for 3 days, and each hour kept for 2 weeks. This flexible structure helps optimize data protection while efficiently managing storage space according to business needs:

Data Immutability in Action

Open-E JovianDSS On- & Off-site Data Protection

Data immutability in Open-E JovianDSS On- & Off-site Data Protection is ensured through immutable snapshots and retention plans, which prevent data modification or deletion for defined periods. Snapshots create read-only, point-in-time copies of data, while retention plans automate their creation and preservation according to specific policies. Replicating these immutable snapshots to on-site and off-site locations enhances data security by safeguarding against local failures or disasters. This multi-layered approach ensures data remains unaltered and recoverable, providing strong protection against human error, ransomware, and compliance risks.

2-tier Protection Strategy

Snapshots are powerful for recovery, but local storage remains vulnerable to disasters like fires or theft. Open-E JovianDSS provides the On- & Off-site Data Protection feature, enabling replication of snapshot deltas to remote systems.

Efficient, Asynchronous Replication

Only incremental changes (snapshot deltas) are replicated, minimizing bandwidth usage and making it suitable even for slow WAN links.

Different Retention Policies

You can maintain shorter retention periods locally and longer ones off-site, optimizing performance and storage usage.

Enhancing Data Immutable Backup with Open-E JovianVHR and Veeam

In search of new opportunities for growth and further improvement of backup reliability, Open-E has integrated its latest product, Open-E JovianVHR, with Veeam Hardened Repository. It is worth noting that this is a dedicated solution with a highly focused feature set. It is available exclusively as a single-node backup system and supports only hardened repositories, with no option for configuration via iSCSI, Fibre Channel, or other SAN protocols. Nevertheless, it achieves strong synergy with Veeam’s immutability features, providing robust protection against accidental deletion, ransomware, or other data threats.

While ZFS snapshots in both Open-E JovianDSS and Open-E JovianVHR already provide a robust layer of immutability, combining them with a hardened repository provided by Veeam creates a double layer of data immutability and protection. This integration not only enhances data security but also ensures compliance with strict industry regulations and optimizes storage performance. Together, they provide a comprehensive approach to protection that keeps business-critical backups secure, verifiable, and ready for recovery.

Double-Layered Data Immutability

First layer

Veeam Hardened Repository (XFS Immune Layer) utilizes the XFS file system’s immutability and single-use credentials to prevent changes or deletions of backup files, even by administrators, during the retention period.

Second layer

ZFS-based Immutability via Open-E JovianVHR Snapshots created with ZFS are read-only and cannot be altered, ensuring ransomware or malicious users cannot corrupt stored data.

A double-layer immutable backup is achieved by combining Veeam’s (XFS-based immutability) and Open-E JovianVHR’s (ZFS-based immutability) features, creating two independent layers of protection. This means that if one layer is compromised, the other still guarantees recovery.

High-Performance and Storage Efficiency

Fast Clone (XFS Reflinks) optimizes backup space usage and accelerates backup creation by reusing unchanged data blocks instead of duplicating them.

ZFS-Powered Performance Features provide advanced caching (ARC, L2ARC), write acceleration (ZIL/SLOG), and metadata pinning to improve backup speed and reliability in demanding environments.

Built-in ZFS deduplication and compression reduce storage consumption while maintaining high performance and data efficiency.

ZFS- & XFS-based Data Immutability in Nutshell

Putting it all together, lets provide all the data immutability-related features in Open-E JovianDSS, Open-E JovianVHR, and Veeam in a nutshell with their short explanation:

If you want to know more about Open-E JovianVHR and Veeam double-leyered immutability and backup, read this guide: