EBA Smart Transport

Concept

The SNA-side smart transport role that sends protected data to SHA and uses extent maps from snagent when available.

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Definition

EBA-ST is EBA Smart Transport. It is the SNA-side Sendense data path for reading protected workload data and sending it to SHA over the secure tunnel.

EBA-ST runs as part of the SNA data path. It is a capability provided by the SNA, not a separate appliance to deploy or manage.

Backup Data Path

EBA-ST reads protected workload data on the SNA using the best changed-block information available. Where claims-driven source-side deduplication is active, blocks the archive already holds can be skipped before upload. Data sent to SHA travels inside the encrypted appliance connection, and EBA deduplicates retained recovery-point content.

Backup data path

Where source-side deduplication is active, data the archive already holds can be skipped before upload, so a full read need not mean a full upload.

Backup dataChange information (supported CloudStack KVM backends)

How Changed Data Is Identified

VMware

vSphere changed-block tracking. The first backup is full; later backups read only blocks changed since the previous successful backup.

CloudStack KVM + snagent

For supported configured backends (QCOW NFS, ZFS, LINSTOR DRBD), snagent supplies an extent map so EBA-ST reads and sends only the identified extents.

Full-source-read EBA path

Used where no qualified native or host-assisted change information is available, including RAW Block. The source is fully scanned and read, while unallocated regions may be skipped where the platform exposes them.

Transport Outcomes

These outcomes come from the same SNA-side smart transport role; they differ in how change is identified and whether the stored recovery point is full or synthetic incremental.

Host-assisted CBT

EBA-ST is using an extent map from snagent for a supported configured backend (QCOW NFS, ZFS, or LINSTOR DRBD).

Full-source-read EBA path

EBA-ST is using the full-source-read path because no qualified native or host-assisted change map is available, or the configured backend is RAW Block.

Sendense CBT

Synthetic-incremental storage for eligible RAW Block protection patterns using version-aware EBA repositories. Sendense CBT still performs the full source read; the first and explicitly forced fulls remain genuine fulls, and eligibility and integrity checks determine whether a later recovery point is represented as a synthetic incremental.

Source-Side Deduplication

Where source-side deduplication is active, the backup data path checks which blocks the EBA repository already holds and skips sending them; only lightweight references are recorded for those blocks. RAW Block Sendense CBT instead sends the full source through ingest while repository deduplication avoids retaining duplicate content.

Deduplication is global within a repository, so identical data across different VMs and recovery points is stored once.

Interrupted Backups

Where a protected platform supplies usable per-disk change state, Sendense can track progress against it. Where a clean resume is not possible, the next backup re-establishes a safe baseline.