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Version: 2.15.0

Golden Copy Overview for AirGap for Dell

Introduction​

Golden Copy is a separate Superna product (now marketed as part of Data Orchestration Edition) that provides high-speed file-to-object copy and sync of PowerScale data to a native S3-compatible object store. This page summarizes Golden Copy for context on its planned AirGap integration — see Integration Guide for how that integration works today and what's planned.

note

Golden Copy is licensed and documented separately from AirGap, as part of Data Orchestration for Dell. See that section for current Golden Copy licensing, deployment guides, and detailed configuration documentation.

Key Features​

  • Syncs a copy of one or more PowerScale paths to an S3 storage bucket, using PowerScale's snapshot change-list API for fast incremental syncs.
  • Direct Restore — restores data from S3 back to PowerScale, including file metadata (owner, ACLs, group, timestamps), directly onto the file system without an out-of-band copy step. Supports redirected recall to a different cluster, a different folder path, or a modified-date range.
  • Protects file metadata automatically using S3 metadata tags.
  • MD5 checksum support for data-integrity verification of copies.
  • File-system-to-object-store audit jobs.
  • Per-copy-job bandwidth rate limiting.
  • Sync mode, copy mode, or both.
  • Delayed deletes — deleted files found during an incremental sync are copied to a dedicated "deleted files" bucket instead of being removed from the target immediately, with a configurable retention (TTL) before automatic purge.

Target Use Cases​

  • Synced backup with 1 version per file — each file modification overwrites the previous object version; assumes rapid recall is the priority.
  • Synced backup with N versions per file — uses S3 bucket versioning to retain a configurable number of versions per file, enabling a point-in-time restore window (for example, 7 daily versions for a 7-day restore window).
  • One-time copy for long-term archive — a single full copy to long-term object storage, optionally with object-lock retention and storage-tier transitions for cost savings.
  • Data archiving by age policy — end users or administrators can archive aging data to cloud object storage automatically, with a self-service web portal for recall.
  • Data shuffle workflow — automatically detects newly created files and moves them to cloud storage based on age criteria, freeing on-premises capacity for active workloads.
  • Advanced hybrid cloud workflows — bidirectional sync between on-premises file storage and S3 object storage, with a unified end-user portal that respects SMB-level security for both sides.

AirGap Integration (Planned)​

Ransomware Defender AirGap integration is a planned Golden Copy capability: it will allow Golden Copy to learn the current AirGap threat status and automatically suspend its own copy/sync operations to S3 targets whenever Ransomware Defender has active alerts, so a threat in progress cannot be copied into the Golden Copy target alongside the AirGap vault. See Integration Guide for how this is described in the context of AirGap specifically.

See Also​

  • Integration Guide – How AirGap integrates with Ransomware Defender, Golden Copy, Easy Auditor, and Dell APEX Metering.
  • AirGap Features – Core AirGap capabilities, including Cloud Pool Vaulting.
  • Data Orchestration for Dell – Full Golden Copy documentation: installation, configuration, use cases, and the Smart AirGap/Ransomware Defender integration.