BE 2012 and Data Domain w/ DDBoost

You couldn't be more wrong with your first comment.  EMC Data Domain Boost Compatibility Matrix (8/1/2012 includes BE 2012.  3/10/2011 includes BE 2010 versions).  Backup Exec 2012 is DDBoost compatible with OST plugin 2.5.0.3 (Restricted Availability currently, contact support).  Backup Exec 2010 is DDBoost compatible with OST versions BE R3 (2.4.1.0, 2.3.3.0, 2.3.1.0), BE R2 (2.3.3.0, 2.3.1.0, 2.2.3.0, 2.2.2.0, 2.2.1.1) depending on you DD OS version.

Please don't confuse people with false information.  DD Boost is fully supported with Symantec Backup Exec as well as EMC Avamar, EMC NetWorker, EMC Greenplum, Quest vRanger Pro, Symantec NetBackup, and DD Boost for Oracle RMAN.

Do you have the Dedup licence installed on your media server?  If so, you can just use the Add Storage wizard to add your device and then backup to it.  It will take care of the deduplication for you.  You don't have to define a dedup folder.  The rest would be just normal job setup.

...just be aware that BE won't support DD Boost...this is a functionality of EMC NetWorker. I suspect you just got sold functionality on the Data Domain you won't be able to use.

Stream your servers off as individual backups at the same time or staggered if need-be. Your network speed would dictate how fast you can get your data to the DD.

It's not a case of me confusing people with false information dude...I was told that by an EMC DD engineer here in my company. So I need to go back to them and ask them for details on what products do support DD Boost, as apparently it was only NetWorker that supported it properly.

Thanks!

Yes we have deduplication license.  I created a new "Backup to Deduplication Disk Storage and then Duplicate to Deduplication Disk Storage" job.  I chose no verify, no encryption, no (pre)compression (doesn't even show (pre)compression once you select the DD as the backup device).  However once the DD is selected I get two options on the storage tab:

1)  Enable the remote computer to directly access the storage device and to perform client side deduplication, if it is supported

2)  (DEFAULT SELECTION)  Enable the remote computer to access the storage device through the Backup Exec server and to perform Backup Exec server-side deduplication, if it is supported

I left it with the default for my first run through.  Jobs backed up successfully and much quicker than my old tape backup for sure.  However, I can see where allowing the remote clients to go straight to the DD box could increase my throughput as the DD has dual network connections and the Backup server only has one, making it the bottleneck.

Sorry I was a bit overt there.  Have your peeps update you cause many more than NetWorker are supported at this time.

Haha...not fussed, & cool. I will do that! Funny how a vendor tries to push all their products on you :)

You should not use software compression or encryption with your job because this compresses or encrypts your data before the deduplication process and compressed or encrypted data do not dedup well.

You should use client-side dedup to avoid the bottle-neck at the media server.

So what were your backup speeds? You should also get better throughput if you stream off more jobs to the DD. Just work out where the "sweet spot" of that is so you don't stream too much across your LAN.

Well the jobs finished in 3 hours.  With our previous mix of direct to tape and to disk dupe to tape jobs, it would take approx 16 - 18 hours.  Dupes were always still running into production time, but load was off servers at least...  The time change is amazing!

I currently have 16 connections allowed to the Data Domain storage, which I was told is the max by DD.  I may have to cut down on the number because the media server was pegged at 90%-100% network bandwidth use and 70%+ CPU usage.