Hi, I have a question (probably a silly one) regarding drives - we have 3 lto6 drives housed in LS150 Oracle robot. We have one master server with NetBackup 7.6.1.We have one STU. We have 2 sets of full backups at the weekend, one is for offsite storage.In this configuration when one job is running it is using all 3 drives thus causing the other job (offsite one) to queue until there are available drives. This isn't ideal as the backups are quite slow so the backup window overruns and the jobs waiting for available drives are then failing. Is there a way of making sure that, lets say 2 of the drives are dealing with one job (in house set) and the other drive is dedicated to another job (offsite set) ? Thanks

Is there a way of making sure that, lets say 2 of the drives are dealing with one job (in house set) and the other drive is dedicated to another job (offsite set) ? Yes, you can set up 2 new STUs for the same media server/library; One with Concurrent write drives = 2 and the other with concurrent write drives = 1; then point policies at the different storage units to separate your backups. You can use schedule storage overrides if you only want to do this for certain backup types (weekend fulls for example). (!) However, this is not an efficient use of your tape drives. If Job 2 is finished Job 1 will continue to run on its dedicated 2 drives even though now a third is available. Depending on what kind of backups you are doing you might be able to set up multiplexing and allow both jobs to write to all 3 drives simultaneously. If you're interested in that, let us know what kind of policy types these jobs are and if they are using the same retention levels and volume pools.

Or keep the one storage unit, use multiplexing, use one retention level, but use priorities on policies so that important jobs multiplex in sooner.

My vote is also for multiplexing. Unless current is maxing out drive speed and running at sustained max possible throughput. Experience has taught us that this is hardly ever seen. Mpx of 4 in stu and schedules as well as 2-4 jobs per client is normally a good starting point.

Just wondering about the 2 sets of backups... Same data backed up twice? Only difference longer retention and probably different pool? If so, why not config SLP with backup to onsite pool and retention and duplication to offsite pool and retention?

Yes, it is same data with different retention levels and different pools. I have just briefly looked over SLP which I understand I could use to schedule duplication of backups. Does SLP minitor when the jobs are finished and then start duplication or is that not how it works ? Also is this fairly easy to setup ?

Drive assigment

15 Replies

areznik
Level 5
10 years ago

Is there a way of making sure that, lets say 2 of the drives are dealing with one job (in house set) and the other drive is dedicated to another job (offsite set) ?

Yes, you can set up 2 new STUs for the same media server/library; One with Concurrent write drives = 2 and the other with concurrent write drives = 1; then point policies at the different storage units to separate your backups. You can use schedule storage overrides if you only want to do this for certain backup types (weekend fulls for example).

(!) However, this is not an efficient use of your tape drives. If Job 2 is finished Job 1 will continue to run on its dedicated 2 drives even though now a third is available. Depending on what kind of backups you are doing you might be able to set up multiplexing and allow both jobs to write to all 3 drives simultaneously. If you're interested in that, let us know what kind of policy types these jobs are and if they are using the same retention levels and volume pools.
sdo
Moderator
10 years ago
Or keep the one storage unit, use multiplexing, use one retention level, but use priorities on policies so that important jobs multiplex in sooner.
Marianne
Level 6
10 years ago
My vote is also for multiplexing. Unless current is maxing out drive speed and running at sustained max possible throughput. Experience has taught us that this is hardly ever seen. Mpx of 4 in stu and schedules as well as 2-4 jobs per client is normally a good starting point.
Marianne
Level 6
10 years ago
Just wondering about the 2 sets of backups... Same data backed up twice? Only difference longer retention and probably different pool? If so, why not config SLP with backup to onsite pool and retention and duplication to offsite pool and retention?
Bobski
Level 3
10 years ago
Yes, it is same data with different retention levels and different pools. I have just briefly looked over SLP which I understand I could use to schedule duplication of backups. Does SLP minitor when the jobs are finished and then start duplication or is that not how it works ?

Also is this fairly easy to setup ?
Bobski
Level 3
10 years ago
I've just had a look to setting up new SLP policy, however why do I only see Backup and Import in Operation field ? Shouldn't I also see Duplicate ?

I've attached the screen shot.
sdo
Moderator
10 years ago
Click "Add" then choose the operation type.
Bobski
Level 3
10 years ago
I think I've figure it out (by properly following documentation, duh ! )

Best thing I ever did - joining this forum :)

Lets see how this goes.

Thanks all for your help so far and thank you Marianne for pointing out SLP option.
Marianne
Level 6
10 years ago
Well done for doing own research and reading documentation!

About this question:

Does SLP monitor when the jobs are finished and then start duplication or is that not how it works ?

Yes. That is the default behaviour.

If you configure SLP windows, the duplication will only take place during this period.

Because you have only 3 drives, we can safely assume that SLP duplications will use 1 drive to read and another to write.
If you have configured suitable buffer sizes, the duplication should go quite fast as no network is involved.

You may want to look for SLP Best Practice Guide for more hints and tips.
Bobski
Level 3
10 years ago
One more question, bearing in mind I have 3 drives in one STU, can I just use this one STU in my SPL policy or should I create new STU (lets say I'll call it Duplication) with one drive and configure the SLP's secondary operation (duplication) with that, so the SLP config might look like in the file attached....