File Server backups
Hello guys,
Regarding File Server backups for advanced disk, is there any documented recommendations or best practices?
My question is:
Would the "Backup synthetic" feature for file server backups be useful on a shared network with other critical applications?
Because I saw that for backups with a high daily rate of change, the incremental backups are very large, so the synthetic backup would not be any more useful than a traditional full backup.
Could other features like Accelerator , Network resiliency play this same role for me to optimize the environment?
Synthetic backups are interesting but they're only useful for edge cases - large client backups that change very little & you have a lot of storage space to store the backups (bonus points if the large client is over a really slow link).
The rest of the time, stay far far away from them - they're more trouble than they're worth. =)
If you've got a client with millions of files and any kind of change rate, look into a Flashbackup policy. Basically it'll back the filesystem up as a raw device and so skip having to handle all of the file markers, but at the same time it uses a "special sauce" to allow you to do restores of those individual files later on if needed.You do end up backing up the entire volume each time, but if the alternative is a 48 hour incremental due to filesystem traversing & 4 million changed 2k files each time, it's worth the space.
As always, run tests to see which policy type & configuration works best for your situation.
