How to extend the dedup diskpool without data migration?
Hi,
Here is my backup system environment:
- 1 Master server (windows, NBU 7.5.0.4)
- 2 Media servers (Windows, NBU 7.5.0.4) - Dedup disk pool configured
- 2 Media servers (Windows, NBU 7.5.0.4) - Advanced disk pool configured.
- D2D2T, SLP policies configured to migrate data from disk to tape for longer retention.
I found that Advanced disk is easy to extend the space, just create new disk volume from SAN storage then merge to existing disk pool. The drawback is it has no data dedup feature, the free space is running out increasingly.
Here is my questions:
1. Is it possible to directly convert existing advanced disk pool to dedup disk pool without to migrate date?
2. As from KB https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000083795, the dedup disk pool has to be created from a single disk volume and the extention means to recreate and migrate data. Is it a better way to extend dedup disk pool? Is it possible to increate the disk volume size on SAN storage then OS then reconfigure something on NBU to recognize the new bigger disk volume?
3. We found data transfer from dedup to tape is slighly slow when comparing to advanced disk. Is there any way to improve the data transfer performance on dedup diskpool type?
4. Is there the tool to estimate the required dedup diskpool size to support backup data ?
Your suggestion is appreciated, thanks.
1. Is it possible to directly convert existing advanced disk pool to dedup disk pool without to migrate date?
No. Duplication from one storage unit to another is th eonly way.
2. As from KB https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.0000..., the dedup disk pool has to be created from a single disk volume and the extention means to recreate and migrate data. Is it a better way to extend dedup disk pool? Is it possible to increate the disk volume size on SAN storage then OS then reconfigure something on NBU to recognize the new bigger disk volume?
If your MSDP storage is on a SAN LUN, then you may be able to grow the LUN, and then use Windows OS to grow the NTFS Volume (i.e. the drive letter) to expand in to the new free space.
3. We found data transfer from dedup to tape is slighly slow when comparing to advanced disk. Is there any way to improve the data transfer performance on dedup diskpool type?
There's no quick magic win. You may be able to tune tape buffers, or tune some of the MSDP "read buffer" values.
4. Is there the tool to estimate the required dedup diskpool size to support backup data ?
Not public. Vendor/channel/partner/Veritas pre-sales do have a rough sizing calculation spreadsheet, but it is not validated for customer use. Can you not use your existing dedupe rates to get an idea? Or use the figures from bperror CLI report and scrape the pre and post dedupe sizes.
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Is your MSDP pool on an NTFS volume? Did you set an NTFS block-cluster-factor size? Turned off 8.3 and "atime" updates? Is the MSDP LUN/meta-volume/spindles behind a RAID card?