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ole_gunner's avatar
ole_gunner
Level 3
20 years ago

Is it possible to load balance netbackup traffic through multiple HBA's

I am looking to backup a Multi partition Database which is spread across a number of media servers. The 20TB database is going to be spread across 4 AIX Media Server (IBM BCU's) which only have 2 x 2Gigabit HBA's for Tape Library connections.
Each Media server is going to be approx 5TB in size and we need to back this up in a 6 hr window.
Using 1 HBA will never acheive this but 2 could possibly do the trick.
Does anyone know if you can direct Netbackup traffic down 2 HBA's at the same time, please?
Thanks
7.1.x and Earlier
Backup and Recovery
NetBackup

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  • zippy's avatar
    zippy
    Level 6
    20 years ago
    OLE,

    EMC PowerPath.

    http://www.emc.com/products/software/powerpath.jsp

    JD
  • Stumpr2's avatar
    Stumpr2
    Level 6
    20 years ago
    A NetBackup Windows client suffers from poor throughput, resulting in significantly longer backup times than equivalent clients. The poorly performing client is sending its data over an Intel Advanced Network Services Virtual Adapter created using the Intel Proset 8.4 driver.
    http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/273845.htm

    Details:
    VERITAS support has determined that network interface card (NIC) teams, specifically load balanced NIC teams, can in some cases restrict throughput under load. Note that the depressed throughput condition may not be evident during normal file transfer operations.

    If a NetBackup Windows client is experiencing poor backup performance and Intel Proset is being used for NIC teaming, it is suggested that the team be broken and the backup attempted again over a single network interface.

    In cases that meet the criteria described in the Symptom section above, throughput will often be greatly increased and backup time significantly reduced.
  • AKopel's avatar
    AKopel
    Level 6
    20 years ago
    I was able to achieve a poor mans version of this by zoning my tape drives on the SAN so half of them appeared to 1 HBA and the other half to the other HBA.
    It seemed to work although because Netbackup randomizes what drives it uses, I don't know of a way to force load balancing... in otherwords, if you have 6 drives as your maximum for your storage unit, theres nothing to tell Netbackup to use 3 drives on 1 HBA and 3 on the other, you may end up with all six on 1 HBA which defeats the purpose. The only way I imagine you could force this is to zone your drives so only 'x' number of drives appear to the HBA which kind of defeats the purpose of SSO....
  • Vince_Corona's avatar
    Vince_Corona
    Level 4
    20 years ago
    However, Bob brings up a good point - To NIC team or not to NIC team - that is the question. We team at my shop and I have not seen any impact on performance. (HP DL380Servers using onboard Gigabit nics). How many people out there are using teaming with no problem?
  • MayurS's avatar
    MayurS
    Level 6
    20 years ago
    When i teamup My NICs they cannot pick the NDMP clients at all

    Request Time Out...Woofs...Seems to be firmwire issue in the NICs
  • zippy's avatar
    zippy
    Level 6
    20 years ago
    ALL,

    As for Mayur stament.........

    When i teamup My NICs they cannot pick the NDMP clients at all

    Request Time Out...Woofs...Seems to be firmwire issue in the NICs

    I would think he needs to open another THREAD, cause I would think that he has configuration problems of his own.


    JD