Forum Discussion

iaw's avatar
iaw
Level 5
10 years ago

Media Server - Drive connectivity

Hi All,
I have 2 media servers with 2 HBA cards (=4 ports), 2 san directors, 24 drives and 24 SSO license.
Please suggest whats the best scenario for media-drive zone connectivity to get good speed performance.
1. Each media connect to 8 drives (2 drives per hba ports)
2. All media connect to all 24 drives (6 drives per hba ports)
or any better scenario?

Thanks in advance,
Ifan

7.5
Backup and Recovery
Configuring
Installing
Linux
NetBackup
  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    10 years ago

    Here's some very basic calculations - but these are assuming an awful lot - I'm not thre with you - I cannot vouch for these calculations - I'm only including them here to give you a few pointers:

    size of full backup 30.0 TB
    size of full backup 30,720.0 GB
    size of full backup 31,457,280.0 MB
    full backup window 8.0 hours
    full backup window 28,800.0 seconds
    required aggregated bandwidth 1,092.3 MB/s
    number of media servers 3.0 servers
    minimum bandwidth required per media server 364.1 MB/s
    minimum raw LAN ingest required 2,912.7 Mb/s
    minimum raw LAN ingest required 2.9 Gb/s
    typical efficiency of LAN ports 85% efficient
    minimum raw LAN ingest required 3.4 Gb/s
    theoretical max raw speed of LTO6 160.0 MB/s
    typical compression achieved by LTO6 1.4 ratio
    theoretical max raw speed of LTO6 with compression 224.0 MB/s
    typical efficiency of LTO6 90% efficient
    theoretical max raw speed of LTO6 with compression 201.6 MB/s
    number of LTO6 tape drives required per media server 1.8 LTO6 tape drives
    roundup number of tape drives required per media server 2.0 LTO6 tape drives
    total number of tape drives required 6.0 LTO6 tape drives
    plus one spare drive to cater for failure and restores 7.0 LTO6 tape drives

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  • iaw's avatar
    iaw
    Level 5
    10 years ago

    @sdo, Sorry as I was not online yesterday,

    Reg your last questions, comment below,
    5) 10GB link is dedicated 10GB port in switch, it uses Fiber Optic Cable
    6) I dont know, if you can provide cli command to check this, it would help.
    10a) FO = Fiber Optic
    10b) I dont really understand of contended port, as I understand my network guy doesn't configure port group.

    Just wondering, if I have 3 media server with 7 drives without SSO, 1 media has 2-3 drives.
    There will be many jobs pending when ever backup policy started. So, this will extend backup window?

     

    Additionaly, how to test/get the real drive troughput?
    Let say, if I configure 4 multiplex (= 4 amounts of troughput in backup job report) so I just sum them all?

    Thanks

  • sdo's avatar
    sdo
    Moderator
    10 years ago

    5) Sorry but 10Gb sound like LAN.  This question was about SAn, which is probably either 4Gb or 8Gb or 16Gb.  If you are able to supply a link to blade specs that would help.  See 6) below.

    6) Try the FabricOS commands:   chassisshow, and slotshow

    10b) I think it may be possible that you are confusing bonding with port groups.  Bonding is a logical concept, sometimes referred to as trunking, or port-channelling.  What I'm asking about it is a physical concept named 'contended port groups'.  I think Google will be your friend on this question.

    12Q) Just wondering, if I have 3 media server with 7 drives without SSO, 1 media has 2-3 drives. There will be many jobs pending when ever backup policy started. So, this will extend backup window?

    12A) If you get the mix of multi-plexing right then it shouldn't extended the backup window.  The aim is to meet the backup window.  So, assuming your backup clients can deliver the data quickly enough - then there's probably no reason to miss the backup window.

    13Q) Additionaly, how to test/get the real drive troughput?

    13A) If you have a large capable Unix or Linux server, then GEN_DATA (search ths forum) policies can be useful for testing.  If not, then your only method of testing will be with real clients - or to use large files created on the media server - but these won't test backup client read, nor test LAN networking, nor test LAN ingest at the media server.

    14Q) Let say, if I configure 4 multiplex (= 4 amounts of troughput in backup job report) so I just sum them all?

    14A) It doesn't really work that way.  It is possible to view and/or calculate the aggregated bandwidth that a muli-plexed job set did actually experience, but it's deep in the log files.  And has been covered elsewhere in this forum.