Forum Discussion

Dav1234's avatar
Dav1234
Level 5
5 years ago

Netbackup catalog more than 6TB

Hello Team,

Catalog backup size is more then 6TB and it takes around 15hrs to complete. Catalog with this much size is OK or its unusual?

Can we reduce the Catalog size? 

8.1.2
Solaris
  • Mouse's avatar
    Mouse
    5 years ago

    Veritas, generally speaking, doesn't like them being more than 2TB. However this threshold was set at the time when disks were much slower and some of the processes that maintain the catalog used to take too much time to be practical for catalogs larger than 2TB. However 15hrs is not too bad for the full backup if it gives you the RPO you need.

    The traditional way to reduce the catalog size is to enable compression (this does not help on Windows/NTFS as does not reduce the file size during backup, only saves disk space) and archiving. I personally don't like archiving as it depends on a policy being present that nobody should ever touch or old/archived entries may be lost and I saw some horrible things happening in a shared environment.

    Another option is to perform a domain split. Basically get some logic behind it and allocate a new master to a group of backups that need to live together.

    What I also would not rule out is issues with cleanup procedures. I've been through a number cases in my life where it was just a result of bug somewhere in NBU and applying an EEB or upgrade would had reduced the size dramatically.

  • vtas_chas's avatar
    vtas_chas
    Level 6
    4 years ago

    AS Mouse indicates, the question to ask isn't really 'is my catalog too large', the question to ask here is 'can I recover my catalog in the time the business requires if/when my Master fails'.  

    I agree that 15 hours is a pretty good backup window for a catalog this size.  But catalog backup isn't the piece to design for here, recovery is -- so how fast can you recover it?

    If overall performance is acceptable and you can recover it within the RTO/RPO SLA you have, I wouldn't create work for yourself with domain splits.  That is the fastest way to address catalog size if you can't modify your retentions at all, as retentions are the number one way to impact catalog size.  

  • Mouse's avatar
    Mouse
    Moderator
    5 years ago

    Veritas, generally speaking, doesn't like them being more than 2TB. However this threshold was set at the time when disks were much slower and some of the processes that maintain the catalog used to take too much time to be practical for catalogs larger than 2TB. However 15hrs is not too bad for the full backup if it gives you the RPO you need.

    The traditional way to reduce the catalog size is to enable compression (this does not help on Windows/NTFS as does not reduce the file size during backup, only saves disk space) and archiving. I personally don't like archiving as it depends on a policy being present that nobody should ever touch or old/archived entries may be lost and I saw some horrible things happening in a shared environment.

    Another option is to perform a domain split. Basically get some logic behind it and allocate a new master to a group of backups that need to live together.

    What I also would not rule out is issues with cleanup procedures. I've been through a number cases in my life where it was just a result of bug somewhere in NBU and applying an EEB or upgrade would had reduced the size dramatically.

  • jnardello's avatar
    jnardello
    Moderator
    4 years ago

    As mentioned by the others, this is probably due to your retention levels. In particular, this screams of users who believe their data should be saved forever or otherwise can't be bothered to figure out their actual needs. =) 

    Figure out how long it will take you to do an actual catalog recovery, then decide if this is acceptable to the business. The question to ask would be along the lines of, "When the water main above the DC breaks and destroys all of our servers, it will take me 22.5 hours (x1.5 is the rule of thumb for planning purposes!) before I can start doing restores at the site. Is this okay with the business ? Please note that this also means 22.5 hours before I can start backing up any of those databases that drop archive logs every 15 minutes - are the DBAs all okay with that too ? "

    If not, your catalog is too large or you need to be taking a serious look at your recovery methods.