Windows Multi data streams backup for the same windows drive letter
I have a simple question which I couldn't reach any answer for it
I understand that during the windows backup policy which has Allow multiple data streams configured a specific backup job will be created for each drive letter
for example if we have 3 drive : C & D & E
Three backup jobs will be initiated for each drive
but what is I have only one drive and I still want to benefit from the multiple data streams option , Can I put in the selection list each of the folders or directories created under this drive and then a specific backup job will be initiated for each directory or folder ?!!!
Appreciate your answer
Hello,
yes you can do it to trigger mulitple streams for single drive, however it will be static, if someone create another direcory in drive, it will not be included in backups, as you would be specifiy each directory specifically.
in alternate way you can try using wildcards, like C:\*, it will include all directories and trigger seperate job and each and every file and directory in C. in this approach you need to make sure lot of directories/files are not created in C:/ to avoid too many jobs,
Multistreaming on a single drive (single spindle) is never a good idea.
We had great success splitting up a big raid5 lun into multiple streams (data not on single physical drive):
NEW_STREAM
X:\users\a*
X:\users\b*
X:\users\c*
X:\users\d*
X:\users\e*
NEW_STREAM
X:\users\f*
X:\users\g*
X:\users\h*
X:\users\i*
X:\users\j*
X:\users\k*
NEW_STREAM
X:\users\l*
X:\users\m*
X:\users\n*
X:\users\o*
X:\users\p*
......
It took a couple of weeks to balance out the streams, but to cut a long story short, 72 hours of backing up drive X was cut down to about 12 hours.
Again - NOT recommended for single physical drive (such as c-drive).
