Backup to Disk and Compression

[TirTul]

Greetings,

    We recently setup BE12 with a NetApp FAS2020 being the target for B2D via CIFS. Should we be using software compression on the backup jobs, and if so, where does the compression take place?? (On the remote agent, or the media server)

[Ken_Putnam]

Comppression will take place on the media server

As far as which compression to use:

If you use Software, you will need an active BackupExec installation (of at least v12)  to read the BKF files

If you specify none, and turn on compression at the NAS, any software that can read BKF files will be able to restore from them

[TirTul]

Thank you.  Are there any general guidelines when using BE's software compression with a NetApp?? Are there any performance issues?? i haven't been able to find much and what I've found points to possibly smaller backup window due to less traffic going to the B2D target.

[Ken_Putnam]

yes, software compression will lower the amount of data actually written across the wire to the NAS box.

A compression ration of 1.2-1.3:1 (my rule of thumb) will reduce you window by about 18-20%