CPU requirements for de-duplication

[SirAnthony]

Hi everyone,

I'm currently building a server to be used solely for BackupExec 2012. My question is, do I really need two dual-core processors to use de-duplication? I know that's what the documentation says, but the server that I have available has only a single dual-core processor.

Thanks

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

Sadly the dedupe engine is single threaded and uses only one core.  Throw a couple of 8core dual CPU systems and you'll see little to no benefit.

Generally speaking, you want to buy more cores than CPU.  Buy as much as you can afford.  If you can get a single quadcore CPU, that would be better than a dual core dual CPU solution.  If there are 6 or 8 core CPU's, get a single CPU wiht that config.

You do want more RAM though.  8GB minimum, with 1.5GB additional RAM per TB of data that is stored in the dedupe folder.

Since BackupExec can can handle up to 16TB of deduped storage on the back end, assume you need around 32GB of RAM in a max configuration.  I'd say start at 16GB minimum and go up from there based on budget.

Then there is disk..  Don't use USB or firewire.  You want something that is decently fast, RAID protected, and scalable so you can add capacity over time.  A JBOD works fine here, SAS, SCSI, FC, iSCSI.  NAS is not supported.

[SirAnthony]

Thanks for all the info! It was a big help.

Our server can accept up to 8 GB of RAM, so I think we're going to upgrade it to the maximum.

We've got a tape backup drive, and we're getting an Ultra320 SCSI card to install in the server to control that.

As far as de-duplication, I think we're going to see how well it performs with a single dual-core Xeon processor. If necessary, we might look at getting a quad-core.

Again, I appreciate the advice.

Cheers

[teiva-boy]

And a 64Bit Windows OS as well.  ;)