Deduplication Best Practices Question

[pacmantravis]

When looking at the Best Practices for DeDupe in R3 I came across a line that reads:

Perform a duplicate backup job so that you have redundant backups of the data in your deduplication storage folder. This method is preferred over performing full backups using the deduplication writer because this method is easier to control.

Can someone explain what this means? 

Currently I am running a full to the dedupe folder every month (takes around 2-3 days to run for 2-3TB) and I run daily incrementals.

[teiva-boy]

Meaning, export a copy to tape or other disk.  This is the hydrated format of the data.  No different than a B2D2T configuration using policies to control backups and duplication tasks

The dedupe storage writer is a DR backup of the Dedupe storage folder.  Which is pretty restrictive to restore back to...  

[pacmantravis]

As part of our policy, once the full backup to the dedupe folder is run, it kicks off a duplicate job to tape.

Is this what they mean?

I'm just trying to grasp the wording of that particular line and I want to make sure everything is set to best practices before I open a ticket concering slow backup speeds to the dedupe folder (700MB-1000MB/Min)

[teiva-boy]

You are doing it right, by doing a duplicate to tape.  Slow speeds are normal for the export process.  I think I repied to your thread on that.

The only way it would be faster, is if you didn't use BackupExec and used an OST device 

I'm not a fan of the DR backup of the dedupe store.  It's a waste of time of you're already making a tape copy duplicate.  What good is 3 copies, let alone that is tied and specific to that BE server only?

[pacmantravis]

Thank you for this.  

I may end up doing a normal B2D job for the fulls and then dedupe the incrementals.  Then I'll just duplicate the fulls to tape for offsite/archival purposes.

Thanks again,

Travis

[teiva-boy · Accepted solution]

If you are going to do that, which is a PITA...  I would suggest then, B2D with retention that allows you to get it to tape.  I would also duplicate the B2D to the dedupe folder, with the dedupe folder having a retention that is longer than the initial B2D.  Thats the beauty of deduplication, store more in less space, thus more full backups on disk for quick recovery.

So Backup to disk, 2-3 day retention

Duplicate to dedupe folder with 30 day retention

duplicate from initial B2D to tape with longer retention as business requirements dictate. 

I don't see a reason why you would even bother with incrementals to the dedupe folder, without the fulls.  The fulls benefit the most, not the incrementals.

[pacmantravis]

Sounds like a plan -- I will try that out.

Thank you