Should I use dedupe for all backup jobs?

[ducttapeadmin]

I'm getting ready to use Backup Exec 2010 R3 for the first time and I'm not completely clear about when to use dedupe.

1. Should I use dedupe for all my backup jobs or should I be more selective?  Are there certain examples where I should not use dedupe?

2. We have a Vmware vSphere environment with about 10 ESX hosts.  I plan on using the Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure  and dedupe.  Any problems/concerns with this combination?

3. I've read some forum posts complaining about dedupe database issues like db corruption.  Is this a common problem?  Rebuilding a corrupted dedupe database does not sound like fun... :(

Thanks for your time.

 SF

[AmolB · Accepted solution]

1. Should I use dedupe for all my backup jobs or should I be more selective?  Are there certain examples where I should not use dedupe?

Flat file backups to dedup will give you a good dedup ratio as compared to Database backups.

2. We have a Vmware vSphere environment with about 10 ESX hosts.  I plan on using the Agent for VMware Virtual Infrastructure  and dedupe.  Any problems/concerns with this combination?

Initially when dedup was released with BE2010 there was many performance issues, most of them are

fixed with BE2010 R3

3. I've read some forum posts complaining about dedupe database issues like db corruption.  Is this a common problem?  Rebuilding a corrupted dedupe database does not sound like fun... :(

This is not True, I haven't heard of dedup DB going corrupt. In previous releases after media server reboot

Dedup folder used to go in offline or discovering device status but with R3 its works fine. 

[newsolutionBE]

Hi

Please check the FAQ section of dedup too which should give more details about dedup

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH162822

Thanks

[ducttapeadmin]

Excellent!  Thanks for the answers guys!

[teiva-boy]

The only items that should not are image/multimedia type data, or high change rate databases.  Images don't dedupe at all, and high change rate/transaction databases or VM images will have so much changed blocks that it'll lower or ruin your dedupe rates.  

All else data *could* all theoretically go to the dedupe store.

Dedupe is NOT a catch all, nor a magical solver of backup windows.