backup exex deduplication questions

[BugTastic]

Hi, I'm trying to get my head round deduplication. Here is my plan. We want to implement backups over the WAN from remote offices back to head office. I believe deduplication can do this. We have head office with the main backup server, and 3 remote offices, each with a backup server. The remote offices have 2/3 servers per office backed up. I believe I would need a CASO license for the head office server. And also Dedup licesnes for each site backup server. If the above is correct then that sounds fine. My question is regarding extra storage that would be required on the site servers/Main office server. Instead of backing up to tape on the site server I assume it backs up to a file on the disk? Does it just replicate all the data backed up? so, if I back up 10gb on the site servers, would I need a spare 10gb on the site backup server to hold this. How is the backup data stored ? Any help appreciated. Regards Joe

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi Joe,

Every vendor's primary target for deduplication is disk. When you duplicate this dedupe folder to tape it rehydrates the data to the original size.

You can run the BE dedupe calculator to give you an idea on how much space you'd need to cater for, both to hold the primary site dedupe data and the site dedupe data.

http://www.symantec.com/theme.jsp?themeid=be-calculators

You should also check out the assessment tool:

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/videos/backup-exec-deduplication-assessment-tool

What you are looking at is BE's optimized deduplication for the site servers, so check the 3 TNs below for more information:

http://eval.symantec.com/mktginfo/enterprise/white_papers/b-backup_exec_dedupe_optimized_2010_WP_211...

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO23357

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO74446

Thanks!

[BugTastic]

Anyway to get this assessment tool if your not a partner ?

[CraigV]

Doesn't appear to be, no. So you would then be stuck with the dedupe calculator which will give you a rough estimation of what you require.

Thanks!

[BugTastic]

OK, getting there :) - the only thing that is confusing me is how much extra storage would I need on the sites backup servers. Any way I can work this out ?

[CraigV]

Mmm...not too sure on this 1. You won't need as much disk space as your current environment, and it depends on how much you can upgrade your servers with extra HDDs by.