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Backup size of Windows Server 2008 R2

Supergoof
Level 4

Hello,

I'm not writing about a problem as such but about a curiosity.

I have several Windows Server 2008 R2 clients in my NetBackup domain and recently I noticed that the backup footprint of the Windows Server 2008 R2's are quite a bit larger than the Windows Server 2003 clients.

I installed a new Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2003 and a Ubuntu linux server. Joined them as backup clients and put them in a policy with a retention of 2 full and 6 Diff. Incr. backups.

The three OS'es take up the following space:

Used backup space
OS: Space in GB:
Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS 5.5
Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard SP1 76
Windows Server 2003 Standard x64 SP2 25

I was chocked to see this difference so I set the 2008 R2 server up with the built in Windows Server Backup just to compare.

 

Windows Server Backup does the same job with 16.75 GB. How can that be ?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Windows 2008 has a far bigger System State - or Shadow Copy Components as it is called now - and therin lies the clue.

2008 usually has Shadow Copies set up by default - so the System Volume Information folder holds shadow copies of the system, restore points etc. etc. etc.

Right click on your C drive and select Properties - go to the Shadow Copies tab and it will show you how much is being used and how many Shadow Copies it has

Hope this helps

View solution in original post

9 REPLIES 9

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

What does your policy look like? Backup type? Backup selection?

Supergoof
Level 4

The policy looks like this for the windows servers:

Policy Type:         MS-Windows
Include:  ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES

Type:                Full Backup
Frequency:           every 7 days
Retention Level:     1 (2 weeks)

Type:                Differential Incremental Backup
Frequency:           every 1 day
Retention Level:     0 (1 week)

So they have 2 full and 6 daily images each.

I'm just wondering if this is normal for windows server 2008 to be so large compared to earlier versions.

Regards

Bo

revarooo
Level 6
Employee

Do you have any other drives other than C:\ ? ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES will pick those up too!

Your Windows Backup is just backing up the C:\ drive.

Supergoof
Level 4

My test servers just have C:\

On the Win2008 R2 server I have performed the Windows Server Backup test backups to a dedicated X:\ drive that is excluded in the NetBackup job on this client.

The huge backup footprint was there even before I attached the X: drive and set up the Windows Server Backup.

Marianne
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited Certified

Select 'Allow Multiple Data Streams' in policy attributes.

This will generate separate streams for C:\ and Shadow Copy Components.

To me it is normal for W2008 to be bigger than W2003, like W2003 was bigger than W2000...

Supergoof
Level 4

Hello Marianne

I am allready running multiple datastreams, this makes no difference in regard to backup image size. I'm just wondering what the big difference between MS WSB and NetBackup is as to explain the big data difference in backup images.

Mark_Solutions
Level 6
Partner Accredited Certified

Windows 2008 has a far bigger System State - or Shadow Copy Components as it is called now - and therin lies the clue.

2008 usually has Shadow Copies set up by default - so the System Volume Information folder holds shadow copies of the system, restore points etc. etc. etc.

Right click on your C drive and select Properties - go to the Shadow Copies tab and it will show you how much is being used and how many Shadow Copies it has

Hope this helps

Supergoof
Level 4

According to support:

Add up to 8 GB for shadow copy components.

shadow copy components backup is always full even if the backup type is incremental.

 

On my test server the Shadow Copy Component backup is around 11 GB pr. job.

I think I remember reading something about the Shadow Copy Component for System now supporting incremental backups.in R2. This would explain the much smaller backup size for the Windows Server Backup tool.

Supergoof
Level 4

From TechNet

Improved options for system state backups and recoveries. You can now use the Windows Server Backup snap-in user interface to create backups that you can use to perform system state recoveries. In addition, you can now use a single backup to back up both the system state and other data on your server. These system state backups are now faster and require less space for multiple versions because they use shadow copies for versioning, similar to volume based backups, and not individual folders for each version. For more information about how system state backups are stored on Windows Server 2008 R2, see http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=143713.

See also Jim B's answer here http://serverfault.com/questions/123881/windows-server-2008-system-state-backup