Client side dedup question

[jalite275]

We want to implement client-side dedup under nb 7.5.0.5 environment, I created a backup policy with client-side dedup enabled (by default). Do I still need to go into Host Properties and select Always use Client side dedup for the client machine? Also from the administration console, how can I tell if the backup was client side dedup or server side (media server) dedup?

[Marianne · Accepted solution]

I believe that Always use the media server is the default. (See NBU Admin Guide I - Where deduplication should occur)

I prefer to change setting to Prefer to use client-side deduplication.

The most obvious way to know where dedupe took place is the time difference when running subsequent backups (first one will always be full and will take some time).

In my tests with our demo appliance, I forgot that the default was Media server dedupe. 2nd backup of my laptop took as long as the first one - 1.5 hrs. Changed it to Prefer client-side - 3rd run of full backup was 10 minutes.

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

I don't remember exact message, but you can see "client direct" keyword in Job Details if client-side dedup is done.

[Mark_Solutions]

Do do need to add the client(s) to the Client Attributes section of the Master Servers Host Properties and select to use Client Side de-dupe for it to work - as Marianne says prefer is best to avoid any potential failures - without them being added here it will use Media Server de-dupe.

The job log does says if client side de-dupe has been performed and it will say "using client direct to backup..."

Hope this helps

[jalite275]

Thanks for clarification, it's much clear now. where is the job log that I can find this information?

[Mark_Solutions]

When you run a backup job just look on the detailed tab of the job in activity monitor - all of the job text gets written to that - the lines will be in there.

[jalite275]

I've configured some clients with prefer client-side dedup, went thru the last few days backup jobs activity monitor output from Admin console, I still don't see this info, will it also show up in any log file of the master server or command output so I can grep the keywork for it?

[Yasuhisa_Ishika]

You can get job information by "bpdbjobs -jobid job_id -all_columns". If client-side deduplication is enabled, you can see "Using OpenStorage client direct to backup ..." message.

[root@bmr0 ~]# /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/admincmd/bpdbjobs -jobid 174 -all_columns | tr , '\n' | grep "client direct"
06/10/13 23:09:05 - Info bmr0-b(pid=18189) Using OpenStorage client direct to backup from client bmr1-b to bmr0-b
[root@bmr0 ~]# 

[jalite275]

I can find this msg from the activity monitor log now. Thanks for all the replies.