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NBU MSDP - Upgrade to 250Tb

smoy
Level 2

Hi everybody, 

We have today 3  MSDP media servers on each site (6 in total, working in pair), at 96 Tb, and they were built old fashion way, running Linux and with 2 FS on powerfull dedicated storage):

  • /usr/openv/msdp_db of 1 Tb on SSD (raid5)
  • /usr/openv/msdp of 100 Tb on NL (raid6 spreaded over 140 4Tb NL SAS drives)

It was great to see that 250 Tb support in 8.2, that we really need, but the question is how can we upgrade to 250 Tb?

Why is it recommended to have multiple FS for MSDP?

Thank you, and all help is welcome!

Cheers, 

Serguei

8 REPLIES 8

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

Hi Serguei

Firstly I'm please that you have working media server. However, you did not set them up according to Veritas requirements.
For a 96TB media server, it clearly states you need 4 volumes, the 1TB catalog volume and 3 x 32TB data volumes on separate mount points. 
If you had done this, then expanding to 250TB would have been as easy as creating an additional 6 x 32TB volumes and mounting them on them media server (9 volumes in total). 
From where you are now, I'm not sure what the best option is to go to 250TB - you could open a support call, but they may not provide the answer you are looking for. 

The reason for the separate volumes is for performance, each dat volume is meant to a separate RAID6 group. 

Good luck 
David

alireza1023
Level 4

Hi David

I didn't find any doc about multiple disk for MSDP

but in: https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/25074086-127355784-0/v95642699-127355784

it says:

The storage for a NetBackup Media Server Deduplication Pool is exposed as a single disk volume. You cannot add another volume to an existing Media Server Deduplication Pool.

To increase the capacity of a Media Server Deduplication Pool, grow the existing volume.

Marianne
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@alireza1023 

It is all in NBU Dedupe Guide. 
Herewith online 8.1.2 version: 
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/25074086-131900563-0/v95644048-131900563

Scroll down to: Table: Volumes for 96-TB Media Server Deduplication Pool support

The 8.2 version of the Dedupe Guide mentions 250TB, but unfortunately still only referers to the 3 x 32TB volumes: 
@davidmoline , do you perhaps have access to the author(s)?
https://www.veritas.com/content/support/en_US/doc/25074086-136046435-0/v95644048-136046435  

There is an internal only article that describes the layout and server requirements - I've asked if this will be released to the public. This currently is only for RedHat and SUSE, apparently a Windows version is coming. No idea if these will be made public though.

Also made mention of the not quite right documentation in the Dedupe guide.

Marianne
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Thanks for your trouble @davidmoline 

Hi @davidmoline and @Marianne 
When we did this build, the doc was not yet available about 4 mounting points, i've did 2 mounting points to separate MSDP DB (as I said on SSD). It's seems to be the same story now for 250Tb.

We are using a dedicated SAN 3PAR storage array, which has a high virtualisation level, so all datas are spreaded accross all the disks in storage array (like wide striping), there are no raid group like on JBOD or old fashion S A.

I did performance tests with nbperfchk over 3 years ago (at this moment, we had 1/3 of spindles inside (around 40..)), and I was allready obtaining 1000 mb/s for write and 950 for read. And today, we are planning to inject another 300 SATA NL 4Tb drives in this array. 

So, what do you reccomend us ? whay can we do? We have also opened calls with Veritas support, but nothing clear from...

Please help!

Thank you!

Serguei

davidmoline
Level 6
Employee

Hi Serguei

I would suggest you rebuild the MSDP storage to follow Veritas requirements to use multiple mount points. This way the media servers and MSDP will not be a cause for support to decline to assist.
The rebuild doesn't have to be all at once, but you could do one media server at a time - redirecting backups to the other media servers and potentially duplicating backups from the target media server so it can effectively be decommissioned. 
Once decommissioned, you can rebuild using the multiple mount point requirement and then move onto the next one.
For the 250TB - follow the existing guidelines for a 96TB MSDP (1 x 1TB catalog volume and 3 x 32TB data volumes), but create 8 x 32TB data volumes and add them in a similar way.
It may not be the fastest or simplest way to get to where you want to be, but if your backup data is important, then setting up the backup system correctly is also important.

David

Marianne
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