SLP configuration

[Kasra_Hashemi]

Hi Everybody

     Question : What is the exact configuration of SLP in my scenario

     My scenario : we have one EMC datadomain and one HP tape library , I've planned to copy all the backups to datadomain then duplicate them to tapes .I want that data expire immediately after duplicating to tape .

I will list the current configuration below , as you see by this config data does not expire after duplication .

[Mouse]

THere could be several reasons why this is happening. First is that you ave some base image with most of the unique blocks still not expired so DD holds those bytes. Second - your backups are happening more frequently than DD's cleanup interval so there is always a non-expired image on the box.

I would say the use case of pure staging device is a waste of money when implemented with DD as cost per GB is quite high comparing to a standard storage

[Kasra_Hashemi]

so in your opinion my configuration is correct . am I right?

[Mouse]

Looks okay to me but I still trying to understand what are you trying to achieve.

[Marianne]

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@Kasra_Hashemi wrote:

Hi Everybody

     Question : What is the exact configuration of SLP in my scenario

     My scenario : we have one EMC datadomain and one HP tape library , I've planned to copy all the backups to datadomain then duplicate them to tapes .I want that data expire immediately after duplicating to tape .

I will list the current configuration below , as you see by this config data does not expire after duplication .

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Your current config will not expire backup after duplication.

I have no idea why anyone would want to do this.

By expiring backups after duplication, you will effectively have very poor or no deduplication on your DD. 
This means that your company has wasted a LOT of money purchasing a dedupe appliance. 
You may as well replace the DD with standard, cheap disk. 

[Kasra_Hashemi]

what we are trying to achieve is , preventing the data loss while MSL library is busy or down

we have to much data ( Oracle RMAN backups and etc...) , our 4 drives tape library does not tolerate this backup load , so we copy all the backups to datadomain ( disk backups are much faster than tape copy) then in wide window time we duplicate those backups to tapes.

and what I have experienced , when tape library's drives become dirty or something like that we loose to much data.

[Mouse]

If your Oracle backups are not encrypted or something like it, I'd keep everything as is - the configuration you have gives you 1 week to roll back to and unless you have massive changes in the database on daily basis, it won't fill DD up. Actually it will use it in a proper way. 

[Kasra_Hashemi]

due to our SLP , the data on DD will expire in two weeks later , I have not enough space in DD anymore , and I want the Duplicated data on tapes , become expire on DD . can I do this by command line ?

[Mouse]

Unless you have a lot of unique data in each backup you are not going to get back a lot of disk space. If you need a staging device, get a regular disk, not deduplication appliance - it will be cheaper and might be faster.To expire a backup you can go to NBU console - Catalog, find the image you're looking for and expire.

[Genericus]

The data domain using a VTL does not release data when tapes expire, you have to set up a manual process to relabel the tapes. I do this with a shell script every day.

Then I have to schedule a cleaning of the data domain to recover the space.

If you are using disk, then it is much better at releasing space.

[Genericus]

We do this same thing. EVERYTHING we backup everyday is duplicated to tape using SLP. We have always had issues with drive contention.

Before purchasing the Data Domain we tested several vendors, and nothing performed as well. (sorry veritas)

On my busiest days I am sending about 14 streams from my Oracle databases @ ~ 200,000 KB/Sec on the GUI.

That is ~2800 MB/Sec ingest, and I output to LTO5 tapes at the same time. I am implementing a DD9800 and it sends the data to tape as fast as I can send it in, we tested it at over 3200 MB/Sec both ways AT THE SAME TIME. which is just ludicrous. 

Not trying to be an ad for EMC, or Data domains, but for this specific thing especially they do the job.

[Michal_Mikulik1]

Hello all,

this discussion is becoming entangled, touching several different topics.

Let's go to your original question - your SLP copy operation must be configured as follows:

Retention Type = Expire after copy

instead of Retention Type = Fixed.

regards

Michal

[Genericus]

Michal is correct, just set the SLP retention to expire after copy.

You will also need to run a cleaning on your data domain to get the space back if you are using VTL.

You are negating several "features", however, since your deduplication will suffer, and you wil lnot be able to ustilize BOOST.

I have some large backups I use BOOST with, and trust me, the first time you backup your 9 TB log file server in 26 minutes, you will be very happy, because the duplication to tapes starts that much sooner.