how to check if deduplication is working/enabled

[manatee]

if i understand deduplication correctly, the first time a backup is done for, say 10GB, file it would take the exact amount of time to backup a 10GB file. but for succeeding backups, since the 10GB is on disk, the backup time should be reduced. that's the theoreticals. how to show/check that in the backup policies? like a check button or something.

[IonutP]

"theoreticals"

Client side deduplication - deduplications is triggered on the client side (before the data is transfered to media server)

Media server deduplication - deduplication is triggered on media server (after all data is tranfered from the client)

[manatee]

here's what i did (the practical).

i ran a full backup and it took 00:26:52 to finish.

i then ran the same backup and this time it took 00:14:30 to finish.

is it safe to say that's deduplication at work?

[IonutP]

Back to basics.

Since you have a MSDP (saw in another post), the deduplication is done on the media server side so if you run 2 fulls for the same size in "theory" it should have the same duration.

At the end of the job details you should have : Example : "scanned: 1187 KB, CR sent: 13 KB, CR sent over FC: 0 KB, dedup: 98.9%, cache hits: 0 (0.0%)"

[RB-Infinitely]

What deduplication storage are you using? If its MSDP type you'll see information in the detailed job status about the amount of bytes sent and the amount of bytes stored. You'll also be able to see the ratio if you unhide/show the deduplication column in the activtity monitor.

Please note these are only possible if you're using NetBackup deduplication. If you're using other OST devices, you'll need to check the device itself.

[manatee]

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@RB-Infinitely wrote:

What deduplication storage are you using? If its MSDP type you'll see information in the detailed job status about the

....

Please note these are only possible if you're using NetBackup deduplication. If you're using other OST devices, you'll need to check the device itself.

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well someone, i forgot who, told me that the LUN where my backups are going is called MSDP. what is MSDP and how do you tell a storage is one?

that's the thing, how does one tell if NetBackup deduplication is enabled or working for a particular backup policy?

[IonutP]

I would recommand you to take a look at NetBackup deduplication guide and  Advance disk guide.

But to keep things simple  - take one client that you have in that policy and post the "Detailed status" of a successfully backup job.

[RB-Infinitely · Accepted solution]

If you've just been given a lun, then it would be using MSDP (Media Server Deduplication Pool).

So, if you're sending data to this pool then deduplication is enabled by default, you can't disable it.

Look at the detailed job status as mentioned in my previous post or unhide the deduplication column in the activity monitor to see the ratios.