Hello,

Siobhan and steve have shared very useful information. Thanks Siobhan for
expert comments!

Shyam



On 6/8/06, Siobhán Ellis <siobhanellis AT hotmail DOT com> wrote:

I've deployed it a couple of times.

You should deploy with a minimum version of 7.2.1 for NetWorker and 2.0.1of
SnapImage, on Windows. This means you can use the DSA capability of
NetWorker.

Full backups were about the same speed, but incremental backups were MUCH
faster as it only backs up changed blocks.

It keeps a block map so it knows which blocks have changed. If the system
that has SnapImage installed is rebooted, you must reload that block map,
or
it will do a full backup again. Reloading the block map is not automatic.

I disagree with the previous statement about few problems with backing up
to
tape. When you peform normal backups, you backup the whole file and so
when
you restore you restore the whole file. The problem with SnapIMage can be
that you have blocks spread across many tapes and so a restore takes many
tape loads. Each tape unload and load takes time, as does searching
through
the tape for the correct place on the tape for the block(s) you need.

If you backup to disk, and keep a whole cycle on disk, then this issue is
obviated, and goes away.

If you have never done NDMP before, I would suggest getting professional
services to help - make sure that who ever you get has done at least some
form of NDMP before as there are things you need to know about NetWorker
behaviour and NDMP. I have known EMC and EMC service providers to send
anyone along to do the job. It should take, at most, 1 day to do with
testing.

Siobhan Elis
EMC NetWorker Specialist
Independant Consultant
Sydney, Australia


>From: Shyam Hegde <hegde.shyam AT GMAIL DOT COM>
>Reply-To: Legato NetWorker discussion <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>,
>   Shyam Hegde <hegde.shyam AT GMAIL DOT COM>
>To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
>Subject: Re: [Networker] Slow Win2k backup with lots of files
>Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 02:09:05 +0530
>
>Hi,
>
>can anybody share their experience with NetWorker SnapImage those who
have
>been using. What level of expertise is required and how complicated it is
>to
>deploy and havethe solution work!
>
>Is it necessary for opting for EMC Professional Services ?
>
>Regards
>Shyam
>
>
>On 6/8/06, Steve Warren <swarren AT cresend DOT com> wrote:
>>
>>If you try the suggestions recommended here and it doesn't solve your
>>problem, I suggest you seriously consider SnapImage. It has it's
>>limitations
>>but restore performance from tape is not the issue it's been represented
>>to
>>be here. And on a big slow disk with millions of files, there's no
faster
>>way to get file-granular backups to tape.
>>
>>SnapImage sorts all the file extents in the restore list  before it
starts
>>so the restore is done in a single pass. Pieces get restored in tape
order
>>and assembled on the fly. It's certainly no slower than restoring from a
>>normal multiplexed tape.
>>
>>There are things about it that are a little more cumbersome though so
you
>>should make sure you really have a need for it before you go that
>>direction.
>>
>> > > > I think that other person meant that maybe there'd be a way
>> > > > to use the "update" function within nsradmin to update the
>> > > > client's list of savesets to be backed up, in an automated
fashion.
>> > >
>> > > I have no problem scripting nsradmin, but what does updating the
>>client
>> > > record more frequently accomplish?
>> >
>> > I read the message not that it needs to be terribly frequent, but
that
>> > it needs to be automated so that human intervention isn't needed to
>>pick
>> > up new folders.
>> >
>> > The frequency just gives the maximum time that can elapse between the
>> > creation (and population) of a folder and having it hit the backups.
>> > Daily would probably be sufficient in most environments.
>> >
>> > --
>> > Darren Dunham
>>ddunham AT taos DOT com
>> > Senior Technical Consultant         TAOS
>>http://www.taos.com/
>> > Got some Dr Pepper?                           San Francisco, CA bay
>>area
>> >          < This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >
>> >
>> > To sign off this list, send email to listserv AT listserv.temple DOT edu 
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>> >
>>
>>--
>>
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