Networker

Re: [Networker] Very large filesystems backup

2008-11-10 15:57:23
Subject: Re: [Networker] Very large filesystems backup
From: Jonathan Loran <jloran AT SSL.BERKELEY DOT EDU>
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Date: Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:52:43 -0800
Hi List,

This discussion is of some relevance to my current backup plans. We have a number of large (huge) data stores that I want to backup very infrequently for disaster recovery. These data stores are basically write once, read many repositories, and in theory all of the data within them can be recreated from secondary/tertiary data sources. I'm expecting the full backups to take several days to run, but that is OK, since we only will do fulls a few times a year max. Does anyone know the current limits on how large a file system/max number of files, Networker can back up? We are using 7.4.1, upgrading to the latest version when we start in a couple months. The largest file system right now is holding 30TB, with just under 30 million files (and growing). If we will run into a size/file count limit, I need to make other plans.

Thanks,

Jon

Matthew Huff wrote:
100 savesets.

Having 100 savesets is the least of your problems if you have 21 million files 
to restore :)


From: Fazil.Saiyed AT anixter DOT com [mailto:Fazil.Saiyed AT anixter DOT com]
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 12:07 PM
To: EMC NetWorker discussion; Matthew Huff
Cc: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: Very large filesystems backup


What is the implication of such a approach during restore, do you have 100 
saveset to restore or does it still show up as one saveset ?
Thanks

Matthew Huff <mhuff AT OX DOT COM>
Sent by: EMC NetWorker discussion <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>

11/10/2008 09:19 AM
Please respond to
EMC NetWorker discussion <NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU>; Please respond 
to
Matthew Huff <mhuff AT OX DOT COM>


To

NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU

cc

Subject

Re: Very large filesystems backup







I'd recommend a solution based on option #2. Use a perl or other scripting 
language to create a mountpoint/directory list as the saveset list and pipe it 
into nsradmin in a job that runs before backups. This gives you the advantage 
of having something like a saveset of ALL so that you won't miss new structures 
that get created, and yet it will create parallel saveset streams.



-----Original Message-----
From: EMC NetWorker discussion [mailto:NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU] On 
Behalf Of Oscar Olsson
Sent: Monday, November 10, 2008 10:13 AM
To: NETWORKER AT LISTSERV.TEMPLE DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [Networker] Very large filesystems backup

On 2008-11-10 15:54, Browning, David revealed:

BD> Just curious as to what everyone else does out their for their VERY
BD> large filesystem backups.
BD>
BD> Our document imaging file server has gradually been increasing in size
BD> over the past year, and is now up to 21+ million files.   Data size is
BD> under 1TB, so size isn't an issue, it's simply the 21 million files - it
BD> takes 48 hours to backup.
BD>
BD> We have a couple of other file servers that are large (3 - 5 million),
BD> but nothing this size.
BD>
BD> Are people using some kind of snapshot system, or something else?

Well, in essence, there is really no good way to handle this with
networker. We have used two approaches in the past:

1. Take a snapshot of the filesystem using savepnpc. This requires some
scripting and its hard to manage errors and ensure that the correct data
does get backed up in case of hidden failures.
2. Specify several directories. This approach has the drawback that the
"All" saveset can't be used, which can create troubles later when
paths/file systems get added/removed/changed, since data in new paths
doesn't get backed up.

Or, there's our current approach... We recently migrated from Networker to
Commvault Simpana, and in essence the difference is in the magniture
between DDR and West Germany in 1985 (to commvaults favour). Commvault
allows you to use several data readers in the same mount point, which
really makes things faster for larger file systems. Except for that, there
are like a million other reasons to switch, but that's outside the scope
of this list.

//Oscar - has seen the light.

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--


-     _____/     _____/      /           - Jonathan Loran -           -
-    /          /           /                IT Manager               -
-  _____  /   _____  /     /     Space Sciences Laboratory, UC Berkeley
-        /          /     /      (510) 643-5146 jloran AT ssl.berkeley DOT edu
- ______/    ______/    ______/           AST:7731^29u18e3
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