[Veritas-bu] Backing up very large Windows file systems

We have a similar file server; the server has over one million files on
ever 10GB, it took us more then a week to backup 1.2TB over the network.
We are also using EMC Sym with power path. After we upgraded as a media
server, it only take us a day to back it up. 
TWu

-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Wilts [mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org] 
Sent: Friday, December 26, 2003 9:52 AM
To: Tommy Wu
Cc: Vapiwala, Kevin V [IT]; Veritas List
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Backing up very large Windows file systems

On Fri, Dec 26, 2003 at 09:05:13AM -0500, Tommy Wu wrote:
> Do you have a SSO licenses? If you do then make the Win2003 as a NBU
> media server since the SDLT connected to the SAN. You may try to
> increase to the network buffer sizes which decrease the numbers of
echo?

We've tried it as a media server, and our experiences were not good -
we're actually able to get better and more consistent results with these
big systems connected to a Solaris media server via GigE.

I don't believe it's a network buffer size issue, since we get 10 times
the performance on a similar system that backs up larger files.  NBU
appears to not be able to get the data off of disk fast enough even
though the disk itself is fast (EMC Symmetrix).  It looks like a file
system traversal problem.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> [mailto:veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu] On Behalf Of
Vapiwala,
> Kevin V [IT]
> Sent: Monday, December 22, 2003 10:48 AM
> To: Ed Wilts; Veritas List
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Backing up very large Windows file systems
> 
> how about using multiple policies for the client each with specific
> paths ?
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Wilts [mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org]
> Sent: Friday, December 19, 2003 2:56 PM
> To: Veritas List
> Subject: [Veritas-bu] Backing up very large Windows file systems
> 
> 
> We're struggling with a good mechanism of backing up very large file
> systems on Windows 2003 clusters.  A typical file system will be about
> 500GB with 10 million files.  NetBackup 4.5 gets absolutely horrible
> performance compared to a similarly-sized file system with <1M files.
> 
> These systems are connected via GigE to a Solaris system with a SAN
> connection to our L700 library containing SDLT drives.  A single
backup
> can
> take on the order of 4 days.
> 
> What optimization can I do?  FlashBackup might be an option, but it's
> not available for Windows until 5.0 and we're not there yet.
> 
> Thanks,
>         .../Ed
> 
> -- 
> Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
> mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org