Word of caution on this issue.  (Paul is correct, this is about what the end 
result is going to be).
 
I don't know what type of storage array your E: drive is on or how big the 
Client server is, but you are getting ready to suck to life out of the server.
 
If policy were to run (and it should after you perform Paul's advice), the E 
drive will have 4 concurrent backups running off of it at the same time.
 
Now if you are on an EMC SAN  array, then okay.  If you are on a SCSI attached 
cabinet on a single controller, then expect users to scream at you.
 
Not knowing the disk structure of the client system can get you into trouble 
quickly.
 
You can set your policy to allow multiple data streams, but limit the jobs per 
policy to only 1.  This will break the E drive into smaller chunks of backups.  
You will get a higher success rate on getting the most data to the tape drives.
 
Also, (and it is a pet peeve of mine) MPX backups may seem to be running 
quicker, but we back up to do restores.  MPX restores are doggedly slow.  Also, 
a non-MPXed backup can be tarred off of a tape with gnu-tar.  An MPX tape has 
to use NetBackup for a restore.
 
If you are going to do MPX, then it makes no sense (actually negates the 
effort) to back up a single system to an MPX backup tape multiple times.
 
Bobby Williams
Sr. Systems Engineer
4250-A Benton Drive
Chattanooga, Tennessee  37406
Pager: 423-819-3336
Phone: 423-624-2600  x122
 

________________________________

From: veritas-bu-admin AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu on behalf of Paul Keating
Sent: Tue 5/3/2005 12:34 PM
To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Scratch Pool Usage



Did you set the "max mpx per drive" option in the Storage Unit config?

Paul

> -----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
> Larsen, Errin M HMMA/IT
> Sent: May 3, 2005 12:33 PM
> To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Scratch Pool Usage
>
>
>
> Hi again,
>
>   Ok, I set up my policy/schedule as follows:
>
>   Allow multiple Data streams = yes
>   Limit Jobs Per Policy = 8
>   Media Multiplexing = 4
>
>   I set up the Backup Selections as follows:
>
>   NEW_STREAM
>   D:\
>   NEW_STREAM
>   E:\Directory1
>   NEW_STREAM
>   E:\Directory2
>   NEW_STREAM
>   E:\Directory3
>   NEW_STREAM
>   E:\Directory4
>
>   I kicked off the policy.  I expected to see 5 jobs, 4 of which would
> go to 1 tape drive, the last going to a second tape drive.  However,
> when the jobs ran, NetBackup mounted 5 tapes and sent each job to it's
> own Tape drive.  What did I do wrong?
>
>   --Errin
>
>
> > -----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
> > Larsen, Errin M HMMA/IT
> > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:53 AM
> > To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> > Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Scratch Pool Usage
> >
> >
> > Thanks again, Paul,
> >
> >   To answer some of your questions:
> >
> > The NICs are foced.  There ARE two of them.  2 GB nics teamed
> > together (before you ask, yes, I checked, the drivers are
> the latest)
> >
> > My backup selection list CURRENTLY looks like this: D:\, E:\
> >
> > The E drive is where the majority of the data sits: about 700
> > GB.  The D:\ drive is much smaller, maybe 40-50 GB.  They are
> > separate physical drives.  The E drive lives on a SAN, where
> > it is a RAID 5 configured volume.
> >
> > The tape drives are IBM Ultrium LTO drives, fiber attached to
> > the NetBackup Master Server.  I have 8 of these in a Sun
> Branded L180.
> >
> > I have a hard time imagining that the slow down is in the
> > client's SAN connection to the target drives, or the Master
> > Server's SAN connection to the Tape Drives.
> >
> > Thanks in advance for the help.
> >
> > --Errin
> >
> >
> >
> > > -----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
> > > Paul Keating
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2005 10:12 AM
> > > To: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> > > Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] Scratch Pool Usage
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for the response, Paul.
> > >
> > > No prob
> > >
> > > >   I have a policy (MS-Windows-NT) that takes Diff-Inc
> > backups every
> > > > day except Sunday, which is when it takes a full.  This produces
> > > > one job (I
> > > > was under the mistaken impression that Multiplexing allowed
> > > one job to
> > > > run to multiple tapes.  Thanks for correcting me).
> > >
> > > MultiPLEXing allows multiple jobs from one or more machines
> > > to run to ONE tape. Primarily for fast tape drives and
> slow clients.
> > >
> > > MultiSTREAMing allows multiple jobs from one machine to run
> > > to multiple tapes. Primarily for fast clients and slow tapes
> > >
> > > > That job has been
> > > > running between 19-21 hours(!!).  I need to shorten that
> > run time. 
> > > > This is a Windows File Server.  The total backup size is about
> > > > 750GB.  Right
> > > > now the policy is configured as follows:
> > > >
> > > >   Policy stuff:
> > > >   Limit Jobs per Policy = 4
> > > >   Allow multiple data streams = Unchecked
> > >
> > > This is ONE machine?
> > > You want multiple backups jobs from one machine to go to
> > > multiple drives, correct?
> > > Eg:
> > > C:\ to drive 1
> > > D:\ to drive 2
> > > Etc.
> > >
> > > Here is your prob. You need to check "Allow multiple data streams"
> > >
> > > And your "Backup Selections" list should look something like:
> > > NEW_STREAM C:\ NEW_STREAM D:\ NEW_STREAM S:\
> > >
> > > Etc......
> > > If your drives are not different physical disks, however,
> > > this may actually hurt performance. You only want to pull
> > > maximum of 1 stream per physical disk.
> > >
> > > >
> > > >   Schedule Stuff:
> > > >   Type = Full Backup
> > > >   Media Multiplexing = 4
> > >
> > > Another prob. Set multiplexing to 1. (setting multiplex to 4
> > > allows 4 backup jobs to go to one tape.)
> > >
> > > >
> > > >  
> > > >   Any suggestions on shorting the backup time?  Any more
> > info I can
> > > > provide?
> > >
> > >
> > > What type of tape drive?
> > > Gig or Fast Ethernet?
> > > Are NICs forced or set to auto Negotiate?
> > >
> > > That's a lot of data, if you're not prepared for it...
> > > I'm currently backing up approximately that much data, split
> > > between 2 win2k3 clusters. Each cluster has a RAID5 diskset
> > > with about 1TB of space available. Each machine has a GigE
> > > NIC dedicated to backups. (separate VLAN from production
> > > networrk traffic) I'm pulling 2 streams (different
> > > driveletters) from each RAID5 diskset, (only due to logical
> > > naming) then multiplexing the two streams onto a single LTO2
> > > tapedrive, getting about 50 Mbytes/sec per tape.
> > >
> > > We had some significant issue getting these machines up to
> > > speed.......Antivirus was a HUGE speed killer.
> > >
> > > Paul
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > 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
> >
>
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>
>

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