Not to interject, but I'm thinking quite the opposite here.  Every
server I backup is somewhat unique, and I need to be able to custom
tailor what gets backed up when and how.  Despite my company's generic
"backup policy" I've found that even amongst similar servers (4 server
Citrix Farm, for example) the application owner is requiring me to
"custom fit" a solution to meet their needs.  We can't have all nodes of
the farm taking a backup "hit" at the same time now can we?  Anyhow, I
can't imagine in our environment having any more than 4 servers in a
single policy, and more often that not my policies are running closer to
2 just to meet app owner's specs.  If you can get away with it, I'm sure
one big window on Friday Night thru Sunday Evening is GREAT!  Throw in
ALL_LOCAL_DRIVES and put all your machines in it.  (I wish!)  However,
that kind of a general solution just doesn't cut it for my complex
environment.  (Maybe I'm dating a high-maintenance environment here.
What'cha think?)

As a side note, my Oracle DBAs spent a LOT of time consolidating their
RMAN jobs into 4 policies, and we found out that Netbackup couldn't
handle it.  We had to "back down" two of their policies to 6 or 8
servers each, because 1 big job with all 18 servers causes jobs to fail!
I would have opened a ticket with Symantec but we're not on support.

-Jonathan


-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of "Koster,
Phil"
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 3:55 PM
To: veritas-bu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] How many servers per NBU Policy? - Poll

It's a partially fair question.  For the most part we all have standard
environments in that some aspects and very standard and some
servers/solutions are very unique.  So from a ratio perspective, if I am
way off, which it appears I am, then I know I have a lot of work to do.
But the key is the ratio, not the actual numbers.  50 Policies is not a
big deal of you have 1,000 clients.  But if you have 50 policies and 25
servers you *might* have an issue.  The ratio is just a guideline for
me.  Not a "target".

My ratio is 1.26 servers per policy and we only have 85 servers defined
in NBU (We are not backing up almost half the servers we have).

Because my numbers are so far off "the norm", I can now see with great
confidence that a policy audit is very necessary and shifting around
policies and creating all new policies to regroup servers is not a waste
of time by any stretch of the imagination.

Thanks to all who answered.

Phil Koster
Network Administrator
City of Grand Rapids
Direct: 616-456-3136
Helpdesk: 456-3999

-----Original Message-----
From: Liddle, Stuart [mailto:liddles at amgen.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 12:06 PM
To: Peter DrakeUnderkoffler; Koster, Phil
Cc: veritas-bu
Subject: RE: [Veritas-bu] How many servers per NBU Policy? - Poll

I agree with Phil on this...we group clients by dataset and proximity to
the nearest media server.  So, that number is high for things like
Exchange backups where we have over 20 Exchange servers and low for
other apps where we might only have 1 server.

This is different from our old model where we had as many as 50 clients
per policy just because they were all OS backups of the same kind of
Windows box.

--stuart

-----Original Message-----
From: veritas-bu-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu
[mailto:veritas-bu-bounces at mailman.eng.auburn.edu] On Behalf Of Peter
DrakeUnderkoffler
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 7:49 AM
To: Koster, Phil
Cc: veritas-bu
Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] How many servers per NBU Policy? - Poll

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Hash: SHA1

Not really a useful stat.  Everyone's NBU implementation is generally
different based on lots of factors.  Clients may or may not be bundled
into policies for business or security reasons, platform commonalities,
and of course schedule windows.
As a first stab,
I usually bundle systems with similar services into the same policy.
But that almost always gets split up a bit.  Database backups generally
tend to be one client per policy, but there are exceptions.  As usual,
everyones millage may vary.

Peter DrakeUnderkoffler
Xinupro, LLC
617-834-2352



Koster, Phil wrote:
> We ran some numbers and have about 1.26 servers per policy. I was just

> wondering where everyone else is in that regard.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Phil Koster
> Network Administrator
> City of Grand Rapids
> Direct: 616-456-3136
> Helpdesk: 456-3999
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> --
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Veritas-bu maillist  -  Veritas-bu at mailman.eng.auburn.edu 
> http://mailman.eng.auburn.edu/mailman/listinfo/veritas-bu
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