What options are there when journaling runs out of memory on a 32 bit
Windows server?  I have about 10 million files on one server that the
journal engine runs out of memory. With memory efficient disk cache
method and resource utilization 5, its runs out of memory,  resource
utilization of 4 runs too long. 

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Huebner,Andy,FORT WORTH,IT
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 8:16 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: best backup method for millions of small files?

You have a disk array copy of the data, is that located close or far?
Have you considered a disk array snap shot also?
If you perform a journaled file system backup and an image backup then
you should be able to restore the image and then update the image with
the file system restore.  This might take a long time, I have never
tried it.
What failure are you trying to protect against?  In our case we use the
disk arrays to protect against a data center loss and a corrupt file
system and a TSM file system backup to protect against the loss of a
file.  Our big ones are in the 10 million file range.  Using a 64bit
Windows server we can backup the file system in about 6 - 8 hours
without journaling.  We suspect we could get the time down to around 4
hours if the TSM server was not busy backing up 500 other nodes.

To me the important thing is to figure out what you are protecting
against with each thing you do.  Also be sure and ask what the Recovery
Point Objective (RPO) is.  If it is less than 24 hours then array based
solutions may be the best choice.  Over 24 hours then TSM may be the
best choice.

Andy Huebner

-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of
Mehdi Salehi
Sent: Thursday, April 30, 2009 9:39 AM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] best backup method for millions of small files?

Hi,
None the two methods that you mean in the user's guide are suitable for
my
case. "Image+normal incremental" that you emphasized in your post means
getting full image backups for example every week. For the incremental
part,
one file-based full backup is needed which is a nightmare for 20
millions.
OK, if I accept the initial incremental backup time (that might take for
days), what happens in restoration?

Naturally, last image backup should be restored first and it will take A
minutes. Provided that image backups are weekly, the progressive
incremental
backups of the week is about 6*20MB=120MB. Now imagine 120MB of 15-20K
files
are to be restored in filesystem with an incredibly big file address
table
and system should create an inode-like entry for each. If this step
takes B
minutes, the total restoration time would be A+B. (A+B/A) ratio is
important
and I will try to measure and share it with the group.

Steven, your solution is excellent for ordinary filesystems with a
limited
number of files. But I think for millions of files, only backup/restore
method that do not care how many files exist in the volume are feasible.
Somehing like pure image backup (like Acronis image incremental backup)
or
the method that FastBack exploites.

Your points are welcomed.

Regards,
Mehdi Salehi


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