Fastback mount and repository access

[ohwell]

Hi All,

Lately I was wondering is there any way to make access from clients more easier. Fastback install&user guide says that you cannot add disks or volumes exceeding 2TB so if you wanna add some more repository space to Fastback server you need to split the disk into smaller partition or create LUN's that are 1,99TB or smaller. Now if you have couple od disks in repo and you trying to connect from client (Fastback Mount) u need to point to which repo you are connecting to, for example \\backup_server\fb_rep_d
But if you have many disks in repo you are forced to choose 'correct' one when you trying to restore your data.
Now the question is if there is a way, to make it a single repo so you could always connect to the same repo and have access to all of your backed up data?

P.S. This straightly teoretical question, as I haven't fill the first disk in repo yet, but maybe someone can confirm this?

 

[mccleld]

>>> Fastback install&user guide says that you cannot add disks or volumes exceeding 2TB so if you wanna add some more repository space to Fastback server you need to split the disk into smaller partition or create LUN's that are 1,99TB or smaller

If I understand what you're saying here, this isn't correct. "FastBack supports a single repository volume or folder to a maximum size of 16 TB provided GUID partition table (GPT) disks or network attached storage (NAS) volumes are attached to the FastBack Server. This applies to both data deduplication and non-data deduplication repositories" (ref: FastBack 6.1.3.0 Admin Guide, Planning > Operating Systems). In fact, I have a FastBack Server with one of my customers with exactly this configuration (although not at 16TB in size, but above 2TB).

The 2TB limit which I think you're alluding to is a limitation for protected client volumes.
__________
David Mc
London, UK

 

[ohwell]

>>>>
Before creating repositories
The FastBack Server repository can be comprised of, at most, 20 disks. Examples
of disks include a physical disk, LUN, volume, or NAS unit.
Before you add a disk to the repository, read the following information:
v For a volume, the size should not exceed 16 TB.
v For a disk, the size should not exceed 2TB
...
>>>>>
This comes from Fastback install&user guide Chapter 6. Backing up and restoring.

So i was partially wrong about this as it is possible to add volume up to 16TB, but disk is still limited to 2TB. Thank you for pointing that out David.

However as maximum repository size is limited to 40TB therefore you can still have multiple disks or volumes in repository (please correct me if I'm wrong), so my question is still current.

 

[mccleld]

>>> Now the question is if there is a way, to make it a single repo so you could always connect to the same repo and have access to all of your backed up data?

Are you able to point your FastBack Mount clients at the FastBack Server Shared Repository (i.e., \\<ServerName>\rep) instead of specific repository disks or folders? The docs seem to suggest that this should work:

"To go to the default shared folder without knowing the name of the repository disk or repository folder, type the following string and you can connect to the FastBack Server shared repository: \\ServerName\rep" (ref: Restoring Volumes step 6d).

The system I have access to right now only has one repository volume, but I can see shares for both that volume and this \rep share too.

>>> However as maximum repository size is limited to 40TB therefore you can still have multiple disks or volumes in repository (please correct me if I'm wrong).

Yes, except for deduplication repositories which are limited to a single repository volume.
__________
David Mc
London, UK

 

[ohwell]

I am able to connect to repository through \\<ServerName>\rep, it is what I was looking for - thank you.
Also IBM support has implicitly confirmed that max size for deduplicated repo is 16TB - just as you said.
If you don't mind question - have you experienced any problems with dedup repo before?
This would be first time I'm gonna implement fastback with dedup as I only had experience with Fastback 5.5 where no deduplication was available.

Thank you in advance.

 

[mccleld]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you - I've had no problems with the testing I've performed with deduplication repositories, but I've yet to make use of them in a fully-loaded production environment.

Perhaps somebody else on here has some more experience with FastBack deduplicated repositories that they'd like to share?
__________
David Mc
London, UK