So, we all seem to agree that the Windows 2008 SystemState is very large (seems 
to be about 6GB on a fresh 2008 R2 installation), but is there anything we can 
do about it?

It looks like it does a FULL copy of everything in the SystemState every night. 
I've never really paid attention to the SystemState backups, is that the way 
it's always worked? A FULL every night? No TSM incremental-forever magic?
        
OK, so if we are saying "that's just how it's going to be" what are folks doing 
about it? There seems to be a few possible issues: 
        - Bandwidth issues to clients with slow connections.
        - The size in the storagepools of those larger SystemStates.
        - The lengthening of the backup windows on all hosts because of the 
time needed to check/backup the systemstate.

        Changing the retention policy or dedupe can help with the large size 
they will take on disk/tape, but I'm not sure what can be done about the other 
2 issues? 

        We are rolling out a bunch of 2008 servers and as each host is 
upgraded, the backup goes from 5 minutes to ~1 hour to backup. My TSM server is 
going to get hammered: number of serviced connections are going to go way up as 
connections linger longer, the amount of data sent from the TSM server to the 
client to compare is now ~400MB, hitting the TSM DB pretty hard, overall TSM 
server performance is going to suffer and I might have to buy more 
horsepower/storage just to support the 2008 SystemState.

Options? Anyone? Anyone? Buhler?

Does TSM have some magic up it's sleeve in a future version that can help us? 
(I just started testing the 6.1.2 version that just came out, but it behaves 
the same with the systemstate).

About all I can think of is not backing up the systemstate or perhaps only 
backing it up once a week, but neither of those are good options.

Anybody else concerned about this or am I just being "the boy who cried 
ARMAGEDDON"?  

Ben


-----Original Message-----
From: ADSM: Dist Stor Manager [mailto:ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU] On Behalf Of 
Andrew Raibeck
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2009 3:38 PM
To: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Subject: Re: [ADSM-L] Win2008 System State

I am not aware of any links off-hand to any official Microsoft statements.
Why would your customer doubt this? Alternatives that come to mind:

- Take a look at the install footprint of a base Windows 2003 vs. Windows
2008:
   Windows 2003: C:\Windows has 16,000 files/3 GB
   Windows 2008: C:\Windows has 71,000 files/15 GB

There are, of course, other files, but the size of C:\Windows alone is very
telling.

- If you do a google search on "windows 2008 system state size", you'll
probably find some credible, albeit anecdotal evidence of the size.

- If you run a TSM backup-archive client "backup systemstate" command,
you'll see the size.

- If you get the VSS SDK, it comes with the vshadow.exe tool that you can
use to get a sense of the size:

   vshadow -p -wm2 > youroutputfile

Then review the output. Run the same command on Windows 2003 and compare
the sizes. There is clearly a lot more in the 2008 version.

- If your customer needs to hear it from Microsoft, then perhaps this is a
question to ask directly of Microsoft.

Best regards,

Andy

Andy Raibeck
IBM Software Group
Tivoli Storage Manager Client Product Development
Level 3 Team Lead
Internal Notes e-mail: Andrew Raibeck/Hartford/IBM@IBMUS
Internet e-mail: storman AT us.ibm DOT com

IBM Tivoli Storage Manager support web page:
http://www.ibm.com/software/sysmgmt/products/support/IBMTivoliStorageManager.html


The only dumb question is the one that goes unasked.
The command line is your friend.
"Good enough" is the enemy of excellence.

"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> wrote on 10/28/2009
10:46:19 AM:

> [image removed]
>
> Win2008 System State
>
> Christian Svensson
>
> to:
>
> ADSM-L
>
> 10/28/2009 10:47 AM
>
> Sent by:
>
> "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
>
> Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager"
>
> Hi Guys,
> Does anyone have a link to Microsoft where it says that Win2008
> System State Backup is much bigger then Windows 2003 System State?
> I need to prove for a customer that System State and System Services
> is much bigger now with Windows Server 2008 and we need to setup
> some policies for System State?
>
>
> Best Regards
> Christian Svensson
>
> Cell: +46-70-325 1577
> E-mail: Christian.Svensson AT cristie DOT se
> Skype: cristie.christian.svensson

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