Veritas-bu

[Veritas-bu] Question with backup-data growth rates?

2005-10-19 07:44:12
Subject: [Veritas-bu] Question with backup-data growth rates?
From: ewilts AT ewilts DOT org (Ed Wilts)
Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2005 06:44:12 -0500
On Wed, Oct 19, 2005 at 07:46:53PM +1000, Dean wrote:
> I don't thing You need another reporting product to tell you something as
> simple as this. I do a "bpimagelist -hoursago 24" every day and awk out the
> daily figures, then add up the totals at the end of the month.

It depends on how complex you want to get.  For overall volume, sure you
can do what you suggest.  We've got some more complex queries that we do
regularly.  For example, how much are our Exchange backups growing?
This is the sum of multiple servers.  How much is a this particular
application's backup volume growing?  This is the sum of multiple
servers across multiple operating systems.  How much are our overall
database backups growing?  

What I've found with every manager I've ever had that if they ask for
one type of backup report (or any other kind of report), they'll soon ask 
for another.  Today it's backup volume.  Tomorrow it's a Six Sigma graph
of our failure rates.  Next it will be your library slot utilization
to justify a slot upgrade.  Then it will be the growth rate of your tape
drive purchases.  If you can get all of the requirements up front, you
can do a cost/benefit analysis as to which approach is cheaper for your
organization.

Aptare StorageConsole doesn't do anything you can't do yourself.  When
you get right down to it, *all* it does is run NetBackup commands to
gather data about your jobs and environment, store that data, and give
you an interface to report on it later.  There's no magic here - it's
just a matter of how easy you want to get at the data and how much of
your own code you want to write and maintain.

        .../Ed

> On 10/6/05, Mark.Donaldson AT cexp DOT com <Mark.Donaldson AT cexp DOT com> 
> wrote:
> >
> > You can search back accurately to the depth of your retention policies.
> > The
> > image information that's stored for restoration purposes contains the
> > amount
> > of data backed up. With bpimagelist & some scripting, what you're
> > suggesting is possible.
> >
> > Otherwise, as Ed suggests, for searches past your retention dates, a
> > third-party product or effort on your part is necessary.
> >
> > -M
> >
> >
> >
> > -----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 Ed Wilts
> > Sent: Monday, October 03, 2005 11:17 AM
> > To: Piszcz, Justin
> > Cc: veritas-bu AT mailman.eng.auburn DOT edu
> > Subject: Re: [Veritas-bu] Question with backup-data growth rates?
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 03, 2005 at 09:40:18AM -0400, Piszcz, Justin wrote:
> > > Is there anyway to determine on a percentage or MB/month basis how much
> > > the backups are growing?
> >
> > NetBackup doesn't keep long-term data. You need an additional product
> > that collects this data and allows you to report on it later.
> >
> > > Or do you need NB Reporter for this?
> >
> > Advanced Reporter is a dead product. My recommendation would be
> > Aptare's StorageConsole. In fact, we used this product a couple of
> > weeks ago to produce a graph for management showing our backup volume
> > over time (one of the many graphs and reports it can give you).
> >
> > ../Ed

-- 
Ed Wilts, Mounds View, MN, USA
mailto:ewilts AT ewilts DOT org

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