Mark D Simmons wrote:
Now I understand there's quite a bit of work going into backups just now, and I too have a number of questions to add to Philip's:
o When is the new, fast backup feature going to be available?
Our current dump/restore will have performance improvements in the next release (see previous e-mail). There will be a completely new backup facility doing block level dump/restore, which is currently scheduled to be available in our next major release, currently planned for FCS in early 1999.
o Will it work with NDMP?
Yes. NDMP is a means to communicate with the NetApp products and will work with either dump/restore or the new, faster backup facility.
o Will it work with Networker?
No. Technically speaking, Legato could have chosen to use NDMP to invoke our backup utilities. However, Legato and NetApp are not going that route, mainly because of Legato's business model. Under this model, Legato has its partners port the Legato client. We are working on this port to NetApp using Java.
This also means that the NetWorker server code will remain unchanged in terms of not requiring NDMP client support to be added.
o Will it support backups to two concurrent local devices (2xDLT7000 at the same time, for example)?
Yes, and we are working towards supporting 4 devices simultaneously. The technology of the new faster backup is based on dumping blocks, so the order of the dump does not matter. This enables us to use multiple devices for the same dump stream. On restore, the blocks are reconstructed to form the original data image.
o Can DOT backup to 2 (or more) local devices right now?
Yes, we can do 2.
o Can it do so under NDMP under the control of Netbackup?
Yes.
o Will DOT be able to do backups to multiple local devices concurrently under Networker?
Yes, we can do 2 and hope to extend to 4.
o Can an F630 stream two DLT7000's concurrently using any technique you care to name?
We can dump to 2 DLT7000s with dump or fast dump. Currently, though, the deciding factor as far as performance is in our dump facility. As we improve performance, we will be better able to capitalize on the tape hardware capabilities (5 MB/sec per DLT7000 drive uncompressed).
o Will the new fast backup technology allow for specific-file recoveries or just full-filer-after-disaster recovery?
It will probably not support single file restore initially.
o Are the indexes of NetBackup or Networker maintained on their servers even when backup data is going to locally attached tape drives?
Yes.
o Would this remain possible with concurrent backups as described above?
Yes. Actually, Legato can interleave dump streams across different tapes, and reconstructs the data on the restore side from the interleaved streams.
o Does anyone have this sort of aggressive approach to backups already in place?
As our backup performance improves, we will be able to take advantage of more parallelism. Our partnerships are getting more solid with time, especially as the NetApp products are making inroads and their presence is being felt in more and more customer sites.
We're looking to breach the TB barrier using 3 F5/600 series machines in the near future and I want to be able to back each filer up no slower than the current longest backup, which is just over 12 hours.
Ideally I want to actually cut the backup window and improve our ability to restore data at the same time (because these are worthy goals and because at this time the money seems to be available to do the job 8).
One of our groups is evaluating NetApp for NFS server. Apparently, their backup concerns are not being satisfactorily addressed by local NetApp contact. Since backup is a key factor in their decision, they would appreciate if someone could shed some more light to their following questions/concerns. Please feel free to copy the group at: mannyk@msil.sps.mot.com
It seems that they have a few select tape drives that are now able to be connected to the netapps and are recognized by netbackup.
The problem I still see and have not recieved a clear answer to is will ndmp support the tar protocol or just dump? Does the ndmp protocol support the full dump command - different levels of dump (incremental, differential and full)? When and if we will be able to hook up several netapps to one large tape library unit (STK 9710)?
What in the ndmp protocol will allow several backup streams to work simultaneously, so that a full backup of an 800 GB netapps won't span over several days.
Philip Thomas Motorola - ATL, M/S M350 2200 W. Broadway M350 Mesa, AZ 85202 rxjs80@email.sps.mot.com (602) 655-3678 (602) 655-2285 (fax)