Evaluating NetBackup performance through the Activity Monitor
To evaluate performance through the NetBackup Activity Monitor
- Run the backup or restore job.
- Open the NetBackup Activity Monitor.
- Verify that the backup or restore completed successfully.
The Status column should contain a zero (0).
- View the log details for the job by selecting the Actions > Details menu option, or by double-clicking on the entry for the job. Then select the Detailed Status tab.
Obtain the NetBackup performance statistics from the following fields in the Activity Monitor:
Start Time/End Time
These fields show the time window during which the backup or restore job took place.
Elapsed Time
This field shows the total elapsed time from when the job was initiated to job completion. It can be used as an indication of total wall clock time for the operation.
KB per Second
The data throughput rate.
Kilobytes
Compare this value to the amount of data. Although it should be comparable, the NetBackup data amount is slightly higher because of administrative information (metadata) that is saved for the backed-up data.
Deduplication rate
Pay close attention to the deduplication rate for each job. If there are significant numbers of jobs running with very poor deduplication rates, it can lead to overall poor backup performance. If possible consider grouping clients with poor deduplication rate and running them in a separate backup window.
For example, if you display properties for a directory that contains 500 files, each 1 megabyte in size, the directory shows a size of 500 megabytes. (500 megabytes is 524,288,000 bytes, or 512,000 kilobytes.) The NetBackup report may show 513,255 kilobytes written, reporting 1255 kilobytes more than the file size of the directory. This report is true for a flat directory. Subdirectory structures may diverge due to the way the operating system tracks used and available space on the disk.
Note that the operating system may report how much space was allocated for the files in question, not only how much data is present. If the allocation block size is 1 kilobyte, 1000 1-kilobyte files report a total size of 1 megabyte, although only 1 kilobyte of data exists. The greater the number of files, the larger this discrepancy may become.