MSDP sizing considerations
When considering the number and size of MSDP pools to deploy in a specific NetBackup domain, there are some important pieces of information that should be gathered about the size and type of workloads that require protection. Furthermore, the requirements around secondary operations like replication and/or duplication are also an important consideration, as well as the retention of each operation.
Note:
Information about sizing calculations for MSDP is available:
The Recovery Point Objective (RPO), the Recovery Time Objective (RTO), and the Service Level Agreement (SLA) also drive the protection policy requirements. Each of these key requirements must be defined as they directly impact the solution design.
Furthermore, designing a solution which includes practicality and resiliency must include factoring in time for routine maintenance and avoiding Single Points of Failure (SPOFs). Expecting a NetBackup domain to never encounter any maintenance is unrealistic. So, any solution design should allow for enough headroom to allow workloads to be shifted if a single pool or hardware component becomes unavailable.
Workload grouping by type is also very important. Different workloads require different compute requirements. For instance, Oracle and VMware workloads tend to be more resource intensive.
Once workload protection requirements are defined, and the size and type of workloads are qualified, determining the sizing and solution design is more straightforward.
Many people don't define solution requirements because they aren't clear about the process and what information is key to making decisions around solution design.
There are very clear variables that must be defined when designing a data protection solution:
Workload types and sizes
Data characteristics
Backup methodology and retentions
Data lifecycle
Timing of backup and secondary operations
RTO, RPO, and SLAs
In the following sections, each step is addressed to clarify the process.