How to improve performance when backing up many small files
NetBackup may take longer to back up many small files than a single large file.
Table: How to improve performance when backing up many small files
Try the following | Notes |
|---|---|
Use the FlashBackup (or FlashBackup-Windows) policy type. | FlashBackup is a feature of NetBackup Snapshot Client. FlashBackup is described in the NetBackup Snapshot Client Administrator's Guide. |
Windows: turn off virus scans. | |
Snap a mirror (such as with the FlashSnap method in Snapshot Client) and back that up as a raw partition. | Unlike FlashBackup, this type of backup does not allow individual file restore. |
Turn off or reduce logging. | The NetBackup logging facility has the potential to affect the performance of backup and recovery processing. Logging is usually enabled temporarily, to troubleshoot a NetBackup problem. The amount of logging and its verbosity level can affect performance. |
Make sure that the media server's network buffer size is the same as the client's communications buffer size | See Setting the network buffer size for the NetBackup media server. See Setting the NetBackup client communications buffer size. |
Adjust the batch size for sending metadata to the catalog | See Adjusting the batch size for sending metadata to the NetBackup catalog. |
Upgrade NIC drivers as new releases appear. | |
Run a bpbkar throughput test | Run the following bpbkar throughput test on the client with Windows. C:\Veritas\Netbackup\bin\bpbkar32 -nocont > NUL 2> For example: C:\Veritas\Netbackup\bin\bpbkar32 -nocont c:\ > NUL 2> temp.f Run the following bpbkar throughput test on the client with UNIX. /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbkar -nocont -dt 0 -nofileinfo -nokeepalives file system > /dev/null Where file system is the path being backed up. For example: /usr/openv/netbackup/bin/bpbkar -nocont -dt 0 -nofileinfo -nokeepalives file system > /dev/null |
Optimize TCP/IP throughput | When initially configuring the Windows server, optimize TCP/IP throughput as opposed to shared file access. |
Boost background performance on Windows versus foreground performance. | You can adjust processor scheduling by choosing how to allocate processor resources so that it is optimized to run programs (foreground services) or background services (for example, printing or backup) with more responsiveness. |
Turn off NetBackup Client Job Tracker if the client is a system server. | |
Install appropriate patches | Regularly review the patch announcements for every server OS. Install patches that affect TCP/IP functions, such as correcting out-of-sequence delivery of packets. |
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