Veritas NetBackup™ Appliance Capacity Planning and Performance Tuning Guide

Last Published:
Product(s): Appliances (4.0)
Platform: NetBackup Appliance OS
  1. About this Guide
    1.  
      About this guide
    2.  
      About the intended audience
    3.  
      About the NetBackup appliance documentation
  2. Section I. Capacity planning
    1. Analyzing your backup requirements
      1. Analyzing your backup requirements
        1.  
          What do you want to backup?
        2.  
          How much data do you want to back up?
        3.  
          When should the backup take place?
        4.  
          What is the retention period?
        5. Record your backup requirements
          1.  
            Template to record computer system information
          2.  
            Template to record database information
          3.  
            Template to record application server information
    2. Designing your backup system
      1.  
        Addressing use cases of backup systems for enterprises
      2.  
        Addressing use cases of backup systems for remote or branch offices
      3. About NetBackup appliances
        1.  
          About the Primary Server role
        2.  
          About the Media Server role
      4.  
        About NetBackup 53xx High Availability solution
      5. Selecting new appliances
        1.  
          Selecting a media server
        2.  
          Selecting a primary server
  3. Section II. Best Practices
    1. About the best practices section
      1.  
        About best practices
      2.  
        References to maintenance sites
    2. About implementing deduplication solutions
      1.  
        About implementing deduplication solutions
      2.  
        General recommendations
      3.  
        Oracle
      4.  
        Microsoft SQL
      5.  
        DB2
      6.  
        Sybase
      7.  
        Lotus Notes
    3. Network consideration
      1.  
        About network considerations
      2.  
        About Fibre Channel connectivity
      3. About SAN zone configurations
        1.  
          About zoning the SAN for NetBackup appliances
      4.  
        Validating network bandwidth
    4. Storage configuration
      1.  
        About storage configuration
      2. About configuring a shared storage pool
        1.  
          Calculating the basic stream count for backups
      3. About moving a storage partition for better performance
        1. Moving a partition
          1.  
            Move dialog
        2.  
          Moving a partition using the NetBackup Appliance Shell Menu
        3.  
          Moving the MSDP partition from a base disk to an expansion disk for optimum performance
    5. Generic best practices
      1.  
        Generic best practices
      2.  
        About Notification settings
      3.  
        About IPMI configuration
      4.  
        Disaster recovery best practices
      5.  
        Job performance
      6.  
        Architecture
      7.  
        NetBackup Catalog Backup
      8.  
        Patching with the SLP (storage lifecycle policies)
      9.  
        VMware backups using appliances
      10.  
        Improving NetBackup Appliance restore performance
  4. Section III. Performance tuning
    1. Role-based Performance Monitoring
      1.  
        Role-based configuration as a factor affecting performance
      2.  
        What affects the performance of a Primary Server?
      3.  
        What affects the performance of a media server (MSDP)?
    2. Optimize network settings and improve performance
      1.  
        Optimize network settings and improve performance
      2.  
        SAN Fibre Channel setup
      3.  
        Network bonding
      4.  
        VMware VADP
      5.  
        Jumbo frame implementation for increased MTU
    3. Storage configurations
      1.  
        Storage configurations
      2.  
        Deduplication disk I/O and RAID level settings
      3. RAID Controller operations
        1.  
          RAID Controller commands
      4.  
        Deduplication load balancing
      5.  
        Storage Lifecycle Policies
      6.  
        Auto Image Replication (AIR)
      7.  
        AdvancedDisk settings
      8.  
        Tape Out operations
    4. NetBackup Appliance tuning procedures and performance monitoring
      1. About diagnosing performance issues
        1.  
          About CPU monitoring and tuning
        2.  
          About memory monitoring and tuning
        3.  
          About network monitoring and tuning
        4.  
          About I/O monitoring and tuning
        5.  
          General guidelines to spot a resource bottleneck
      2. About performance tuning practices
        1.  
          About I/O performance tuning
        2.  
          About Oracle backup and restore performance tuning
        3.  
          Setting NET_BUFFER_SZ to 0 on the NetBackup client for better WAN Optimization performance
      3. About tuning procedures and performance monitoring
        1. NetBackup Client performance
          1.  
            Using nbperfchk to validate disk performance on NetBackup Appliances
        2.  
          Other Performance Monitoring commands
  5. Section IV. Quick reference to Capacity planning and Performance tuning
    1. Capacity Planning checklist
      1.  
        Checklist for Capacity planning
      2.  
        Capacity measuring worksheet
    2. Best practices checklist
      1.  
        Best practices checklist
    3. How to monitor the performance of your appliance
      1.  
        About monitoring the performance of your appliance
      2.  
        Performance Monitoring matrix
  6.  
    Index

Using nbperfchk to validate disk performance on NetBackup Appliances

The Nbperfchk command can also be used to test storage write speeds. If disk write speeds fall below 130 MB/s, there may be a potential issue with the underlying storage configuration in the appliance and Technical Support should be contacted to investigate. To test disk write speeds with nbperfchk, specify a path into the appliance storage being tested as the output path (-o argument value) for nbperfchk:

Table: Appliance storage paths

Appliance Storage

Storage Path

Example

52xx MSDP

/disk

nbperfchk -I zero:
 -o /disk/nbperfchk.tst
 -s 64g -syncend

52xx AdvancedDisk

/advanceddisk/advol

nbperfchk -I zero:
 -o /advanceddisk/advol/nbperfchk.tst
 -s 64g -syncend

Following are example runs of nbperfchk testing writes into MSDP and AdvancedDisk storage: 1) Nbperfchk write test into MSDP: 

symprimary-a.Support> Nbperfchk run
Please enter options:
nbperfchk -I zero: -o /disk/nbperfchk.tst -s 64g 
-syncend
Statistics log are recorded in nbperfchk_results.log
    3448 MB @ 1723.2 MB/sec, 3448 MB @ 1723.2 MB/sec, at 1369103472
    9380 MB @ 1875.6 MB/sec, 5932 MB @ 1977.3 MB/sec, at 1369103475
   12736 MB @ 1591.3 MB/sec, 3356 MB @ 1117.7 MB/sec, at 1369103478
   12736 MB @ 1157.1 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103481
   12736 MB @  909.1 MB/sec, 		 0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103484
   12736 MB @  748.6 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103487
   12736 MB @  636.3 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103490
   12736 MB @  553.4 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103493
   12736 MB @  489.5 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103496
   12736 MB @  438.9 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103499
   12736 MB @  397.8 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103502
   12736 MB @  363.7 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103505
   12736 MB @  335.0 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103508
   12736 MB @  310.4 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103511
   12736 MB @  289.3 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103514
   12736 MB @  270.8 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103517
   12736 MB @  254.5 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103520
   18182 MB @  342.8 MB/sec, 5446 MB @ 1815.4 MB/sec, at 1369103523
   19936 MB @  355.8 MB/sec, 1753 MB @  583.9 MB/sec, at 1369103526
   19936 MB @  337.7 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103529
   < output removed for brevity >
   59456 MB @  265.2 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103694
   59456 MB @  261.7 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103697
   59456 MB @  258.3 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103700
   63330 MB @  271.6 MB/sec, 3873 MB @ 1289.9 MB/sec, at 1369103703
Starting file sync to flush buffers...
Sync completed in 19.21 seconds
   65536 MB @  258.2 MB/sec

2) Nbperfchk write test into AdvancedDisk:

symprimary-a.Support> Nbperfchk run
Please enter options:
nbperfchk -I zero: -o /advanceddisk/advol/nbperfchk.tst -s 64g -syncend
Statistics log are recorded in nbperfchk_results.log
    3776 MB @ 1886.3 MB/sec, 3776 MB @ 1886.3 MB/sec, at 1369103913
    9104 MB @ 1819.1 MB/sec, 5328 MB @ 1774.4 MB/sec, at 1369103916
   13036 MB @ 1627.9 MB/sec, 3931 MB @ 1309.2 MB/sec, at 1369103919
   13036 MB @ 1183.9 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103922
   13036 MB @  930.2 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103925
   13036 MB @  766.0 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103928
   13036 MB @  651.1 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103931
   13036 MB @  566.2 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103934
   13036 MB @  500.9 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369103937
   13529 MB @  270.3 MB/sec,  493 MB @  164.4 MB/sec, at 1369103961
   < output removed for brevity > 
   59278 MB @  315.0 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104099
   59278 MB @  310.1 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104102
   59278 MB @  305.3 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104105
   59278 MB @  300.6 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104108
   59278 MB @  296.1 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104111
   59278 MB @  291.7 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104114
   59278 MB @  287.5 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104117
   59278 MB @  283.4 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104120
   59278 MB @  279.4 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104123
   59278 MB @  275.5 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104126
   59278 MB @  271.7 MB/sec,    0 MB @    0.0 MB/sec, at 1369104129
   59614 MB @  269.5 MB/sec,  336 MB @  112.1 MB/sec, at 1369104132
   63779 MB @  284.5 MB/sec, 4164 MB @ 1387.7 MB/sec, at 1369104135
Starting file sync to flush buffers...
Sync completed in 18.65 seconds
   65536 MB @  268.4 MB/sec

All three examples show disk write throughput of more than 130 MB/s, which demonstrates good write performance for MSDP and AdvancedDisk storage.