Advice on Backup Parameters

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by Torrie >> Mon, 25 Jun 2007 1:36:55 GMT

I was wondering if anyone can give me any insight to the backup parameters in the persistent DB section of the INI file, especially the backup block size and the number of buffers (Compression and priority I understand.) Obviously I can do some performance testing but can anyone give me some idea of whether these should be changed for a particular setup?

Thanks

Torrie

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by John Munro >> Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:44:52 GMT

If you have the memory for it, I'd max out those settings to speed up your backups

[ConvertFromOldNGs]

by BeeJay >> Wed, 27 Jun 2007 23:21:43 GMT

Assuming you have appropriate hardware to handle the extra load on the IO & Disk subsystems, you can also run multiple backup workers to speed up the backup as well.

Of course THE MOST important thing about your backup strategy is to have a regular process, preferably weekly, of testing your recovery strategy using only the directories and files that are on your backup media and none of the files from your production server. This will help ensure that your backup media is writing readable data - all too often people only find out in an emergency recovery situation that the data on their backup media that it is unusable!! Far better to find out during a test of your recovery process that there is some form of hardware fault with your backup device. Regular testing also helps to confirm that you are indeed backing up sufficient files to successfully recover your environment, with the minimal amount of lost data, in the event of a catastrophic system failure.

You may also want to seriously consider investing in an SDS environment to further reduce your risk of data loss in a catastrophic system failure situation. For systems that are considered absolutely mission critical, this is a no-brainer investment IMHO!!

Cheers,
BeeJay.

PS: DID I MENTION THE IMPORTANCE OF REGULAR TESTING OF YOUR RECOVERY PROCEDURES?