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TitaniumCoder477
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Understanding Veeam's math

Post by TitaniumCoder477 »

I just got off call with support, thinking I had an understanding of how Veeam is calculating the numbers, but then a 2nd look and I am confused once again.

Figure 1: Last three backups (2 incr + 1 full)
Image

Support told me that the Data Size column represents the total disk size, i.e. used + free space, i.e. virtual disk itself. Backup Size represents the resulting backup file on the repository server's file system.

Figure 2: Same last three points but Report view
Image

Support told me that Total Size in this screenshot represents the total disk size as Data Size does in the previous screenshot. And while that works for the full backup, it doesn't for the incremental.

Full backup: Data Size (1.56TB) ~= Total Size (1.6TB)
Incremental backup: Data Size (40GB) != Total Size (1.6TB)

So what does Data Size actually mean? It's obviously not the same as Total Size.

Additionally, what is the basis for Veeam's note that the compression rate was 1.5 for the full backup? Is it 1.5 of the Data Size (1.56TB) or Total Size (1.6TB) or Data Read (847.7GB)? It would seem to be the latter because 847.7GB / 1.5 = 565.13 which is approximately what Veeam is listing for the Backup Size (573.1GB). I am disheartened by this because that means the compression ratio is closer to 33% than 65%, a number on which I've based a lot of calculations across a lot of deplyments. I think it would be far more helpful for Veeam to list the actual compression percentage (i.e. 33%) rather than a factor.
PetrM
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Re: Understanding Veeam's math

Post by PetrM »

Hi James!
jrwilmoth040707 wrote:So what does Data Size actually mean? It's obviously not the same as Total Size.
Data Size column represents the total disk size in case of full backup or total size of changed data in case of incremental backup.
Total size in html-report represents the total disk size regardless of backup type: full or incremental. You see the same value 1,6 Tb for each run.

jrwilmoth040707 wrote:t would seem to be the latter because 847.7GB / 1.5 = 565.13
Yes, that's right, we compress data which was read from source.

jrwilmoth040707 wrote: I am disheartened by this because that means the compression ratio is closer to 33% than 65%
Percent values are usually used to show a share but in our case the purpose is to display compression ratio.
Anyway, thanks for the idea!

Thanks!
foggy
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Re: Understanding Veeam's math

Post by foggy »

Data Size column represents the total disk size in case of full backup or total size of changed data in case of incremental backup.
Better treat this as the size of processed data.

As for the second question, here are a couple of similar threads regarding compression/dedupe rates calculation, might help:
Veeam Backup Statistics
Understanding replication job progress information
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