[Feature Request] zlibNX compression library support

[micoolpaul]

Hi,

I'm just forwarding on a request I've had from a customer that heavily utilises Veeam Agent for AIX. They've asked if Veeam have any intention to support the zlibNX compression library. They've asked this because the library enables hardware accelerated compression. They found in SCP testing that a transfer of a file that took over a minute with software compression took 10 seconds.

The underlying note here is, does Veeam have any support for hardware accelerated compression, and if not do they intend to, zlibNX library or otherwise.

Thanks!

[Gostev]

Hi, Marco. In general no such intention as we're moving away from ZLIB compressed data format (RFC 1950) as a whole in all products. The reason, it is quite ineffective comparing to modern alternatives. As you may know, VBR V12 uses LZ4 as Optimal (for fastest inline compression) and ZSTD for High/Extreme (for archives). And I remember that LZ4 did receive benefits of hardware acceleration even back when we first introduced it. So perhaps our Unix agents can adopt them too, unless they are already using them? @PTide will know for sure. Thanks

[micoolpaul]

Thank you, that would be good to know as this particular customer has just scheduled their upgrade to v12 so if I can present back they'll get such benefits then this would be great. Even if it's just to say that the zlibNX support isn't needed because it will now be or planning to be using LZ4 or ZSTD.

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hello,

ZSTD is currently under consideration for future version of VAIX.

Rovshan.

[Gostev]

Do we already use LZ4 though?

[rovshan.pashayev]

Yes, VAIX does support Lz4 compression (as default), along side with Rle, ZlibLow and ZlibHigh.

[micoolpaul]

Thank you, can I confirm if you're supporting any hardware acceleration with this on compatible hardware? And if so which version of the agent this is from please?

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hello Micheal,

I will clarify and come back to you later.

Thanks,
Rovshan.

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hello Micheal,

You can leverage the ZlibLow and ZlibHigh compression methods, which boast hardware acceleration, resulting in speeds up to 20 times faster than software-based compression.
VAIX v4.1 and starting from Power9.

Rovshan

[micoolpaul]

Thanks Rovshan for this information. Which compression settings = leveraging the libraries?

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hi,

All of them.

Also, RLE, LZ4, Zlib Low, Zlib High: The difference between them is in compression ratio and CPU usage.
They are ordered by compression ratio and CPU usage in ascending order.

Rovshan

[micoolpaul]

That’s perfect thank you!

[rovshan.pashayev]

Hi Micheal,

Also, for the reference, the naming of the compression levels in V11 UI is as follows (Advanced settings > Storage):

Dedupe-friendly = RLE
Optimal = Lz4
High = Zlib Low
Extreme = Zlib High

See https://ibb.co/qNcXMrf

Rovshan