Configuring best practice repository (iSCSI NAS IOMEGA)

[sandroalves]

Hi,

we have an IOMEGA NAS with 5 RAID-5 disks.

IOMEGA is supported to work with iSCSI and Share SMB.

However, iSCSI will work with MTU 1500, but the most performance would be to use it with MTU 9000. Okay! We will configure using the default, because to use MTU 9000 I need to make an infrastructure change.

I'm using Windows 2019 and configured iSCSI with a volume of 1.5TB from IOMEGA, formant using ReFs with 64K blocks. Recommendation See!

In Veem I found an option to work with deduplication, this means that to use this option I need to enable deduplication in Windows 2019, right?

This means that Veem does not do native deduplication, right?

Is there any recommendation from your experience that it is not good to use deduplication with NAS IOMEGA?

Thanks.

[Gostev]

Hello. Veeam does have its own deduplication, but for performance reasons it uses fairly large block size. In general, we don't recommend using storage-based deduplication for primary backup storage, because it significantly slows down restore performance. Secondary backup repository that holds backup copies on a long-term retention is the perfect candidate for such deduplication, since you will rarely need to restore from there. Thanks!

[sandroalves]

Gostev,

grateful for the answer.

can you clarify what would be primary and secondary backup?

When I set it up, it created a repository automatically. So, I set up a second repository and changed the JOBs for that new repository.

Are you the primary repository of this repository?

Be it local even with fast (SDD) or slower (SAS) or remote (SAN) disks, is it not recommended to enable the deduplication option (advanced option)?

Thanks.

[Gostev]

Primary backup repository is where your point your backup jobs to (typically high performance storage with high cost per TB, so short retention policy). Fast backup storage performance allows for fast backups and fast restores from recent restore points.

Secondary backup repository is where copy your backups from primary backup repository, as required by the 3-2-1 rule of backup (typically, it's a low performance low cost per TB storage, so long retention policy is possible). This is where storage-based deduplication shines, because you will rarely need to resort to restoring from this storage, so slower restores is not a problem.

[sandroalves]

Gostev,

understand.

Does this mean that if I enable the advanced option for deduplication in the repository, will I be using Veem's native deduplication? Right?

Usually this second backup that you say we do on tape. But now you have given me a good idea! I can play monthly backups in a slower repository.

Do you think it is a bad idea to use an external disk for a secondary backup using deduplication?

Is your experience using NAS storage that has a low performance compared to local disks (SAS or SSD) in primary storage bad for restoration?

Thanks.

[Gostev]

1. Not sure I understand what exactly and where do you want to enable?
2. No, I don't think it is a bad idea at all.
3. Yes, performance and reliability are generally worse with NAS comparing to local disk.

[sandroalves]

Hi,

when I say native deduplication in advanced options is this:

Repository > Advanced > Storage Compatibility Settging > Align backup file data blocks

Is this a native Veem dedup?

Is this option enabled by default in any scenario? I do not remember having enabled it and now I noticed that it is!

Thanks.

[veremin]

Is this a native Veem dedup?

Nope, native Veeam dedupe setting is configured on a job level, not on repository one.

This setting allows you to align backup file data to 4KB boundary, which may improve dedupe ratio of storage-level deduplication for storage devices using constant block size dedupe. You should not enable it for deduplicating storage that uses variable block size dedupe.

Thanks!

[sandroalves]

Hi,

grateful for the answer.

is this dedup option enabled by default when creating a new job?

Thanks.

[veremin]

Correct, job inline deduplication is enabled by default. Thanks!