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Question

Deduplication on Client - VSA agent and NDMP backup

  • 25 July 2023
  • 4 replies
  • 129 views
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Hi all,

could you please explain to me the differences between deduplication on Client vs Deduplication on Media agent when taking into account NDMP backup and backup of VMs?

 

Of course, for file system agent, the deduplication on client occurs on the client (server with os) itself. However, when backing up VMs (using Hotadd or SAN mode) what does mean deduplication on client? There is only pseudo virtual server client/agent, so deduplication (on client) take place on VSA proxy? And for NDMP backup - where is done deduplication on client? There, the data should be sent without any intervetion with filesystem, to be backed up.

 

I will be very gratefull for your anwers!

4 replies

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Hello @drPhil 

When using Client-Side Deduplication with VSA, the deduplication would happen on the VSA Proxy unless the Proxy is also the MediaAgent, then there is no benefit to Client-Side Deduplication.

With NDMP as you know the NDMP Filer is only a pseduo-client and there is no NDMP iDataAgent actually installed on the Filer so Client-Side Deduplication is not possible and we will deduplicate normally on the MediaAgent.

So the setting is applied to the DDB and when possible, we deduplicate on the client. When that is not possible, like when using NDMP, deduplication runs on the MediaAgent.

 

Thank you,
Collin

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Hello @drPhil 

When using Client-Side Deduplication with VSA, the deduplication would happen on the VSA Proxy unless the Proxy is also the MediaAgent, then there is no benefit to Client-Side Deduplication.

With NDMP as you know the NDMP Filer is only a pseduo-client and there is no NDMP iDataAgent actually installed on the Filer so Client-Side Deduplication is not possible and we will deduplicate normally on the MediaAgent.

So the setting is applied to the DDB and when possible, we deduplicate on the client. When that is not possible, like when using NDMP, deduplication runs on the MediaAgent.

 

Thank you,
Collin

Hi @Collin Harper , thank you so much for your answer. Indeed, I was a little bit confused with NDMP backups and client side deduplication, because under the storage policy it is possible to choose deduplication on clients even if there is NDMP backup set up for the associated subclients.

Nikos.Kyrm
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Hello @drPhil  and @Collin Harper ,

Im wondering about using Client-Side Deduplication without any Commvault VSA.

Networker for example works only with Client-Side Deduplication, so I’m try to find Commvault’s  best practices about Client-Side Deduplication.

Thank you in advance,
Nikos

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Hello @Nikos.Kyrm 

If the Clients and MediaAgents are separated by a slow network then we recommend Client-Side deduplication to limit the amount of traffic sent over the network. If separated by a fast network, there is no issue having deduplication run on the MediaAgent side.

Overall we recommend Client-Side as it is more efficient but note that is uses more CPU and Memory on the client so that should be taken into consideration.

Optimize Storage Space Using Deduplication - https://documentation.commvault.com/2023e/expert/12401_optimize_storage_space_using_deduplication.html

 

Thank you,
Collin

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