I’ve tried reading the docs and its deep, and I’m not really finding anything usiful…
Background:
We have several Vmware backups occurring of VM’s, and there is this “Deduplication” setting on the (client) → Virtual Server → VMware → (backupset) → subclient (right click) → Properties: [tab] Storage Device [sub tab] Deduplication where you can chose “On Client” or “On MediaAgent”
We are using proxies for all VM backups (if that matters).
For *most* of our VM backups, the “Deduplication” setting mentioned above is set to “On MediaAgent”, but a few are set to “On Client”. here appears to be no rhyme or reason these are set one way or another. For all of these, these are vCenter/VMware hosts that are physical and we own (local on the internal network). I could see that “On MediaAgent” would be an OK setting, as everything is local and the MediaAgents are very powerful compared to the proxies.
I have just set up a new VMware backup, for a vCenter/VMware instance that is in the cloud. The default (on config/install of the “VMware Vcenter Client”) for the “Deduplication” settings is “On Client”.
Questions:
- Since this is a “cloud” VMware/ESX system, with the proxies (as VM’s) performing the backups in the cloud… is Deduplication “On Client” a better setting than “On MediaAgent”? I’m thinking of not only “proxy CPU power” but also “data sent back to the CommVault system” from the proxy in the cloud.
- Are there any gotcha reasons for using “On MediaAgent” vs “On Client.”? I would figure that since ‘On Client” is the default, this is the better default option for most cases. I’m not sure if this causes more disk space to be used up on the client or if there is a “gotcha” (meaning: something very obvious you need to take into consideration with this setting, like massive CPU usage, storage usage, memory, etc.)
