networker (latest) - is "parallel cloning" of a single saveset (vProxy VM image or BBB) possible ???

Hi there,

I wonder whether this can be done somehow...

The scenario: one single Vmware VM, one large filesystem, currently backed up to Data Domain (using vProxy/image backup, DD BOOST), and a new need to clone this backup (or whatever kind of backup of this VM) from DD to tape, on a daily basis. (Traditional agent-based, file-based backup is basically ruled out: too many files, storage too slow for that, only one filesystem - no organization of data into multiple FS's, file-based backup - even incremental - would take ages to build the file list & manage file index.)

The problem with the new need (to clone very frequently to tape): this is a large saveset (some 15TB+), and to our knowledge, cloning a vProxy VM image from DD to tape is a single stream operation. (Single stream DD performance is quite bad in our case - the performance guide says 80+ MB/s for Windows and 200+ MB/s for Linux, for the maximum configuration of DD6300. Of course, this actual config is much smaller than that maximum.) The new requirement is to clone this 15+ TB VM image to tape on a daily basis. (The vProxy/NVP backup to DD is CBT-based, virtual synthetic full. So we should clone the virtual full, i.e. the whole 15+ TB every day.)

We were recommended to switch to block-based backup, where we have the option to do pss parallel save streams. (Multistream read/recovery performance of DD is much-much higher, than single stream.) So backup will be similarly fast as (or even faster than) with vProxy. And in that case we will be able to do parallel cloning.

Well, I did not find any details in the docs (Documentation Portfolio) whether parallel cloning of PSS-based BBB block-based backups (parallel cloning of a single saveset) is possible, whether enabling RPS for that is needed, or how to set that up/what params to tune. We did some tests, but those cloning operations did not seem to be parallel, and were damn slow (obviously single stream) from DD to tape.

Any hints, experiences?

Thx.