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In this Document

Purpose

Scope

Details

General Filesystem Configuration Reccomendations

Backup Applications That Can Benefit From Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Deduplication

Microsoft SQL Server Backup

Veeam Backup v9.5

Applies to:

Purpose

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance is optimized to handle streaming workloads that are common with backup applications.

To achieve the best performance, Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance pool and share settings should follow some general guidelines when acting as a backup target.

This MOS Note captures the basic settings as well as specific settings for some known backup applications that can benefit additional features.

Scope

This MOS Note only discusses using Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance as target storage for a backup application running appliance software OS 8.7.0 or later.

It assumes that the reader is already familiar with Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance administration.

Details

Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance shares can be used as a backup target for any backup application just simply as an NFS/SMB(CIFS) filesystem or a FC/iSCSI LUN, assuming that the backup application does not require specialized hardware.

(It cannot be used to replace an Avamar or Data Domain solution, unless the backup application is changed as well.)

For filesystems, it assumes that the backup application itself supports a form of network attached storage as a backup target.

For LUNs, it assumes that the backup application supports a "local" device as a backup target.

In either case, it is the operating system that handles the I/O, so as long as the operating system is supported by Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance, the backup application should be able to transfer data to/from Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance shares.

General Filesystem Configuration Reccomendations

NOTE: Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance deduplication is not generally recommended for backup applications due to the block level implementation. However, there are currently four known backup applications that can greatly benefit from deduplication due to the way they format data in the backup images (RMAN, NetBackup OST, Veeam v9, and Microsoft SQL Server Dumps). These backup applications are discussed later in this Note.

The following general guidelines should be used when using Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance as a filesystem backup target:

• Pool Configuration
  • Capacity Disk - Performance or SSD disk could also be used, but cost per TB of storage typically does not justify the faster media.  Additionally, as more capacity disk is added to the pool, throughput will become equal to performance disk.
  • Double Parity RAID Profile - Provides the best protection, disk utilization, and performance for streaming large block write workloads.
  • No Meta Devices - Since deduplication is not generally recommended for backup application targets.
  • No Log Devices - Since the backup application will be streaming large block data, log devices will not be used.
  • No Cache Devices - Large block data (> 32K) will not be selected for L2ARC.
  • Double Parity RAID Profile - Provides the best protection, disk utilization, and performance for streaming large block write workloads.
• Filesystem Configuration
  • No Data Deduplication - As mentioned earlier and discussed more later, appliance deduplication will probably not help with most backup application image data.
  • LZ4 Data Compression - LZ4 provides better compression than LZJB while only affecting CPU utilization slightly.  It has been the standing recommendation for compression since its introduction in OS 8.7.
  • Do Not Use Cache Devices - Which will probably not be configured in the pool anyway, but should be set accordingly especially in cases where the pool may be mixed use.
  • Throughput Synchronous Write Bias - Even though log devices will probably not be configured in the pool anyway, it should be set accordingly especially in cases where the pool may be mixed use.
  • 1M Database Record Size - Provides the best performance for large block write workloads.
• Operating System and Network Configuration
  • Use Jumbo Frames - The larger block transfer capability enables fewer packet transfers which reduces network administrative overhead.  The default MTU is typically set at 1500 bytes.  An MTU setting of 9000 bytes is preferred.
  • Configure Large Block Size Read/Writes in NFS - On unix systems, the NFS mount definition allows for the specification of read size (rs=) and write size (ws=).  They should be set to the largest size allowed, up to 1MB.
  • Tune the OS for Large Block Network I/O - Besides network MTU size and NFS I/O sizes, enterprise operating systems typically have a means to increase the size and number of network write and read buffers.  Consult the operating system documentation (or Google) to determine if there are settings specific to the operating system used.
• Backup Application Configuration
  • Tune Block Sizes - Similar to operating systems, many backup applications provide methods to tune the block size used internal to the application.  Generally, the larger the block size, the better the performance.  Consult the backup application's administration or tuning guide to determine how it can be set.
  • Tune Number and Sizes of Buffers - Similar to operating systems, many backup applications also provide methods to increase the number and size of internal buffers.  Consult the backup application's administration or tuning guide to determine whether these parameters can be set.
  • Increase the Number of Concurrent/Parallel Backup Streams - Many backup applications allow the configuration of the number of simultaneous backup streams allowed to a single backup target.  Increasing this number may allow for better network utilization.  Setting it too high, though, can overwhelm the system and cause thrashing/starvation.
  • Enable Software Dedupliation - Some backup applications provide on-host software deduplication options.  These software options should be used when Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance deduplication is not enabled.  Do not use both backup application deduplication and Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance deduplication together.

Backup Applications That Can Benefit From Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance Deduplication

When Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance deduplication is used, the pool configuration is modified to include the deduplication meta devices and additional log devices.  Even though the log devices will not be used for the actual share data, they are used in conjunction with the meta devices.  The meta devices are optimized for both read and write activity whereas the log devices are optimized only for write, which writes faster than the meta device.  So, the combination of the two SSD types provide the best performance. So, the revised pool configuration for these solutions is:

• Capacity Disk - Still the best choice for backup targets.
• Double Parity RAID Profile - Provides the best protection, disk utilization, and performance for streaming large block write workloads.
• Mirrored Meta Devices - Added in pairs ideally across trays.  For example, in slot 20 of two separate trays.  Mirrored is preferred over a striped profile for fault tolerance.
• Mirrored Log Devices - Added in pairs ideally across trays.  For example, in slot 21 of the two trays used by the meta devices.  Mirrored is preferred over a striped profile for fault tolerance.
• No Cache Devices - Large block data (> 32K) will not be selected for L2ARC.

The following backup applications have been verified with Oracle ZFS Storage Appliance to benefit from using the deduplication feature.

Microsoft SQL Server Backup

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/server-storage/sun-unified-storage/documentation/sql-server-best-prac-v2-2937229.pdf

Filesystem Configuration

• Enable Data Deduplication
• LZ4 Data Compression
• Do Not Use Cache Devices
• Throughput Synchronous Write Bias
• 128K or 1M Database Record Size

Backup Application Specific Parameters

• T-SQL BACKUP..BLOCKSIZE: 128KB or 1MB
• T-SQL BACKUP..BUFFERCOUNT: Tunable - Adjust accordingly based on system performance
• T-SQL BACKUP..MAXTRANSFERSIZE: 128KB or 1MB

Veeam Backup v9.5

https://community.oracle.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/1012511-102-1-153467/bestpractices-for-zfs-veeambackup.pdf

RMAN Backup

https://community.oracle.com/servlet/JiveServlet/downloadBody/1015844-102-1-159091/WP-ZFSSA-Exadata-Protection-ver2_170628.pdf

Veritas NetBackup OST

https://community.oracle.com/servlet/JiveServlet/previewBody/1016461-102-1-160030/ZFSSA-NetBackup-WP.170719-2.pdf

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