Backup and Recovery Manager Release 1.2 Sizing and Configuration Guide

8/11/2019 Backup and Recovery Manager Release 1.2 Sizing and Configuration Guide

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EMC

Backup & Recovery ManagerVersion 1.2

Sizing and Configuration Guide302-000-786

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Copyright 2014- EMC Corporation. All rights reserved. Published in USA.

Published June , 2014

EMC believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date. The information is subject to change

without notice.

The information in this publication is provided as is. EMC Corporation makes no representations or warranties of any kind withrespect to the information in this publication, and specifically disclaims implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a

particular purpose. Use, copying, and distribution of any EMC software described in this publication requires an applicablesoftware license.

EMC, EMC, and the EMC logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of EMC Corporation in the United States and othercountries. All other trademarks used herein are the property of their respective owners.

For the most up-to-date regulatory document for your product line, go to EMC Online Support (https://support.emc.com).

EMC CorporationHopkinton, Massachusetts 01748-91031-508-435-1000 In North America 1-866-464-7381www.EMC.com

2 Backup & Recovery Manager1.2 Sizing and Configuration Guide


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5

Preface 7

Considerations and recommendations 11

Backup & Recovery Manager deployment sizing recommendations............... 12Requirements................................................................................................13

Backup & Recovery Manager server software requirements.............. 13Backup & Recovery Manager server installation requirements.......... 13System requirements....................................................................... 15

Considerations for the Backup & Recovery Manager server ...........................15

Factors for future capacity planning ..............................................................15

Sizing, Performance and Best Practices 17

CPU, memory and database augmentation for the Backup & Recovery Managerserver............................................................................................................18Configuring the Backup & Recovery Manager VM ...........................................18

Configuring memory.........................................................................18Configuring the CPU......................................................................... 19Configuring the virtual hard disk for Backup & Recovery Managerserver MongoDB ..............................................................................19

Tables

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Backup & Recovery Manager1.2 Sizing and Configuration Guide 3
http://-/?-


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CONTENTS



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Revision history...............................................................................................................7Backup & Recovery Manager deployment recommendations......................................... 12Data storage requirements............................................................................................ 14Hyper-V virtual machine requirements........................................................................... 14Non-clustered memory, CPU and disk............................................................................ 15

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TABLES

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TABLES



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Preface

As part of an effort to improve its product lines, EMC periodically releases revisions of itssoftware and hardware. Therefore, some functions described in this document might not

be supported by all versions of the software or hardware currently in use. The product

release notes provide the most up-to-date information on product features.

Contact your EMC technical support professional if a product does not function properlyor does not function as described in this document.

ote

This document was accurate at publication time. Go to EMC Online Support (https://

support.emc.com) to ensure that you are using the latest version of this document.

PurposeThis document describes how to configure and use EMC Backup & Recovery Manager.

Audience

This document is intended for the host system administrator, system programmer, oroperator who will be involved in managing the EMC Backup & Recovery Manager.

Revision history

The following table presents the revision history of this document.

Table 1

Revision history

Revision Date Description

01 June 18, 2014 Initial release of this Backup & Recovery Manager Release1.2 Sizing and Scalability Guide.

Related documentation

The following EMC publications provide additional information:

u EMC Backup & Recovery Manager User Guide

Provides information on how to install, configure and use Backup & RecoveryManager.

u EMC Backup & Recovery Manager Release Notes

Contains information on new features and changes, fixed problems, knownlimitations, environment and system requirements for the latest Backup & Recovery

Manager software release.u EMC Avamar Compatibility and Interoperability Matrix

u EMC NetWorker Online Software Compatibility Guide

You can access the Online Software Compatibility Guide on the EMC Online Supportsite at https://support.emc.com. From the Support by Product pages, search forNetWorker using "Find a Product".

u EMC Avamar documentation

u EMC Data Domain documentation

u EMC NetWorker documentation

Special notice conventions used in this document

EMC uses the following conventions for special notices:

Preface 7
https://support.emc.com/https://support.emc.com/http://https//SUPPORT.EMC.COM/http://https//SUPPORT.EMC.COM/https://support.emc.com/https://support.emc.com/


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NOTICE

Addresses practices not related to personal injury.

ote

Presents information that is important, but not hazard-related.

Typographical conventions

EMC uses the following type style conventions in this document:

Bold Use for names of interface elements, such as names of windows, dialogboxes, buttons, fields, tab names, key names, and menu paths (what

the user specifically selects or clicks)

Italic Use for full titles of publications referenced in text

Monospace Use for:

l System code

l System output, such as an error message or script

l Pathnames, file names, prompts, and syntax

l Commands and options

Monospace italic Use for variables

Monospace bold Use for user input

[ ] Square brackets enclose optional values

| Vertical bar indicates alternate selections - the bar means or

{ } Braces enclose content that the user must specify, such as x or y or z

... Ellipses indicate non-essential information omitted from the example

Where to get help

EMC support, product, and licensing information can be obtained as follows:

Product information

For documentation, release notes, software updates, or information about EMC products,go to EMC Online Support at https://support.emc.com.

Technical support

Go to EMC Online Support and click Service Center. You will see several options forcontacting EMC Technical Support. Note that to open a service request, you must have avalid support agreement. Contact your EMC sales representative for details aboutobtaining a valid support agreement or with questions about your account.

u The Avamar Support page at:https://support.emc.com/products/759_Avamar-Server/Documentation/

u The NetWorker Support page at:https://support.emc.com/products/1095_NetWorker/Documentation/

The Avamar, and NetWorker Support pages provide access to:

u Product documentation

u How-to and troubleshooting information in the Support Topics section

u Hardware and software compatibility information

Preface

https://support.emc.com/https://support.emc.com/products/759_Avamar-Server/Documentation/https://support.emc.com/products/1095_NetWorker/Documentation/https://support.emc.com/products/1095_NetWorker/Documentation/https://support.emc.com/products/759_Avamar-Server/Documentation/https://support.emc.com/


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u Knowledge Base articles

If none of these resources resolve the issue, you can engage EMC Customer Service byusing live interactive chat by selectingAdditional Resources> Live Chaton the Avamarand NetWorker Support pages.

If more in-depth help is required or you have an existing open Service Request (SR), you

can submit or review an SR through the EMC online support website at https://support.emc.com/:

u To open a new SR, select Support> Request Support> Create Service Request.

o e

To open an SR, you must have a valid support agreement. Contact your EMC sales

representative for details about obtaining a valid support agreement or with

questions about your account.

u To review an existing SR, select Support> Request Support>View Service Request.

Online communities

Visit EMC Community Network at https://community.emc.comfor peer contacts,conversations, and content on product support and solutions. Interactively engage onlinewith customers, partners, and certified professionals for all EMC products.

Your comments

Your suggestions will help us continue to improve the accuracy, organization, and overallquality of the user publications. Send your opinions of this document [email protected].

Preface

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Preface



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CHAPTER 1

Considerations and recommendations

This section provides the test details and the resulting suggestions, considerations andrecommendations for sizing your Backup & Recovery Manager environment.

u Backup & Recovery Manager deployment sizing recommendations.......................12u Requirements........................................................................................................13u Considerations for the Backup & Recovery Manager server ...................................15u Factors for future capacity planning ......................................................................15

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Backup & Recovery Manager deployment sizingrecommendations

Based on numerous performance tests and the considerations of different aspects oflong and short backup activities, 8 to 12 hours versus 24 hours backup and replicationwindows, there are two levels for deployment.

o e

The performance tests were executed in a simulated environment and results might vary

based on individual customer environments. Also, the test data points used are exclusive

of network latency (WAN).

The following table lists the recommendations for Level 1 and Level 2 Backup & RecoveryManager deployments.

Table 2 Backup & Recovery Manager deployment recommendations

Deploymentlevel

Total numberof Avamar/Networkerbackups perday

CPU MemoryDatabasesize

Retentionperiod

Maximumnetworkusage

Level 1 Up to 100,000 4 8 GB 1 TB 1 year 17 Mbps

Level 2 Up to 200,000 8 16 GB 2 TB 1 year 35 Mbps

u At the Level-1 deployment, the number of virtual CPU cores and memory allocationsare at the default configurations. They need to be set as Reserved after the BRM ovais deployed. The Mongo database needs to be augmented to 1 TB in order to retainthe data in the database for a length of one year. This can be done either through thevirtual disk extension or through adding a new virtual disk and then going throughthe procedures of partition etc to make it an integral part of the mongo database.

u At Level-2 deployment, the number of the virtual CPU cores and the memory need tobe increased to the level depicted in the above table. The Mongo database needs tobe augmented to 2 TB in order to retain the data in the database for a length of oneyear. This can be done either through the virtual disk extension or through adding anew virtual disk and then going through the procedures of partition etc to make it anintegral part of the mongo database.

u When daily backups and replications reach the 200,000, deploying the secondLevel-2 BRM systems is recommended to split the load of backup and replicationactivities.

Details on how to expand the Mongo database to 1TB or 2 TB, and how to increase thenumber of CPUs, and the amount of memory allocated is available in Sizing performanceand best practices on page 17.




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RequirementsThere are minimum hardware and software requirements that must be met tosuccessfully deploy and install the Backup & Recovery Manager software.

Ensure that all current operating system patches or updates are installed.

Backup & Recovery Manager server software requirements

The Backup & Recovery Manager server can be installed on both a virtual host (vApp) anda physical host by using the SLES native installer.

u Minimum required versions for the Virtual Application (vApp):

l ESXi

l ESX 5.1 and 5.5

l VCenter Server 5.0

l VSphere Client 5.0 and 5.1

u Native installer for SLES Linux:

l Bootable ISO image requires a minimum of 3.3 GB free space on any of thefollowing:

Network PXE server

USB/DVD

l 2 disks (operating system and MongoDB disks)

l A minimum of 4 CPUs

l A minimum 8 GB of RAM

l A minimum 110 GB Disk

l A DHCP server must be available on the network on which the server is running fora Backup & Recovery Manager deployment

Backup & Recovery Manager server installation requirements

The Backup & Recovery Manager server (OVA) raw database is a temporary buffer forstoring messages until they are processed.

Near the end of a Hyper_V or physical installation using ISO, the Backup & RecoveryManager server post installation script displays a premature login prompt.

The following 4 post-install scripts run:

u 01_OS_post_script.sh

u 02_BRM_UPGRADER_post_script.sh

u 03_BRM_INSTALLER_post_script.sh

u 04_CLEANUP_post_script.sh

While the 3rd script (03_BRM_INSTALLER_post_script) is running, the security patchinstallation of the new OS kernel displays a node:login prompt while the last of theupdates are applied. When the post-install scripts complete, a reboot occurs.

Disregard the login prompt and wait for the process to complete and reboot rather thanattempting to login at the prompt.

The following table provides Backup & Recovery Manager server memory requirements.


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Table 3

Data storage requirements

Component Memory per component (disk space)

Memory 8 GB

Hardware Requirements for the Hyper-V virtual machine on page 14provides theminimum disk recommendations for the Backup & Recovery Manager server.

Hardware Requirements for the Hyper-V virtual machine

There are memory and storage requirements specific to the Backup & Recovery Managerserver installation in Hyper-V virtualization.

The following table lists the memory and storage requirements for the Hyper-V machine.

Table 4 Hyper-V virtual machine requirements

Component Requirement

Memory The Backup & Recovery Manager server requires a minimum of

8200 MB of memory for Hyper-V configuration. However, it is

recommended to provide 8700 MB of memory for the virtual

machine to accommodate virtualization overhead.

Server storage l Provision the virtual machine with 2 IDE controllers (In

Hyper-V it is not possible to boot from a SCSI controller).

l Provision two hard drives to attach to Controller 0:

l Hard Drive 1 (operating system) requires a minimum of

40 GB

l Hard Drive 2 (Mongodb) requires a minimum of 70 GB

l Connect the ISO image with Backup & Recovery Manager to

a CD drive on Controller 1.

BIOS Map the ISO image to the DVD drive on Controller 1.

List CD first in the Startup Order section in the BIOS tab for the

virtual machine by using the up/down arrows to adjust the

order.

If this is set incorrectly, the virtual machine will not find the ISO

boot image to begin installation.

Network l A DHCP server must be available on the network on which

the Hyper-V server is running for a Backup & RecoveryManager deployment.

l Ensure that the Enable virtual LAN identification option is

not checked (enabled) in the Network Adapter tab for the

virtual machine. If this option is enabled, it will interfere

with the virtual machines ability to correctly use DHCP

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System requirements

The following table lists the recommended and minimum required memory, CPU and diskfor the Backup & Recovery Manager server components.

Table 5 Non-clustered memory, CPU and disk

Memory CPU Disk

Recommended 8 GB 4 core, 2 GHz 1 TB

Minimum required 8 GB 4 core, 2 GHz 500 GB

Thin provisioning is an alternative for storage capacity for virtual disk allocation.

The following lists the available formats in which to store the virtual disk:

u Thick Provision Lazy Zeroed (recommended)

o e

Lazy Zero can take some time to initialize, although not as long as Eager Zero.

u Thick Provision Eager Zeroed

u Thin ProvisionEager Zero yields the best performance, but also takes the most time to initialize.Thick provisioning doesn't fill the drive unless eager zeroed is selected. The storagecapacity for the entire virtual disk is allocated on the datastore at virtual disk createtime if thick provisioning is selected. Thin provisioning means that the capacity onthe datastore is allocated to the virtual disk as required, up to the full size of thevirtual disk.

Considerations for the Backup & Recovery Manager serveru The Backup & Recovery Manager server experiences minimal stress while it processes

messages from the Data Domain servers. The Backup & Recovery Manager serverreceives alerts messages from the Data Domain server's view SNMP mechanism.

u The recommended retention period for database data is 1 year which is also thedefault setting in the server Preferences. However, if a 1 year retention period is notrequired, consider reducing the setting to 6 months. Searching through less recordscan significantly reduce the UI response time.

Factors for future capacity planningThere are factors available to assist with disk, network, CPU and database capacityplanning.

u With each 100,000 completed backups, the database size on the disk increased byapproximately 900 MB. This increased amount of database disk can be used toestimate the remaining capacity of the database.

u While the 100,000 backup activities are running, the maximum network usagereached 17 mbps. This network usage observation can be used in the networkcapacity planning.


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u While the 200,000 backup activities are running, the maximum network usagereached 35 mbps. This network usage observation can be used in the networkcapacity planning.

u The Backup & Recovery Manager server is on the CPU intensive side while itprocessing the high volume backup activity messages. Adding more CPU's canalleviate slow UI response times.




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CHAPTER 2

Sizing, Performance and Best Practices

u CPU, memory and database augmentation for the Backup & Recovery Managerserver....................................................................................................................18

u Configuring the Backup & Recovery Manager VM ...................................................18

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Configuring the CPU

Before you begin

The Backup & Recovery Manager VM must be offline before completing this procedure.

Procedure

1. Log in to the vCenter ESX on which the Backup & Recovery Manager is hosted.

2. Right click the Backup & Recovery Manager VM.

3. Select Edit Settings> Virtual Hardwaretab.

4. Click to expand CPUto set the parameters.

5. Set the required CPU number in CPUto 4. The default is 4.

6. SetCores per socket

to2

or4

. The default is 2.

7. Set Reservationvalue and Limitto have a fixed CPU for this VM. To fix the CPU for thisVM, use the following calculation:

The number of vCPU (in this case 4x2=8) * (CPU frequency in MHz) =Reservation value in MHz

Configuring the virtual hard disk for Backup & Recovery Manager server MongoDB

After configuring the virtual disk for the MongoDB, more disk space can be augmented byeither extending an existing virtual disk, or adding a new virtual disk.

Before you begin

The Backup & Recovery Manager VM must be offline before completing this procedure.Procedure

1. Log in to the vCenter ESX on which the Backup & Recovery Manager is hosted.

2. Right click the Backup & Recovery Manager VM.

3. Select Edit Settings> Virtual Hardwaretab.

By default two disks will are created for Backup & Recovery Manager:

l 40 GB for system space

l 70 GB for database space

Expandingthe Mongo database space

As root, you can expand the Backup & Recovery Manager database (MongoDB) space byusing the Logical Volume Manager (LVM).

This example demonstrates how to add a 50 GB volume to the appliance. The size of thevolume added by this method can be changed as required:

Procedure

1. Allocate an additional LUN for Backup & Recovery Manager appliance virtual machine,and select Edit Settings> Hardware>Add within VMware vsphere managementwizard:

a. Allocate a new disk.

b. Create new virtual disk.

c. Set a capacity of 50GB/Thick or Thin Provisioned/Store with the virtual machine.


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d. Continue the rest of the wizard by accepting the defaults.

e. Click Finish to view the new hard disk. The new disk will be bolded.

f. Either reboot or rescan to make the new disk visible.

2. Add the additional disk online:

a. Type the following command:

ucas:/opt/emc/ucas # echo "- - -" > /sys/class/scsi_host/host0/

scan

b. Reboot to view the new 50 GB LUN.

c. Type the following command to confirm the disk is added:

ucas:/opt/emc/ucas # fdisk -l

3. Partition the new disk:

a. Create a new partition table with a single partition using all the space on the newdisk /dev/sdc.

NOTICE

For this example, the new disk is device /dev/sdc.

b. Set its type to be 8E (LVM):

NOTICE

8E (LVM) is a code on the disk partition area that indicates that the partition is

managed by a Linux LVM.# fdisk /dev/sdcDevice contains neither a valid DOS partition table, nor Sun, SGI or OSFdisklabel

Building a new DOS disklabel with disk identifier 0x89574522.Changes will remain in memory only, until you decide to write them.After that, of course, the previous content won't be recoverable.The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 6527.There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,and couldin certain setups cause problems with:1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)Warning: invalid flag 0x0000 of partition table 4 will be corrected byw(rite)Command (m for help): pDisk /dev/sdc: 53.7 GB, 53687091200 bytes255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 6527 cylindersUnits = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytesDisk identifier: 0x89574522Device Boot Start End Blocks Id SystemCommand (m for help): n

Command actione extendedpprimary partition (1-4)p Partition number (1-4): 1First cylinder (1-6527, default 1):Using default value 1Last cylinder, +cylinders or +size{K,M,G} (1-6527, default 6527):Using default value 6527Command (m for help): tSelected partition 1Hex code (type L to list codes): 8eChanged system type of partition 1 to 8e (Linux LVM)Command (m for help): wThe partition table has been altered!Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.Syncing disks.




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4. Make the new partition and LUN available to LVM by using the following command:

# pvcreate /dev/sdc1No physical volume label read from /dev/sdc1 Physical volume "/dev/sdc1" successfully created

5. Determine the logical volume name to be expanded and its current size by using thefollowing commands:

NOTICE

The LV Name displayed below contains the name of the logical volume that is

provided as part of the expanded appliance.# lvdisplay -a --- Logical volume --- LV Name /dev/datavg/data VG Name datavg LV UUID umR8l8-0Qos-qcqN-PepC-mguj-1Fo8-Oq2bav LV Write Access read/write LV Status available # open 1 LV Size 69.91 GB Current LE 2237

Segments 1 Allocation inherit Read ahead sectors auto - currently set to 1024 Block device 253:0# vgdisplay -s "datavg" 69.97 GB [69.91 GB used / 64.00 MB free]

6. Add the new LUN to the datavg volume group by using the following command:

# vgextend datavg /dev/sdc1 Volume group "datavg" successfully extended

7. Extend the logical volume containing the filesystem to include the new LUN by usingthe following command:

# lvextend /dev/datavg/data /dev/sdc1 Extending logical volume data to 119.88 GB Logical volume data successfully resized

8. Grow the XFS filesystem containing the database by using the following command:

/usr/sbin/xfs_growfs /data01meta-data=/dev/mapper/datavg-data isize=256 agcount=4,agsize=4581376 blks = sectsz=512 attr=2data = bsize =4096 blocks=18325504,imaxpct=25 = sunit=0 swidth=0 blksnaming = version 2 bsize=4096 ascii-ci=0log =internal bsize=4096 blocks=8948,version=2 = sectsz=512 sunit=0 blks, lazy-count=1realtime = none extsz=4096 blocks=0, rtextents=0data blocks changed from 18325504 to 31424512

9. Verify that 50GB is added to the existing 70 GB filesystem by using the followingcommand:

ucas:/opt/emc/ucas # df -h /data01Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on/dev/mapper/datavg-data120G 1.5G 119G 2% /data01

10.Repeat this procedure as necessary, to add additional data retention.


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Documents

Backup and Recovery Manager Release 1.2 Sizing and Configuration Guide