Memory allocation on NetWare Server

Question

We are new to Avamar and have over 150 NetWare servers that we are trying to backup. We are getting an out of memory error in the avamar client.

I have set the amount of memory that the server can use in the avagent.cmd file

--sharedheapsize=128

When avatar first starts I see in my log files the following information at start of the avamar client
2009-07-28 16:08:10 avagent Info <7952>: Allocating 128 MBs for shared heap (PhysicalRAM=4030 MB, Avail=963 MB)

My server says that it has 2214 MB of free memory to allocate with 731 MB user space memory.

The backup starts but never completes.

All suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks, Susan

Avamar Exorcist · Answer

Which client version are you using? In the v4.1 release notes it notes that there have been improvements to memory handling in NetWare for the later client releases.

Quote:-
"In order to promote better overall stability and robustness, Avamar 4.1.105
provides an improved Avamar NetWare Client that reserves a block of NetWare
server memory (512MB is the default amount) for performing Avamar backups.
This reserved memory space is automatically allocated each time the Avamar
backup agent service (avagent) is started or restarted. Refer to your Avamar
Backup Clients Installation Guide and Reference Manual for additional information."

Amol · Answer

EMC recommends that backupstaken with the Avamar NetWare Client be limited to a maximum total size of500GB and that these backup comprise no more than 1 million files.Furthermore, for best results, maximum file cache size should be limited to 1/8 ofthe physical RAM, not to exceed 50 MB; maximum hash cache size should belimited to 10 MB. This behavior is controlled by the following plugin options:Maximum client file cache size (MBs) 50Maximum client hash cache size (MBs) 10If performing an on-demand backup, use these settings in the Backup Optionsdialog box. If scheduling a backup, use these settings in the Edit Dataset dialogbox Options tab.

norluh · Answer

Netware 6.5 and EMC Avamar Installation and deployment We had some rough patches but managed to plow through it and now have the Avamar solution working at 28 sights with in our school districit. A little about our enviroment, we have 27 remote sites all conected back to our central office via a varing Metro Ethernet links between 10 Mbps to private fiber running at 1,000 Mbps. Each remote location has a Dell Power 2950 servers with 8 GB of RAM. Each server runs native Netware 6.5 SP7, Groupwise 7, Zenworks 7, Print services for the building, Vexira AV, and a library catalog system. The Avamar unit we initally recieved shiped with the Netware AVAgent version 4.1.0.1470, we had a lot of problems with this client build abending my netware servers by eating up the memmory buffers. We tried hard setting the Pcache and Fcache in the backup job but this did not realy help. Some of the errors we encountered where as follows 2-10-2009 8:24:33 pm: SERVER-5.70-0 [nmID=2000A]Short term memory allocator is out of memory.1 attempts to get more memory failed.request size in bytes 160 from Module SERVER.NLM2-10-2009 8:59:59 pm: SERVER-5.70-0 [nmID=6001D]Cache memory allocator out of available memory. We then when to a prior version some of the other customers where using 4.0.3-24 this version worked for a few days but would abend my servers as well. EMC came out with an updated build 4.1.105-68 this build required a modification preformed by EMC support staff on our Avamar Utility nodes. Bellow are the steps I had to preform on our Netware servers to make the client functional. 1.) Delete all traces on your server of any prior Avamar client 2.) Remark out any services beyond those required to get your netware server up and running. 3.) Restart the server 4.) In SYS:\AVAMAR create a VAR directory and create a file avagent.cmd 5.) Edit avagent.cmd and place --sharedheapsize=500 in the file. This sets Avamar to run in a reserved memory space of 500 MB 6.) Launch the installation of the Avamar client as per normal instructions 7.) Edit the autoexec.ncf and make certain the Avamar client is loading before any non OS related services, also re-enable the rest of your services remarked out in step 2. 8.) Load the rest of your services make certain everything is running 9.) Restart the server to make certain everything loaded correctly. You may need to play with the placement in the load order. I have had working backups for the past 4 months with this client and load sequence. Some files of note ************************************************************************** Autoexec.ncf ************************************************************************** SET LEVEL 2 OPLOCKS ENABLED = OFF SET CLIENT FILE CACHING ENABLED = OFF SET Daylight Savings Time Offset = 1:00:00 SET Start Of Daylight Savings Time = (MARCH SUNDAY SECOND 2:00:00 AM) SET End Of Daylight Savings Time = (NOVEMBER SUNDAY FIRST 2:00:00 AM) SET Time Zone = EST5EDT # Note: The Time zone information mentioned above # should always precede the SERVER name. SEARCH ADD SYS:/system SEARCH ADD SYS:/JAVA/BIN SEARCH ADD SYS:/JAVA/NWGFX/BIN SEARCH ADD SYS:/JAVA/NJCLV2/BIN SEARCH ADD SYS:/NI/UPDATE/BIN SEARCH ADD sys:/usr/sbin SEARCH ADD sys:/usr/bin SEARCH ADD SYS:/APACHE2 SEARCH ADD SYS:/tomcat/4/bin SEARCH ADD SYS:/tomcat/5.0/bin SEARCH ADD SYS:/JAVA/NWGFX search add sys:/public/vexira SEARCH ADD SYS:/VEXIRA SEARCH ADD SYS:/SYSTEM/NMA SEARCH ADD SYS:/BIN FILE SERVER NAME South load conlog MAXIMUM=100 sys:/etc/initsys.ncf load monitor dhcpsrvr LOAD SCMD mount all IPMINIT.NCF load nile.nlm load httpstk.nlm /SSL /keyfile:'SSL CertificateIP' LOAD PORTAL.NLM LOAD NDSIMON.NLM LOAD NICISDI.XLM LOAD SASDFM.XLM NMA5.NCF BSTART.NCF UNIXENV.NCF LOAD PKI.NLM LOAD NLDAP.NLM PSA SCRIPT.NCF AP2WEBUP ADMSRVUP tcadmup.ncf tomcat4.ncf tomcat5.ncf RCONAG6 SMSSTART.NCF LOAD EMBOX.NLM openwbem.ncf # Added by Avamar Client Install SYS:\AVAMAR\BIN\AVCTL.NLM start grpwise spectrum.ncf zfdstart.ncf printers.ncf scrsaver vaguard vaupdate cron.nlm sys:\system\gwsrch.ncf ************************************************************************** SMSSTART.NCF ************************************************************************** LOAD SMSUT.NLM LOAD SMDR.NLM LOAD TSAFS.NLM LOAD TSANDS.NLM

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Memory allocation on NetWare Server

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