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48 Posts
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1808
March 4th, 2011 06:00
VCB vs. VMWare vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP)
Currently, I have approx 80 VM Clients that are getting backed up using the Networker Client license. My compmay wants to reduce the number of licenses and starting using VCB. I have been testing VCB, but it seems backing up VM Clients via VCB is a very slow process. For example, backup of 4 VM clients using VCB took 4-5 hours. Is that normal?
I also read that VCB will be end-of-life soon and the sucessor is VMWare vStorage API for Data Protection (VADP). I am wondering if I should wait for 7.6.2 and then implement the new solution for backing up VMs. Anyone beta testers out there who have tested VADP? Is the backup process faster than VCB. I cannot have 80 clients taking 80 hours to backup? That just does not seem normal.
Any infromation and feedback will be appreciated.
Thanks.
Karim.
coganb
736 Posts
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March 7th, 2011 05:00
Hi Karim,
Backup is likely to be faster with VADP as the snapshot is taken directly on the datastore. If the slowness you are seeing is related to the proxy server operations in VCB, then you can expect a much faster backup with VADP. Also, incremental backups are much faster with VADP as they use VMWare Change-Block-Tracking will allow only those blocks that have changed to be backed up without having to do a scan of the VM to see what's changed. However, if the slowness you are seeing is related ot the write speeds to your disk or tape, then there won't be that much difference between these two.
-Bobby
Jumbo1
48 Posts
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March 7th, 2011 06:00
Hi Bobby,
The slowness is with VCB operations. Creating the Snapshot and savng them to the Proxy Server. This process is very time consuming. Once the snapshot is created, the actual backup from the VCB Proxy Server to tape is very fast. I am seeing around 25 Mb/sec, which is acceptable. I will probably put the VCB process on hold until 7.6.2 is released and I get a chance to play with VADP.
Thanks for your response. I will close this question.
Karim.
unexpected1
34 Posts
0
May 23rd, 2011 12:00
VADP requires about the same amount of memory on the server. However it requires a lot less "storage" to dump the snapshot (around 10% of the VM size you are backing up). The first backup with VADP takes about as long as VCB, but once that one is over, CBT takes over and you will be doing incremental forever backups (with full backup functionalities!).
I migrated a customer the past weeks and they are pleased with the advantages.