This Ask the Expert discussion is now open for questions. We look forward to a lively interactive discussion on this topic.

Regards,

Mark

Hello Mark. Do I have to buy an additional license for adding a new backup client?

Question to Prajith; there is a confusion on the market what is the right approach with number of devices, target sessions and max sessions, especially with recent 7.x and 8.x code.  Can you share more details on that?  For example, traditioally we tried to have 1 session to 1 device as much as possible - even disk.  However, it seems as with DD this has changed and to get best performance you might even have to push multiple sessions onto single device (bare in mind that I refer here to DD). This might be good news for those who wish to scale down their device portfolio.  In such case, is this related to specific DDOS and NW version or both recent codes subscribe to same feature?

Hello, Prajith.

Do I have to buy an additional license for adding a new backup client?

Kevin wrote: Hello, Prajith. Do I have to buy an additional license for adding a new backup client?

Seems like Prajith is sleeping   In short, if you miss license, you do need one.  How it works?  Like this:

- go to backup server and execute nsrcli command... you should see something like this among other things

STANDARD CLIENT LICENSES                      Available: 712                           Used: 197              Loaned to Virtual: 0                      Remaining: 515              Connected Clients                                      VIRTUAL CLIENT LICENSES                      Available: 52           Borrowed from Server: 0                           Used: 51                      Remaining: 1              Connected Clients                                         NDMP CLIENT LICENSES                      Available: 6                           Used: 5                      Remaining: 1

As you can see, Available is your total count and Used is what is used.  With that in mind, and some simpple math, Remaining is what determines if you need new licenses or not.

If you use virtual client licenses, and if your new client belongs to physical host which is already licensed, then no new license is needed (just make sure that virtual client+physical client name is filled in NSR client resource for new client).

Hi Kevin,

Sorry for delayed respose.You need additional license for adding new clients.

Use this license key  :   70f2f2-2a8c02-d8e43a

This is a 25 client license. You can use it for 30 + 15(grace) days.

Regards,

Prajith

This license which i have mentioned is a temp enabler. Once its expired you can think about buying it if you want to continue to use it. Else simply delete it.

If you want to purchase this license, please contact Licensing@emc.com. They will provide you details about the price etc.

Hello Hrvoje,

Thanks for reply to Kevin's post. I was away for a day and was not able to reply to the post.

In general considering normal tape drives and AFTD's, there is no specific recommendation about the target sessions and max sessions. These are determind by the number of save sessions getting generated and how exactly it should be written on to tape.

1 session to 1 is usually used to save the data to single tape. That means you will have data on one tape and restore needs just one tape. This will make restore faster.

Now a days we can see the tape drives like LTO 5 and LTO 6 which can write at a speed of 140 and 160 MBPS respectively. If the client cannot send data at the same speed then the complete drive speed cannot be utilized. In these scenarios its better to multiplex the data from deffrent clients.

In case of DD, please confirm if you are refering to normal DD device or a DD VTL.

I can provide you suggestion accordingly.

Regards,

Prajith

Hi Prajith,

I was referring to DD device type (boost). 

Hello Hrvoje,

However, it seems as with DD this has changed and to get best performance you might even have to push multiple sessions onto single device (bare in mind that I refer here to DD). This might be good news for those who wish to scale down their device portfolio.

Ans:

NetWorker started using DD Boost feature after the release of NetWorker 8.0 in client and storage node. Earlier to this, only NMM 2.3 did had DD Boost feature enabled in it.

NetWorker client and storage node with DD Boost can perform up to 60 concurrent backup and recovery sessions (save streams) per DD Boost device.This high use of sessions reduces the number of devices needed and thereby reduces the impact on the Data Domain system performance and maintenance.

In such case, is this related to specific DDOS and NW version or both recent codes subscribe to same feature?

Ans:

I am not much sure about any recommendation done from DDOS side. We may need to do more research on DDOS part.

Regards,

Prajith