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NetWorker 7.6 - Encryption directive uses up all linux client memory
All,
Running the following config:
Solaris 10 NetWorker Server 7.6.2.2.Build.651
Client Redhat 5 Linux 2.6.18-74.18.1.el5 running NetWorker 7.6.3.2.Build.851
Problem is with the default "Encryption Directive" enabled for the linux client, when the backup runs all memory gets exausted on the client side causing the entire system to hang. Normal backups without the encryption directive run without issues. We have doubled the amount of memory in the client from 8gb to 16gb and the issue persists. It appears that there may be a memory leak with the save process when encryption is enabled.
The client system backs up 1 TB of data.
The problem was also seen on the client when it was running 7.6.2.2, and we since upgraded to the latest 7.6.3.2.Build.851 to see if it would correct the problem.
Is this a known issue? Any ideas?
CarlosRojas
1.7K Posts
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February 28th, 2012 21:00
Hi Michael,
First of all is that it's not recommended to use a higher version/build of NetWorker in the clients than in the server.
What is the directive you have set for the client, could you please give us some more information about the client configuration and properties? Have you checked what is the process using such amount of memory?
Thank you.
Carlos.
coganb
736 Posts
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February 29th, 2012 00:00
Hi Michael,
There are no known issues except that encryption is known to be resource intensive.
Interestingly, from the NetWorker Command Reference Guide for 'aes', it states that:
"The aes ASM uses a software encryption algorithm to encrypt file data. aes uses a considerable
amount of CPU resources so its benefit may be limited on low-powered systems."
From this, it looks like CPU is the most important factor in this, so you might want to double-check that you have enough CPU on this system as well as memory.
-Bobby
mikeel
5 Posts
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February 29th, 2012 06:00
Thank you Carlos and Bobby for the responses. I'm going to initiate a support ticket against this, as there is more site specific details which will need to be reviewed and not appropriate for a public forum. Just wanted to verify whether there were any known memory leak issues with NetWorker 7.6.x and encryption on Linux clients, which doesn't seem to be the case.
I'll report back with the outcome of the case.
-Mike
Bebo2k
544 Posts
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February 29th, 2012 13:00
Encryption is resource intensive operation on the NetWorker client and can significantly affect backup performance, Also if backin up with AES encryption on drive with millions of small files will consumes a lot of memory, which will leads to memory leak , Check the backup performance with AES encryption off firstly.
mikeel
5 Posts
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February 29th, 2012 13:00
I've initiated EMC Support Ticket 46378182 against this issue. The backups of the same Linux client without the Encryption Directive are successful, and they only use up .1% of RAM during the backup without any fluctuation. There are other details included in the support ticket, so please reference the ticket if you would like further information. Thanks, Mike.
MargusR1
6 Posts
0
March 2nd, 2012 10:00
Hi,
please post solution here if possible.
We have too all memory in use and intermittent extreme read performance drop.
we use 7.6.2.6 and also server solaris 10 and client rh linux.
Wbr
MR
Bebo2k
544 Posts
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March 2nd, 2012 13:00
Hi Michael Ellis,
What is the outcome of the support case , is it environmental issue causing the poor performance or there is millions of small files that consumes a lot of memory while encryption is performed ?
Thanks,
Ahmed Bahaa
adietz00
1 Message
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March 13th, 2012 06:00
I just started seeing this problem in my environment too. Any updates on the case?
mikeel
5 Posts
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March 13th, 2012 07:00
This issue is still ongoing. Within EMC the problem has been escalated to subject matter experts, and is still currently under review.
Will post any further findings.
mikeel
5 Posts
0
March 15th, 2012 09:00
UPDATE
***********
Rolling the Linux client NetWorker version back to 7.4.4 resolved the issue. Encrypted backups of the linux client now run as expected. So something obviously changed in the code between the 7.4.4 version and 7.6.x. Still working with EMC support on getting this escalated.
I'm wondering if others which reported that they have encountered this issue were also running at a 7.6 version? And if so, did this previously work under past versions?
I would recommend anyone who is having this issue to open a support ticket with EMC and reference this support thread, as the more reported incidents around this issue will lead to a higher priority.
Thanks,
-Mike
Bebo2k
544 Posts
0
March 15th, 2012 12:00
Thanks Michael for the updates , it is getting intersting now to know the differences and changes that lead to this performance with the encryption directive for linux clients. Waiting your updates about the results and finding.
Thanks,
Ahmed Bahaa