PowerProtect Data Manager: SQL Table Restore Performance enhancements

Summary: This knowledge base article is to implement possible enhancements to the SQL table restore for Large Databases.

This article applies to This article does not apply to This article is not tied to any specific product. Not all product versions are identified in this article.
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Symptoms

PowerProtect Data Manager SQL Table Level Restore (TLR) for 1.4 TB Database takes over 8 hours.

The table restore process reads the database files and reconstructing the database using ItemPoint while mounted from the Data Domain.

In contrast, a full database restore does not include the data mining activity, which contributes to the difference in performance.

 

Cause

Enable NWFS performance feature called "direct IO" improves performance.

This can be used in table Level restore from Full backups.

In table level restore from Transactional Logs backup, IttemPoint fails to open the backup files.
error output

With "NWFS direct IO." ItemPoint is unable to load all Files from Full and all Transactional Logs backups.

Note: It is required to upgrade to 19.22 when performing TLR with TLOGs using "NWFS direct IO."

 

Resolution

To enable:

  1. Open Registry Editor
  2. Open the path "SOFTWARE\EMC\DDBMSS\NWFS" or create if it does not exist.
  3. Create the registry STRING value "EnableDirectIO" and set to "TRUE"

To prove the setting is working, look for the following message in the nwfs.raw log.

2025-07-30T06:15:09.408Z  1753856109 0 1 0 0 6048 7424 0 sql01.amer.lan (pid7424) PowerProtect Data Manager notice 28 Using NWFS direct IO feature 0

 

Affected Products

PowerProtect Data Manager
Article Properties
Article Number: 000361896
Article Type: Solution
Last Modified: 03 Sep 2025
Version:  2
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