32423: Acronis Backup & Recovery 11: Deduplication Best Practices

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Last update: 08-04-2016

How to set up deduplication in the most efficient way

This article applies to:

  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Server 
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Server SBS Edition 
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Server Virtual Edition 
  • Acronis Backup & Recovery 11 Advanced Workstation

    (!) For Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5 please see Acronis Backup & Recovery 11.5: Deduplication Best Practices.

Introduction

Deduplication is a powerful technique allowing you to reduce the storage space required for backups. You should consider the following recommendations in order to use this tool efficiently.

Solution

Setting up a machine for Acronis Storage Node

  • Prepare a dedicated machine for Acronis Storage Node hosting deduplication vaults.
  • Server Operating System is preferred.
  • At least 8 GB of RAM on a 64-bit system is recommended.

Setting up a centralized managed vault with deduplication

  • Vault data and vault database folders should reside on different physical devices to avoid performance degradation.
  • Having one deduplicating vault per Acronis Storage Node is the best practice.
  • High-speed LAN (1-Gbit LAN is recommended).
  • The deduplication database should not reside on the C:\ volume and not on the same disk as the operating system. The reason is that the operating system has a lot of hard disk reads/writes which significantly slow down the deduplication performance.
  • If vault data is stored on a NAS, make network connection as fast as possible. Gigabit Ethernet is recommended.
  • If vault data is stored on locally attached HDDs, use the fastest controllers and high RPM drives. I/O is the main bottleneck for deduplication speed.
  • Make sure there is plenty of free space on the deduplicating vault storage. You can estimate the recommended free space being equal to 110% of occupied space. For example, if the vault data occupies 10 GB, you should have 11 GB of free space.

Selecting a disk for a deduplicating vault

For the purpose of data loss prevention, it is recommended to use a RAID 10, 5 or 6. RAID 0 is not recommended since it is not fault tolerant. RAID 1 is not recommended because of relatively low speed. There is no preference to local disks or SAN, both are good.

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