Comments on: Why Dedupe is a Bad Idea for SQL Server Backups

By: WAN accel

WAN accel — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 21:46:49 +0000

I too would hate to lose our SQL backup compression, as we saw backup times drop to 40% of pre-2008 times. Our SAN admins are pushing hard toward dedupe, but more so to Riverbed WAN accelerator appliances.

These accelerators work on the same dedupe ideas (and thus will not work well with compressed SQL backups). I assume this is similar to the aforementioned Boost protocol, but Media Server not required.

So my question is… would the benefits of both a dedupe device and Riverbed accelerators trump the cons of uncompressed backups?

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:02:57 +0000

Patrick – about multiple backups of the same database, no, there’s no reduction of network traffic just because a bunch of duplicate data already exists on the Data Domain appliance.

The Boost protocol is something else, though – by doing that, it may reduce the bandwidth concern as long as wherever you restore the database is also a Media Server. That’s rarely the case in QA/dev/DR environments because licensing ain’t free. Cha-ching…

By: Confused

Confused — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 14:00:04 +0000

Great post. Learnt a lot from DBA perspective. I am a backup guy so I guess I am auto-fitting into your mentioned Storage Admin role : )

One point to consider is – while your view on the first or single backup is very valid (regarding the trade-off between bandwidth & CPU cycles), I am wondering is when we are doing multiple backup on the same database and need to retain them on online? Won’t the subsequent backup be benefits by already having majority of the database contents stored?

Plus, the EMC Data Domain already is supporting a “Boost” protocol – in effects, all data leaving the DB server is already in deduplicated format (requirement – the DB server has to run as a Media Server). Would this neturalized the bandwidth concern as well?

By: Brent Ozar

Brent Ozar — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 03:01:49 +0000

Generally, people who are trying to save a small amount on backup space don’t spend a large amount on 10Gb Ethernet. 10Gb is still staggeringly expensive compared to gig. If you’ve already put in the massive investment for 10G, though, then dedupe makes sense – but that’s an awfully small percentage of companies, wouldn’t you agree?