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ranjitcool
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Data deduplication size

Hey Guys,

I was wondering if you guys can help me understand in layman terms how vm data recovery works.

What I know is that it does block level copy of data (vms) and does not copy duplicate data blocks thus conserving space. Am I write.

I backed up a bunch of machines, all worth more than 1.5 TB ; easy.

However all of these comfrotably fit on a 1TB lun and the status says this--

Capacity - 997GB

De duplicated size - 357 GB

Non deduplicated size - 1.7 TB

And if you notice my writing style improved a little, well I got my VCP410 today morning. Thanks to all you guys, Troy AdretheGaint and all for quick replies and instant help. I sometimes suspect they get paid to reply so fast :smileysilly:

Regards

RJ

Please award points if you find my answers helpful Thanks RJ Visit www.rjapproves.com
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a_p_
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Congratulations for passing the VCP410 exam!

Deduplication is a technique to store identical information only once. I don't have insight in what VDR exactly does. However basically it breaks the backup data into small blocks and creates a hash for it. Then it checks whether the same block already exists in the backup store. If so it only creates a link to that block and does not need to store it a second time.

André

ranjitcool
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

Thanks,

I am planning to do a test disaster scenario on Monday.

My plan,

Step 1 - Bring a new host, load esx 4.1 and install fresh vcenter vm on it.

Step 2 - Install the vm Data recovery plugin and deploy ovf template

Step 3 - For the vDR, add Hard disk 2 which is the 1TB lun holding all backups done with the current vDR.

Step 4 - Mount the 1TB backup lun in vDR

???Step 5 - I don't know if vDR will see the different backups done with versions and allow me to start restoring them from the 1TB LUN.

Step 6 -  If step 5 works, then i will be able to start my vms.

Does step 5 sound like a valid step where it does load the data? Please advice

Thanks

RJ

Please award points if you find my answers helpful Thanks RJ Visit www.rjapproves.com
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a_p_
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If the old deduplication store (virtual disk/LUN) is ok, VDR will prompt you to restore the jobs etc. from the old disk. The Release Notes describe the steps for upgrading VDR. These steps are basically what you will have to do to preserve the old backup store.

See http://www.vmware.com/support/vdr/doc/vdr_120_releasenotes.html

André

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