--On May 2, 2006 5:49:47 PM -0400 Ross Vandegrift <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hello everyone, I recognize that this isn't really related to Amanda, but I thought I'd see if anyone has a good trick... A number of DLEs in my Amanda configuration have a huge number of small files (sometimes hardlinks and symlinks, sometimes just copies) - often times in the millions. Of course this is a class corner case and these DLEs can take a very long time to backup/restore.
I use estimated sizes and tar on these types of DLEs. Dump may be faster if you can get away with it, but realistically they're both getting limited by what amounts to stat() calls on the filesystem to ascertain the modification times of the various files. You can try for a filesystem that has better small files performance or upgrade your storage hardware to support more IOPS.
Currently, they are mostly using dump (which will usually report 1-3MiB/s throughput). Is there a possible performance advantage to using tar instead? On some of our installations I have bumped up the data timeouts. I've got one as high as 5400 seconds. I suspect a reasonable maximum is very installation dependant, but if anyone has thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Thanks for any ideas! -- Ross Vandegrift [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The good Christian should beware of mathematicians, and all those who make empty prophecies. The danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell." --St. Augustine, De Genesi ad Litteram, Book II, xviii, 37
-- "Genius might be described as a supreme capacity for getting its possessors into trouble of all kinds." -- Samuel Butler