How to achieve over 2 TB/hr network backup with Integrity entry-class servers running HP-UX 11i v3

Backup server configuration

Both entry-class Integrity rx3600 and rx6600 servers running HP-UX 11i v3 Update 4 (Fusion 0903)

were used as backup servers for this performance characterization effort. Additional configuration

details for the two server models are:

rx3600 / HP-UX 11i v3 backup server

• PCI-Express backplane option

• Two Dual-core Intel® Itanium® 9140M processors

• 16 GB DDR2 memory

• Two PCI-e dual port 4Gb FC HBAs (P/N AD300A)

• Two PCI-X quad port 1GbE NICs (P/N AB545A)

rx6600 / HP-UX 11i v3 backup server

• PCI-Express backplane option

• Four Dual-core Intel® Itanium® 9140N processors

• 32 GB DDR2 memory

• Two PCI-X dual port 4Gb FC HBAs (P/N AB379B)

• Two PCI-e quad port 1GbE (1000Base-T) NICs (P/N AD339A)

Client system configurations

Any system platform and OS that the backup utility supports as a client for network-based backup

could have been used for this backup server characterization effort. For example, HP Data Protector

supports HP-UX, Windows, Solaris, AIX, Linux, and many others as clients. HP Integrity servers

running HP-UX were chosen as the clients because these servers are prevalent worldwide in customer

data centers that host mission-critical applications and services.

The eight client systems used for network backup to the backup server included rx2600, rx3600, and

rx6600 Integrity servers of varying memory and processor configurations:

• rx2600, two processors, 2 GB memory

• rx2600, two processors, 4 GB memory

• rx3600, two dual core (4 CPUs), 8 GB memory

• rx6600, one dual core (2 CPUs), 4 GB memory

Each client used a single dedicated 1GbE port to connect to the private network used for transferring

backup/restore data between the client and the backup server.

To determine whether noticeable differences occur when data is stored on either internal SAS disks or

externally-connected SAN storage, data for each client was stored on either SAS or SAN

interconnect. To enable configuration of four separate data streams in the backup utility, backup data

was kept in four separate file systems with separate file-system mount points on the client systems.

The mix of backup data types does affect the throughput and performance of tape devices that

compress data written to tape media. The more compressible the data being written to tape, the

higher the overall data throughput. Binary executables are not nearly as compressible as structured

data files. Client backup data used for this test included both binary executables and structured data

files, with the typical backup data mix of 15 to 20% binary and the rest being structured data in the

form of record formatted files and database tablespace files.