Optimizing performance for cloud object storage
You can configure IBM Spectrum Protect™ to temporarily store data in one or more local storage pool directories during data ingestion. The data is then moved from local storage to the cloud. In this way, you can improve data backup and archive performance.
Before you begin
To optimize backup and archive performance, ensure that IBM Spectrum Protect Version 8.1 is installed.
About this task
After you define a storage pool directory, the IBM Spectrum Protect server uses that directory as a temporary landing spot for the data that you are transferring to cloud object storage. The server uses an automated background process to transfer data from local storage in the directory to cloud object storage. You do not need to take any additional steps to start or manage this transfer process. After the server successfully moves the data from local storage to cloud object storage, the server deletes the data from the directory and releases space for more incoming data.
If storage pool directories contain no more free space, backup operations stop prematurely. To avoid this situation, you can allocate more storage pool directories. You can also wait for the data to be automatically removed from the local directories after the data moves to the cloud. The required number of storage pool directories you need to define depends on your disk configuration on the server. When the initial backups occur, the server spreads the data across all the directories you defined.
The amount of space you need for local storage is based on the amount of data you expect to back up each day after data deduplication and compression. If you have a stable network connection to the cloud object storage, the required amount of space is similar to the amount that is required for a daily backup.
Procedure
- Create a cloud-container storage pool by using the Add Storage Pool wizard in the Operations Center. Alternatively, create the pool by using the DEFINE STGPOOL command.
- Define one or more storage pool directories by using the DEFINE STGPOOLDIRECTORY command. Ensure that each storage pool directory has its own file system. On Linux systems, use xfs or ext4 as the file system instead of ext3 because deleting large files takes more time with ext3. Ensure that the new storage pool directories do not share the root file system, nor should they share the same file systems that are used by other IBM Spectrum Protect resources, such as the database or the logs.