Content Management environments

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Server performance can be affected by Content Management applications that interface with IBM Storage Protect through the IBM Storage Protect client application programming interface (API).

Minimizing time for each transaction

While most IBM Storage Protect operations process many files per transaction, Content Management applications tend to process few, or just one, file per transaction. With as few as one file per transaction, the time for each such transaction becomes critical. Key to Content Management application performance is the time that it takes to write to the storage pool and the active log.
  • To minimize the time for writing to the storage pool and the active log, use disk systems that use write cache, which hides the latency of writing to physical disk.
  • Consider avoiding the use of IBM Storage Protect features such as simultaneous write or active log mirroring. When you use these features, the server must perform more write operations at the end of each transaction. The additional write operations might cause slow performance in Content Management environments.
  • Be careful when you are mirroring to storage over long distances. The time that is involved in the I/O process grows with the distance.

Reducing wasted space in FILE storage pools

If the average file that Content Management sends to IBM Storage Protect for backup is smaller than 256 KB, and you use FILE device classes for the storage pools, a substantial amount of space might be wasted in the storage pools.

Transactions that are 256 KB or less can waste space because the server writes a minimum of one block, or 256 KB, to a volume in a storage pool that uses a FILE device class. For example, if a transaction is only 64 KB, the space that is used on disk for the transaction is still 256 KB.

You can consider using the NONBLOCK data format for FILE storage pools that are used for Content Management data. Using the NONBLOCK data format instead of the NATIVE data format might save space under these conditions.

The data format for an existing storage pool cannot be changed. If your storage pools use the NATIVE data format and you want to try the NONBLOCK data format, you must define new storage pools.