PAM and Backups

[anthonyfeigl]

Hey Guys,

I have some questions and I am hoping someone is already playing/experimenting with this.

I was wondering if a PAM card would help with backup performance?

I am also wondering how to do the following measurement based on the PAM (Marketing Doc) from the NetApp site?

Below is the document quote.

"You can use a software feature of the Data ONTAP® 7G operating system to determine whether the performance of your storage
system will improve with the addition of one or more modules. Predictive cache statistics generate data that can be interpreted with
the assistance of a technical specialist from NetApp or a certified channel partner."

Does anyone have an idea of how I can generate predictive cache statistics?

Thank you

Anthony Feigl

[amiller_1]

Hmm....something like this I think?

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel731/html/ontap/sysadmin/tuning/task/t_oc_tun_flexscale-enabling-disabling.html

More general stuff along those lines here....

http://now.netapp.com/NOW/knowledge/docs/ontap/rel731/html/ontap/sysadmin/tuning/concept/c_oc_tun_perf-resources-general.html#c_oc_tun_perf-resources-...

[anthonyfeigl]

Thank you Andrew.

I will investigate the first link (of information) on our test box over the next few days and let you know.

Anthony

[anthonyfeigl]

So...now that it has been a few months (lol) since I posed this question...has anyone got any practical experience to share on this topic with PAM II cards?

Thank You
Anthony

[pascalduk]

No practical experience, but I would expect that PAM will not help speed up your backups.

Unless of course by pure coincidence the data you want to backup is still in the cache. There is also the possibility that reading a lot of data for your backups itself will push the useful blocks out of the cache, unless NetApp is smart enough not to cache backup data.