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Resource sizing for Nutanix AHV backup proxy
Updated over 3 months ago

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The Backup proxy virtual machine must be dedicated to performing Backup proxy operations. Deploying a Backup proxy creates a new Ubuntu virtual machine with the following configuration:

Parameter

Operation

vCPU

8 vCPU ( 2 virtual sockets with 4 cores per socket)

RAM

6 GB

Virtual disks

1 vDisk of 60 GB size

Also, consider the following:

  • You can use resource monitoring tools, however, tools that need more than 3% CPU will require extra CPU to be added to the virtual machine.

  • Operating system patching should be in line with the operating system vendor security and patching policy.

  • Operating system upgrades must be verified and supported by Druva.

  • If you change the Backup proxy configuration, additional changes are required to ensure backup job concurrency and minimize the impact on CPU. For details, contact Support.

  • The minimum supported configuration for backups to run without any issues is 3 vCPU and 3 GB RAM. With this configuration, you can backup only 1 virtual machine at a time.

Backup proxy resourcing guidelines for backup concurrency

The following Backup proxy resourcing guidelines will help determine the backup concurrency. You can use these guidelines to scale up (increase RAM etc., for the Backup proxy server) or scale out (add more backup proxies).

  • Each virtual machine backup requires 2 vCPUs and 1.3 GB RAM.

  • Additionally, 30% of CPU resources and 2 GB RAM are required for operations, such as file-level restores, log uploads, etc.

  • The resources allocated to a proxy are a function of the number of concurrent backups you want to achieve in your environment.

  • If you want to run multiple jobs per Backup proxy, increase the Backup proxy resourcing based on the factors discussed below.


πŸ“ Note
​ For Nutanix AHV, you can set the value of the MAX_CONCURRENT_BACKUPS (default value: 3)and MAX_CONCURRENT_RESTORES (default value: 2)fields to the desired number of backups and restores.


Calculating concurrency

The configuration is a function of the number of concurrent backups you want to achieve in your environment.

Say, you have a Backup proxy configuration of X vCPUs and Y GB RAM. The number of concurrent backups can be calculated using the following formula:

Number of concurrent backups = Minimum { (X*0.7)/2, (Y-2)/1.3 }

Example 1:If you have 16 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM in your setup, you can calculate the number of concurrent backup operations that can run as follows:

Number of concurrent backups = Minimum { (16*0.7)/2 = 5.6, (16-2)/1.3 = 10.7 } = 5.6

You can run up to 6 concurrent backup operations (after rounding the last decimal).

Correspondingly, you can now calculate your ideal RAM configuration to save system resources.

Optimal RAM configuration required to run 6 concurrent backups = (6*1.3)+2 = 9.8

You can optimize your setup to 10 GB RAM (rounded to the nearest available unit) since the number of concurrent backups is governed by the vCPU configuration. Vice versa will be applicable in case the number of concurrent backups is derived from the RAM configuration.

Example 2:If you have 16 vCPUs and 8 GB RAM in your setup, you can calculate the number of concurrent backup operations that can run as follows:

Number of concurrent backups = Minimum { (16*0.7)/2 = 5.6, (8-2)/1.3 = 4.6 } = 4.6

You can run up to 5 concurrent backup operations (after rounding the last decimal).

Correspondingly, you can now calculate your ideal vCPU configuration to save system resources.

Optimal vCPU configuration required to run 5 concurrent backups = (5*2)*1.3 = 13

You can optimize your setup to 13 vCPUs (rounded to the nearest available unit) since the number of concurrent backups is governed by the RAM configuration.

Calculating the required vCPU and RAM.
Alternatively, you can calculate the vCPU and RAM configuration by deciding the number of concurrent backups you want for your environment.

Example:If you have to backup 50 virtual machines in a 14-hour window and each virtual machine requires approximately 1 hour for backup.

Thus you need 50/14 = 3.6 = ~4 virtual machines to proceed in a parallel backup.

In case you have to run 4 concurrent virtual machine backups in the environment. You can calculate the number of vCPUs and RAM configuration as follows:

vCPUs required =(4*2)*1.3 = 10.4

RAM required = (4*1.3) + 2 = 7.2

You need at least 10 vCPUs and 7 GB RAM for 4 concurrent backups.

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