NBackup level 0 vs. file copy?

[Kjell Rilbe]

Working with FB 2.5 on Windows 64 bit, how does Nbackup level 0 perform
compared to a high-performance copy utility like FastCopy?

I'm asking because my DB is 80+ Gbyte and both the database and the
backup are currently on the same physical disk. FastCopy works with
large chunks to minimize time wasted on disk seeks.

How does NBackup perform in this regard?

Second question: after transferring the level 0 backup file to a secure
backup volume, I want to use it to create a DB copy for test/delev/debug
purposes. I can do that using Nbackup restore, b ut does this imply
copying the entire database yet again?

With a file copy solution with Nbackup lock, I can essentially use the
copy "as is" (need to do Nbackup fixup + sweep though). I.e. a single
read+write of 80 Gbyte. Is this possible with a Nbackup level 0 backup
approach?

Kjell
--
------------------------------
Kjell Rilbe
DataDIA AB
E-post: ***@datadia.se
Telefon: [phone]
Mobil: 0733-44 24 64



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[Dmitry Kuzmenko]

Hello, Kjell!

Tuesday, October 8, 2013, 2:37:57 PM, you wrote:

KR> Working with FB 2.5 on Windows 64 bit, how does Nbackup level 0 perform
KR> compared to a high-performance copy utility like FastCopy?

as I see on my desktop nbackup -b 0 is 2-3 times slower than
lock/file copy/unlock. I think this is known behavior.

KR> I'm asking because my DB is 80+ Gbyte and both the database and the
KR> backup are currently on the same physical disk.
this is BAD. Because of 2 concurrent operations - read and write.
If this is not raid 10, then read+write will be 2 times slower
than read from one physical disk and write to another physical disk.
This has nothing related to nbackup, it is just about copying any
file.
--
Dmitry Kuzmenko, www.ib-aid.com



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[Kjell Rilbe]

Post by Dmitry Kuzmenko
Hello, Kjell!
KR> Working with FB 2.5 on Windows 64 bit, how does Nbackup level 0 perform
KR> compared to a high-performance copy utility like FastCopy?
as I see on my desktop nbackup -b 0 is 2-3 times slower than
lock/file copy/unlock. I think this is known behavior.

Thanks, that's enough for me to know that it's probably not a viable
option right now.

Post by Dmitry Kuzmenko
KR> I'm asking because my DB is 80+ Gbyte and both the database and the
KR> backup are currently on the same physical disk.
this is BAD. Because of 2 concurrent operations - read and write.
If this is not raid 10, then read+write will be 2 times slower
than read from one physical disk and write to another physical disk.
This has nothing related to nbackup, it is just about copying any
file.

Yes, of course. It's raid 1 and it is slow and it does bog the system
down somewhat. But it's not a big problem right now - not big enough to
warrant a server upgrade (at least not the work implied by a server
upgrade).

Kjell


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[Leyne, Sean]

Dmitry,

Post by Dmitry Kuzmenko
KR> Working with FB 2.5 on Windows 64 bit, how does Nbackup level 0
KR> perform compared to a high-performance copy utility like FastCopy?
as I see on my desktop nbackup -b 0 is 2-3 times slower than lock/file
copy/unlock. I think this is known behavior.

In general this is expected, though, the performance difference is less significant for larger databases, where the size of the database is larger than the OS disk cache. (OS's perform file copy using their caches to act as a write buffer for copy operations)

Nbackup will always be slower due to the fact that it performs individual page read/write (ie. Random IO) operations whereas file/fast copy operation use file block (ie. Sequential IO) operations which are much faster.

Post by Dmitry Kuzmenko
KR> I'm asking because my DB is 80+ Gbyte and both the database and the
KR> backup are currently on the same physical disk.
this is BAD. Because of 2 concurrent operations - read and write.
If this is not raid 10, then read+write will be 2 times slower than read from
one physical disk and write to another physical disk.
This has nothing related to nbackup, it is just about copying any file.

Agreed.


Sean



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[Konstantin Khomoutov]

On Tue, 8 Oct 2013 12:37:57 +0200

Post by Kjell Rilbe
Working with FB 2.5 on Windows 64 bit, how does Nbackup level 0
perform compared to a high-performance copy utility like FastCopy?
I'm asking because my DB is 80+ Gbyte and both the database and the
backup are currently on the same physical disk. FastCopy works with
large chunks to minimize time wasted on disk seeks.
How does NBackup perform in this regard?
Second question: after transferring the level 0 backup file to a
secure backup volume, I want to use it to create a DB copy for
test/delev/debug purposes. I can do that using Nbackup restore, b ut
does this imply copying the entire database yet again?
With a file copy solution with Nbackup lock, I can essentially use
the copy "as is" (need to do Nbackup fixup + sweep though). I.e. a
single read+write of 80 Gbyte. Is this possible with a Nbackup level
0 backup approach?

Note that nbackup not only copies the data but also updates a special
system table in the database, recording the backup level, timestap and
name of the destination file. This is used by nbackup to create backup
of the next (lower level). So if you intend to ever take backups of
lower levels, I'd say you have to use nbackup to do the job, otherwise
lock/copy/unlock is a quite reasonable alternative, I reckon.


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