ImageCenter - Consolidation Best practice

Consolidation ensures that backups that have been created are merged. The backup chains kept short, which reduces the recovery time. In addition, the consolidation can save storage space.

Example

Backups are made every hour, Monday through Friday, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. That's 10 incremental backups per day, 50 incremental backups per week and 200 per month.

A consolidation is recommended, for example on Saturday 10 p.m. when there is no high activity on the Servers. If, for example, the consolidation takes place within 4 p.m. of the week, this can take a lot longer because the backups and other activities run in parallel. In addition, a backup may not be possible if the file is blocked by the consolidation during the scan.

This example ensures that the backup chain has a maximum of 150 files as a result of the consolidation. A backup chain that is too long requires more memory and increases the recovery time.

Settings for the above example

Leave latest XX incremental file(s)

• 100 is the optimal value, since a maximum of 100 original incremental backups + 1 consolidated backup (differential backup) would be kept. A total of 101 files are available.
  
  
  

Re-consolidate already consolidated incremental image files

• If only the first option is activated, a kind of differential backup is created, as it were, since the consolidated backups are combined again. This keeps the backup chain particularly small.
• Together with the option "Keep last XX incremental file(s)", this represents the best combination for saving memory.
• If consolidated files are to be kept for reasons, the option "Keep last XX consolidated image file(s)" (e.g. 50) can be activated.
  
• Important: In order to use this option, the consolidation by schedule must have been set beforehand.
  
  

General recommendation

• A maximum of 250 incremental backups in a chain to ensure rapid recovery and to save storage space.
• Schedule at times when there is little activity on the servers, e.g. in the evening / night hours. Otherwise, the server would be permanently busy, if e.g. consolidation takes place after every backup.

When replicating to other sites

If the backup is also replicated to other locations, another ImageCenter can be used, which consolidates the received data again, for example in the data center.

Schedule: Daily
Keep last: 30 incremental File(s)
Re-consolidate already consolidated incremental image files + keep: 31 consolidated incremental image file(s)

With these settings, 30 incremental files, the hourly backups can be accessed 3 days retrospectively. With the 31 reconsolidated, a retrospective period of one month is given, as these have already been combined. The memory in the data center is only used minimally and the backups are stored redundantly. The previously consolidated data is stored on the customer's side and enables detailed access on an hourly basis.

Recommendations for settings

Keep original image files

When backup files are consolidated, the original incremental files are automatically deleted. If it is necessary to use the originals for reasons, in order to access them every hour, as in the above example, this option can be activated. This copies the originals to a subfolder and either stores them until the next consolidation or for a certain period of days.

• In the above example, the option requires 50% more storage space, as the originals are also kept in addition to the consolidated backups.
• If access to the originals is required for a longer period of time, it is advisable to keep them for 31 days. This means that access to the hourly backups is valid for 31 days. These are then automatically deleted.

Use Smart Consolidation

• This option does not affect other settings.
• If the consolidation for the backup is already activated in ActiveImage Protector, the backup is deduplicated. The size of the backup is reduced again. However, the consolidation then requires significantly more computing power and takes longer.

Use an alternate consolidation agent

• This option should remain deactivated, otherwise several ImageCenter instances can access the same source and this can lead to problems.