Using Best Practices › Backup Recommendations › Document Level Backup and Restore Performance Tuning

Document Level Backup and Restore Performance Tuning

To maximize performance when using Document Level backup and restore:

• Increase the value of the Number of Threads configuration setting and decrease the value of the Thread Priority configuration setting. This combination increases performance and minimizes the impact on your server.
• Enable multiplexing to take advantage of high performance devices. Because destination devices are faster than a single Document Level backup stream, multiplexing decreases backup time by dividing your backup jobs into several sub-jobs that run simultaneously to the same device.

  If you enable multiplexing and also want to increase the value of the Number of Threads configuration setting, keep in mind that the Number of Threads value is per each backup stream. Therefore, the actual number of threads running on a system is the number of streams multiplied by the number of threads. As a result, leveraging multiplexing before leveraging the Number of Threads is optimal. For example, on a four processor machine with four storage groups, a total of six to eight threads is recommended. These threads should be configured as two threads per each storage group, resulting in four multiplexing streams. Because storage groups are independent resources, it is better to increase the level of streams with multiplexing than to increase the Number of Threads and sequentially back up one storage group at a time.

• Enable the Complete Messaging Single Instance Storage configuration option. This option checks to see if attachments and messages have already been backed up and backs up only one copy, eliminating the need to back up an attachment or message each time it is referenced. This can significantly decrease the size of your backups.
• If you are creating a short backup job or do not need an estimate of how long the job will take, enable the Disable File Estimate global option to save time.
• Use incremental and differential backup methods to back up only the data that has changed since your last full or incremental backup. This saves time by backing up only changed data rather than backing up all of your data.
• Use backup filters. This lets you exclude unwanted and large amounts of data from your backup jobs.
• If media usage is a major factor in your backup strategy, either perform full backups daily or full alternating with differential backups daily.
• In an environment that has non mission-critical data with less aggressive restore schedules, you should perform a full backup at least once a week and perform incremental or differential backups on the other days.