I would like to show you one of the features of Nakivo Backup and Replication which was released in the version 7.4, called Bandwidth throttling. You can use Bandwidth throttling when you need to limit the speed of the backup transfer. Why would you do that? How does it work?
Bandwidth throttling enables you to limit the speed of the backup, in order to preserve the availability of other network services. When we are talking about the LAN, backup is not a problem. Usually, it runs through the dedicated network. Even if you don’t have backup network separated and the backup is run in the same VLAN, it won’t affect your users as switches are pretty good at handling the various load.
On the other hand, if you are replicating or backing up data to a remote location, where users are connected to the internet through the same network, chances are backup or replication will affect your users. The main reason is the speed of the link. Remote locations are usually connected to the main office via MPLS which is more reliable but it is also more expensive. We are talking about links which are 20Mbit/s – 50Mbit/s. Even 100 Mbit/s links can be problematic if we have a lot of data to back up. You see, when you combine daily work from users, windows updates, anti-virus updates, and backup – then you can start seeing problems on the network.
Users are very sensitive to the problems with speed when using their most used applications. For example ERP, CRM or similar. In order to mitigate the problem, Nakivo has a solution which can limit the backup bandwidth and is available on a per job basis.
How to throttle the bandwidth of the backup
When you configure options for the backup job, there is a tick box you can click on and is available on the 5. Options tab.
It is called Limit job bandwidth to. Using this you specify the speed of your limit. Say if you have an MPLS link which is 50Mbit/s, you can limit the job bandwidth to 30Mbit/s. That way, you will transfer the backup on a remote location and still leave users with 20Mbit/s speed for their applications.
Sure, you have to review the jobs you need to transfer to a remote location. When you know how much data you have to transfer and how fast, then you can start playing with the calculation. Why? If you have a 10TB of data to back up to a remote location and only 10Mbit/s bandwidth, then you have a problem. The backup will run for days. On the other hand, if you have 1GB of data and 10Mbit/s bandwidth you can expect the backup to finish in 14 minutes.
Looking at the options, Nakivo did something wonderful, they provide you with a simple calculation. Once you enter your job bandwidth, it will calculate the time required to backup 1 GB of data with the speed you enter. For example, when you enter 10Mbit/s it will show you that to backup 1GB of data on a 10Mbit/s link you need 14 minutes.
When you enter 25Mbit/s for the job, it will show you that you need 5 minutes to complete the transfer.
When you enter 50Mbit/s for the job, it will show you that you need 2 minutes to complete the transfer
And when you enter 100Mbit/s, it will show you-you need 1 minute to complete the transfer.
By having a simple calculator like this, planning the backup is much easier as you can see immediately how long it will take your job to transfer to a remote location with the speed of your link. Please keep in mind that depending on the link quality time to complete can fluctuate a bit. Also if you have a huge amount of data and slow link, you may have to use another feature called WAN acceleration, which by special optimization speeds up the backup to a remote locations.
Conclusion
When you have a remote location which is used for your users and infrastructure, like backup, you can, if you have a slow link create a bad experience for your users. When users experience slow response from the application they use the most of the day, they can easily become frustrated. By using a feature from Nakivo Backup and Replication 7.4, you can attack this problem by limiting bandwidth on a per job basis. On the other hand, if you have larger amounts of data which you have to transfer to a remote location, you can tackle this problem by using WAN acceleration, which is also available in Nakivo.
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