Question & Answer
Question
I have millions of images/files located in my i5/OS IFS "Root" directory and my backup takes many hours. Is there anything I can do to speed up this backup process?
Answer
A new parameter has been added to the SAV command that improves IFS SAV performance at V6.1 and higher, once certain enabling PTFs are applied. This parameter, ASYNCBRING, will specify whether objects should be asynchronously brought into memory during the save processing. More information can be found about ASYNCBRING at the related URLs listed in the section below.
One V7.1 customer reports positive results regarding the ASYNCBRING feature with respect to his Content Manager for iSeries and OnDemand for IBM i IFS backup process. He has noticed a 57% reduction in the time required to save his IFS objects. He has provided the statistics below. Of course, your results will vary based on many things, such as system hardware, CPU utilization, size and number of IFS objects, speed and number of tape drives, etc., but this may be a feature worth investigating for your environment.
3/18/2012 | 3/25/2012 | 4/8/2012 | |||||
| Effects of implementing ASYNCBRING | |||||||
| and upgrading to POWER 7 | 9406-550 | 9406-550 | 8202-E4C | ||||
Power 5 | Power 5 | Power 7 | |||||
i 7.1 | i 7.1 | i 7.1 | |||||
BRMS | BRMS | BRMS | |||||
| Tape drives | 3592-E05 (2) | 3592-E05 (2) | 3592-E05 (2) | ||||
ASYNCBRING | ASYNCBRING | ||||||
| IFS (Excluding CM & CM/OD) | |||||||
| Number of objects | 484,152 | 707,637 | 423,847 | ||||
| Elapsed time (hh:mm) | :43 | :40 | :21 | ||||
| CM/OD | |||||||
| Number of objects | 483,097 | 494,772 | 524,994 | ||||
| Elapsed time (hh:mm) | :56 | :23 | :12 | ||||
| CM (Sub-directories 1-39) | |||||||
| Number of objects | 1,959,532 | 1,959,532 | 1,959,532 | ||||
| Elapsed time (hh:mm) | 4:44 | 2:09 | 1:57 | ||||
| CM (Sub-directories 40-100) | |||||||
| Number of objects | 2,765,810 | 2,782,302 | 2,814,575 | ||||
| Elapsed time (hh:mm) | 6:51 | 2:28 | 2:21 | ||||
| Total IFS objects | 5,692,591 | 5,944,243 | 5,722,948 | ||||
| Total IFS save time | 13:14 | 5:40 | 4:51 | ||||
| Reduction in IFS save time | 57% | 14% | |||||
| IFS save rate (obj/hr) | 430,171 | 1,048,984 | 1,179,960 | ||||
| Increase in IFS save rate | 144% | 12% | |||||
| Overall backup time (incl IPL) | 9:06 | 6:25 | 4:24 | ||||
| Reduction in overall backup time | 29% | 31% | |||||
To reiterate, please execute your own testing and research on this new feature, as your results may vary.
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Modified date:
17 June 2018
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