The OneFS distributed architecture allows backups to be spread across multiple network streams from the cluster, which can significantly improve performance. This is achieved by dividing the root file system into several paths based on the number of nodes in the cluster and the structure of subdirectories under the file system root. For example, if the file system on a four-node cluster can be separated logically among four subdirectories, each of these subdirectories can be backed up as a separate stream, with one subdirectory served from each node.
OneFS also includes multistream NDMP backup. In this case, a backup job can be configured against a top-level directory, and a separate NDMP stream will be used to back up each subdirectory in parallel. This drastically increases the throughput of backups and simplicity of configuration, thereby allowing fast job completion and the ability to define tighter recovery objectives. Parallel NDMP is supported by both Dell NetWorker and Commvault Simpana DMAs.
