This article applies to:
OS: CentOS
Product edition: Phoenix (Gov Cloud included)
Overview
This article provides the steps to change the default VMware backup concurrency.
💡 Tip
With the default backup proxy configuration, you can back up up to three virtual machines in parallel.
Calculate concurrency
Assuming you have a backup proxy configuration of X vCPUs and Y GB RAM, the number of concurrent backups possible are calculated as follows:
Number of concurrent backups = Minimum {(X*0.7)/2, (Y-2)/1.3}
Example-1: For a setup having 16 vCPUs and 16 GB RAM:
Number of concurrent backups = Minimum { (16*0.7)/2 = 5.6, (16-2)/1.3 = 10.7 } = 5.6
Hence, you can run up to 6 concurrent backup operations (after rounding the last decimal).
You can also calculate the ideal RAM configuration required to save the system resources from the formula below:
Optimal RAM configuration required to run 6 concurrent backups = (6*1.3)+2 = 9.8
You can optimize your setup to 10 GB RAM (rounded to nearest available unit) since the number of concurrent backups is governed by the vCPU configuration. The converse is applicable if the number of concurrent backups is derived from the RAM configuration.
Change the VMware backup concurrency in Phoenix configuration file
Stop the Phoenix Agent service.
/etc/init.d/Phoenix stop
Verify if any Phoenix processes are still running.
ps -ef| grep -i Phoenix
If any process is still found running, kill the process.
Kill -9 <process id>
Go to /etc/Phoenix/VMWARE.
cd /etc/Phoenix/VMWARE
Edit the Phoenix.cfg file using vi editor.
vi Phoenix.cfg
Change the maximum concurrent backups limit from 3 to n and save the file. (Where n is the new concurrency number.)
For example, to change the concurrency to 8:
VM_MAX_CONCURRENT_BACKUPS = 8
Start the Phoenix Agent service on the backup proxy.
/etc/init.d/Phoenix start