A quick question about using NetBackup with compressed SQL Server backups.
Our backups infrastructure consists of NetBackup v7.6 and NetBackup 5230 appliances. Our SQL server estate is a mixture of SQL Server versions 2005-2012 on Windows 2003-2012.
We've noticed that the deduplication ratio (as reported by backup jobs in Netbackup Activity Monitor) for compressed SQL backups is 0% (we experimented with the NetBackup SQL Agent and also standard flat file backups).
Now we weren't expecting to get much deduplication out of a compressed SQL Server backup - but it was a suprise to get nothing at all. Previous tests performed on other deduplication platforms (Exagrid and Windows native 2012 deduplication) showed that a noticeable (albeit much lower rate compared with uncompressed backups) deduplication level of about 4:1 was possible with compressed SQL Server backups.
So my question is - is this a configuration issue on our NetBackup infrastructure - or is there a technical\design reason why the deduplication of compressed SQL Server backups is not available in NetBackup?
Regards
Terry
