This makes my advice even more important... On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 09:26, Bryan Garmon <[email protected]> wrote: > Thank you for the clarification. This helps me a great deal. > > The backup is happening (or should I write attempting to happen) > across a WAN link. > > On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Erik Goldoff <[email protected]> wrote: >> Short answer, if you have 1,000 files of 1mb each, that's 1,000 times the >> software ( and drive heads ) have to seek back to the directory for each >> filename and physical location pointer on the disk ... So if you have >> hundreds of files, you've got to find the file, request open to read, read >> the data, request close from read for each one ... In one larger file, you >> only have the one request to open to read, and each block points to the next >> block to read ... In a way, takes out a lot of 'handshaking' in the disk >> I/O process, which is VERY inefficient >> >> many if not most of your current files are smaller than your physical block >> size, whereas in a single larger file, the entire block could comprise >> multiple files worth of data, so more data read for each block request ... >> >> And lastly, if compressed, the actual resulting file size could end up much >> smaller than the size of the combined raw files, if your transactions files >> are mostly plain text, compression could be anywhere from 20% to 80% >> efficient. Even at *only* 20% efficiency you'd be reading an 8mb file >> instead of a 10mb file ( you'd be displacing the efficiency by the zip and >> unzip process overhead, but that wouldn't directly affect your backup >> program's ability to capture the file ) >> >> And you didn't say, is the backup local to the Aloha directory, or are you >> traversing some type of WAN link ? >> >> >> >> Erik Goldoff >> IT Consultant >> Systems, Networks, & Security >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: Bryan Garmon [mailto:[email protected]] >> Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 11:04 AM >> To: NT System Admin Issues >> Subject: Re: Anyone using Radiant Systems Aloha Point Of Sale? >> >> What's the link between the file size and the efficiency? I'm fuzzy when it >> comes to understanding chunk sizes and bit rates and such. >> >> >> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Erik Goldoff <[email protected]> wrote: >>> I know Longhorn Steakhouse used to use Aloha before Darden acquired >>> them, not sure if they still do ... But if the backup program has >>> problems, wonder if you could script a zip program to encapsulate all >>> the files into one larger zip that the backup program might be able to >>> stream much more efficiently >>> >>> >>> >>> Erik Goldoff >>> IT Consultant >>> Systems, Networks, & Security >>> >>> >> >> >> ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ >> ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ >> >> > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > >
~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
