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/> ~
