Commvault includes a live browse cache that stores file and folder metadata extents, which can improve performance for live browse operations, restores that include a large number of files, and VM file indexing. By storing metadata that is captured during backups, the live browse cache reduces the performance impact of accessing media, cold storage, and cloud libraries.
The live browse cache provides significant performance improvements for operations that use cloud libraries. On Windows, the live browse cache can occupy a lot of space because of an extent granularity of 1 MB. By saving only metadata portions within extents in the live browse cache, you can reduce the space requirement from approximately 10-15% to approximately 1-2% of the VM size.
The live browse cache is configured at the library level and you can select the specific location.
Support
The live browse cache is supported for the following:
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All hypervisors
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MediaAgents that run on Windows or Linux
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Guest VMs that run on Windows or Linux
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Streaming backups
Key Features
The live browse cache provides the following benefits:
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During backups, store file and folder metadata extents for each virtual machine or instance. Compress and encrypt stored extents.
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For incremental backups, identify metadata extents and only update the cache with metadata extents that are new or updated.
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Read extents from the cache when browsing guest files and folders, to provide faster displays of volume and directory listings for users.
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Improve performance for file indexing by using extents metadata from earlier jobs to prefetch extents and perform other optimizations, with enhanced performance for indexing incremental backups.
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For cloud libraries, use indexing information to fetch extents in bulk and avoid the need to perform repeated reads to fetch VM data.
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Prune data from the cache based on retention days:
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Prune files that are older than seven days.
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When the cache reaches the defined size limit, first prune metadata extents for jobs that have been file indexed, and then prune metadata extents for the oldest jobs.
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Retain extent information for VMs in the database indefinitely.
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