Performing a Space Reclamation Operation on Deduplicated Data

Use the space reclamation feature to reclaim idle space on non-supported sparse files storage.

For space reclamation operations on disk library, by default, the deduplicated data space reclamation operation is automatically associated with the System created schedule policy for DDB Space Reclamation schedule policy. This schedule policy runs a full space reclamation job every day at 11:00 AM on one active DDB a day. The interval between two consecutive space reclamation jobs on a DDB is set to 30 days. By default, all the deduplication databases are assigned to this System created schedule policy for DDB Space Reclamation, but the space reclamation process runs only on the mount paths that do not support hole drilling. This schedule policy also selects and runs a space reclamation job on those DDB engines on which a full DDB reconstruction job was run.

Note

The schedule policy for DDB space reclamation runs only when the disk free space is lower than the Low Watermark (%) value that is set for the library in the Library Properties (Space Management) dialog box. On Hyperscale storage pools, the schedule policy for DDB space reclamation runs if the amount of free space falls below the value set in the Automatically submit Space Reclamation DDB Verification job when free space on Library is below this percent parameter available in Media Management Configuration: Service Configuration dialog box.

The software uses the default disabled alert No DDB Space Reclamation from past N days to send an alert to the administrators when a DDB space reclamation was not performed on the non-supported sparse files storage in the last 30 days though the storage meets the criteria for space reclamation.

Space reclamation operations on cloud mount paths are run on-demand and cannot be scheduled on System Created DDB Space Reclamation schedule policy.

For more information on the supported cloud storage vendors for space reclamation, see Supported Cloud Storage for Space Reclamation.

You can deploy an extra small MediaAgent on cloud environment for performing space reclamation operation on deduplicated data hosted on cloud library. For details about MediaAgent sizing, see the following:

Before You Begin

Verify that all the DDB MediaAgents that share the same storage are at the same Feature Release version. If you upgrade a MediaAgent, you must upgrade all other DDB MediaAgents to the same Feature Release.

Note

Do not perform space reclamation operation on Metallic Recovery Reserve on a regular basis. You must consult Commvault Support before you perform a space reclamation operation on Metallic Recovery Reserve.

Procedure

From the CommCell Browser, expand Storage Resources > Deduplication Engines > storage_policy_copy.
Right-click the appropriate deduplication database, and then click All Tasks > Run space reclamation.

The Run space reclamation for: deduplication_database dialog box appears.
Under Defragmentation Options, select at least one defragmentation option:
1. To reclaim unused space by defragmenting unused data blocks, select the Defragmentation check box. This option is selected by default.
  
  Use the Reclamation Level slider to select the level of reclamation to be done. On the slider, the numbers indicate the percentage of unused data blocks that can be defragmented.
  - 1 is equal to 80% (Least aggressive reclamation, low I/O on the disk)
  - 2 is equal to 60%
  - 3 is equal to 40%
  - 4 is equal to 20% (Most aggressive reclamation, higher I/O on the disk)
2. To prune the orphan data, select the Clean Orphan Data check box.
  
  Note
  
  By default, the Defragmentation option and the Reclamation Level slider are disabled for Metallic Recovery Reserve to avoid higher operational costs.
In the No of Streams to be used in Parallel area, choose one of the following options:
- To configure a specific number of streams for which backups are verified during the data verification operation, click Number of Streams and type the number.
  
  If the number of streams specified are less than 50, for example 15, then 15 streams are used during the Verify Data phase and 15 streams are used during the Validate Data phase.
  
  If the number of streams specified is more than 50, then 50 streams are used during the Verify Data phase and 50 streams are used during the Validate Data phase.
- To use the maximum number of streams during the data verification operation, click Allow Maximum.
  
  If no streams are specified and the Allow Maximum check box is selected, then 20 streams are used during the Verify Data phase and 50 streams are used during the Validate Data phase.
Enter a description of the entity in the Description text box. You can include information about the entity's content, cautionary notes, and so on.
Click OK.

For more information, see Space Reclamation - Online Help.

Result

A DDB space reclamation job is displayed in the Job Controller window. You can view the DDB space reclamation job history.
The DDB is marked for validation and pruning of aged data during the space reclamation operation.

Notes

When the DDB space reclamation job is running, you can run backups and auxiliary copy operations if the DDB and the Data Mover MediaAgents are in v11. The DDB store version can be in v10.0 or v11.0.
If DDB space reclamation job goes into pending state, then the job attempts to run five times, for every 20 minutes. If the space reclamation job exceeds five attempts, then the job status is marked as failed.
If you start a restore job on cloud storage when a DDB space reclamation job is running, the restore job takes higher precedence and the space reclamation job is suspended and queued.
When you run a DDB space reclamation job on cloud storage, any subsequent read operations (Auxiliary copy, Synthetic Full backup, Content Indexing, and Live Sync) are suspended and queued until the space reclamation job completes. If the read operations (Auxiliary copy, Synthetic Full backup, Content Indexing, and Live Sync) are already running, then the space reclamation job is suspended and queued.