Auto-scaling is critical for backup and recovery operations, especially for large-scale operations. Auto-scaling allocates resources dynamically, based on demand, preventing resource bottlenecks and optimizing performance. It then decommissions access nodes when they're not needed. When you need to use use auto recovery in a disaster scenario, where the volume of data and the number of workloads to restore can vary significantly, auto-scaling ensures that the necessary computing resources are available, without provisioning more than you need.
Supported Operations
Auto-scaling for is supported for most data protection operations, including file indexed backups. Only restores of guest files and instance files don't use auto-scaling.
Number of Access Nodes That Are Created
The number of access nodes that are required increases or decreases based on the amount of data you back up and the settings you configure for automatic scaling.
For Backups
For backups, the software determines the number of access nodes to create based on the following characteristics:
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The Recovery Point Objective (RPO)
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The throughput rate
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The number of data readers that are configured for the VM group
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The Maximum number of access nodes setting in the Auto scale settings dialog box
Important
To increase the number of access nodes, change the Maximum number of access nodes setting instead of changing the number of data readers for each access node.
For Restores
For restores, the software determines the number of access nodes to create based on the following characteristics:
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The number of VMs that are being restored
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The load on auto-scaled access nodes
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The Maximum number of access nodes setting in the Auto scale settings dialog box
For File Indexing
For file indexing, the number of auto-scaled access nodes that are created is based on the number of CPUs for each access node and the number of streams for each CPU.
Operating System of Access Nodes That Are Created
For file indexing, the operating system of auto-scaled access nodes matches the OS of the VMs that are indexed.
Decommissioning of Access Nodes
During an operation, access nodes that complete their functions are powered off after being idle for 5 minutes, even if other access nodes are still performing functions for the operation.
After an operation completes, if no activity occurs on an access node for 30 minutes, then the access node is deleted from both the Command Center and the cloud service provider portal.
If you manually remove an access node from its server group, then the access node is not automatically deleted from the Command Center or the cloud service provider portal. You must add the access node back to the server group so that it can be automatically deleted.
Log Files
The log files for auto-scaling are at the following location on the CommServe server: Commvault\ContentStore\iDataAgent\JobResults\CV_JobResults\AutoScale