Isilon NDMP throttle

 There are 3 shares in the Isilon with very complex folder structure.  They are deep and contain lots of small files.  Again, you need to follow tech spec guide.  You cannot have more than 1 million files per folder.  We have a NFS share with over 100,000,000 files but we have a folder created under the share each year.  

Only issue is backup.  When NDMP backup is run, it uses a lot of CPU when it reaches some folders.  It can reach 80% CPU usage.  Same thing when we use Datadobi to migrate to Isilon.  When it reaches those folders, scan speed will drop by 50%.  

I have Gen 6 nodes with OneFS 9.1.  From the doc below, it requires Gen 6 nodes and the command is available in OneFS 8.2 (see link below).  Looks like this setting can be modified thru CLI only.  At least with 9.1, I don't see it in the GUI.  

Isilon OneFS Help

1. Run the following command through the command line interface to enable NDMP Throttler:  

isi ndmp settings global modify --enable-throttler true

2. View the setting by running the following command:

isi ndmp settings global view

3. Default settings are 50% for CPU throttle threshold.  I use command below to change it to 65.  

isi ndmp settings global modify –throttler-cpu-threshold 65

Isilon spare settings

 Open SmartPools settings

Enable Global Spillover pool if you have more than 1 pool.  

Make sure Virtual hot spare is selected.  Our environment is small and use 1 virtual drive.  For bigger environment, use % of total storage instead.  EMC tech suggests 10% of total storage.