diff --git a/docs/administration-guide.rst b/docs/administration-guide.rst index 3463bac7..c5780c0b 100644 --- a/docs/administration-guide.rst +++ b/docs/administration-guide.rst @@ -1,12 +1,56 @@ Administration Guide ==================== -The administartion guide. +The administration guide. Terminology ----------- +Backup Content +~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + +When doing deduplication, there are different strategies to get +optimal results in terms of performance and/or deduplication rates. +Depending on the type of data, one can split it into fixed or variable +sized chunks. + +Fixed sized chunking needs almost no CPU performance, and is used to +backup virtual machine images. + +Variable sized chunking needs more CPU power, but is essential to get +good deduplication rates for file archives. + +Therefore, the backup server supports both strategies. + + +File Archives +^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +.. see https://moinakg.wordpress.com/2013/06/22/high-performance-content-defined-chunking/ + +A file archive stores a whole directory tree. Content is stored using +the :ref:`pxar-format`, split into variable sized chunks. The format +is specially optimized to achieve good deduplication rates. + + +Image Archives +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +This is used for virtual machine images and other large binary +data. Content is split into fixed sized chunks. + + +Binary Data (BLOBs) +^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ + +This type is used to store smaller (< 16MB) binaries like +configuration data. Larger files should be stored as image archive. + +.. caution:: Please do not store all files as BLOBs. Instead, use the + file archive to store whole directory trees. + + Backup Type ~~~~~~~~~~~ diff --git a/docs/file-formats.rst b/docs/file-formats.rst index afa257e0..bb725649 100644 --- a/docs/file-formats.rst +++ b/docs/file-formats.rst @@ -1,6 +1,8 @@ File Formats ============ +.. _pxar-format: + Proxmox File Archive Format (``.pxar``) ---------------------------------------