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    Managing Local Deduplication
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    Contents

    Managing Local Deduplication

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    Article summary

    CTERA edge filers support file-level deduplication that reduces physical cache storage and improves performance when accessing a stub file that already exists as another file on the edge filer.

    Files with the same content are linked to the same on-disk data, instead of taking twice the disk space. A deduped file, upon being modified, is populated with the underlying data.

    Files are deduped:

    • During a copy and paste operation in Windows File Explorer or Mac Finder.
    • After a file is modified locally, during the upload to the portal, the file will be deduplicated with a local copy of the data, if one exists.
    • If a local copy exists before a download starts, deduplication is immediate and the file is not downloaded, saving the network traffic.
    Note

    CTERA recommends that deduplication is disabled when running a migration.

    If you do enable deduplication and then run a migration, the file system is automatically reindexed. You must not restart the edge filer while the reindexing is being performed. If the edge filer is restarted while reindexing is being performed, any file that was not reindexed when the edge filer was restarted, is never evicted from the edge filer.

    To enable local deduplication:

    Warning

    A restart is required when enabling deduplication. An error is displayed as the Web browser session loses access to the Edge Filer.

    1. In the Configuration view, select Storage > Local Deduplication in the navigation pane.
      The Local Deduplication page is displayed.
      image.png
    2. Click Enable Local Deduplication.
    3. Click OK to confirm restarting the edge filer.

    The edge filer reboots. When logging back in to the edge filer, local deduplication is enabled.
    image.png
    The page shows storage usage prior to applying deduplication and the storage saved after applying deduplication, as a percentage of the storage and as an amount of storage actually saved.

    Existing files are not deduped, unless you reindex the edge filer, described in Applying Local Deduplication to Existing Files.

    Applying Local Deduplication to Existing Files

    Deduplication is only applied to files added after deduplication is enabled unless reindexing is performed.

    To reindex the edge filer:

    1. In the Configuration view, select Storage > Local Deduplication in the navigation pane.
      The Local Deduplication page is displayed.
    2. Click Run Full Reindexing.
      image.png

    The progress of the reindexing is displayed.

    Disabling Local Deduplication

    To disable local deduplication:

    Warning

    A restart is required when disabling deduplication. An error is displayed as the Web browser session loses access to the Edge Filer.

    1. In the Configuration view, select Storage > Local Deduplication in the navigation pane.
      The Local Deduplication page is displayed.
      image.png
    2. Click Disable Local Deduplication.
    3. Click OK to confirm restarting the edge filer.

    The edge filer reboots. When logging back in to the edge filer, local deduplication is disabled.
    image.png

    Logging Deduplication

    The percentage of deduplication for each deduped file is reported in the Cloud Sync log.

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