Requirements for the Deduplication feature

Last published : Apr 02, 2026
The requirements for the Deduplication feature vary depending on the type of storage devices you want to use and the type of deduplication you want to use. Before you use the Deduplication feature, you should determine what type of storage devices you want to use with it and what type of deduplication you want to use. Then, verify that your system meets the requirements for the storage devices you want to use.
Warning: It is strongly recommended that you exclude the deduplication disk storage device from all antivirus scans. If an antivirus scanner deletes or quarantines the files from the deduplication disk storage device, access to the device may be disabled.

Table: Requirements and recommendations for the Deduplication feature

Item Requirements and Recommendations
Deduplication disk storage devices The following items are required\:
- A 64-bit Backup Exec server.
- A Backup Exec server with a minimum of 4 cores. It is recommended that you have 8 cores.
- For 100 TB of stored deduplicated data, 8 cores are required, 16 cores are recommended.
- A dedicated volume to use as the location to store the deduplication disk storage. The dedicated volume must have 20 percent free space that totals no less than 5 gigabytes (GB) of free space.
- The deduplication disk storage device must be excluded from antivirus scans. If an antivirus scanner deletes or quarantines the files from the deduplication disk storage device, access to the deduplication disk storage device may be disabled.
- Deduplication disk storage requires 4 GB physical memory for up to 4 TB storage. After that 1 GB of physical memory is required for each 1 TB of deduplication disk storage and up to 32 TB. For example, 5 GB physical memory for 5 TB storage. For deduplication disk storage more than 32 TB and up to 64 TB, 32 GB or more physical memory is recommended. For deduplication disk storage more than 64 TB and up to 100 TB, 100 GB or more physical memory is recommended.
- It is recommended the following as minimum disk speeds per individual read, write, or verify operation: Up to 32 TBs of storage: 130 MB per second 200 MB per second for enterprise-level performance 32 to 48 TBs of storage: 200 MB per second 48 to 64 TBs of storage: 250 MB per second 64 to 100 TBs of storage: 350 MB per second
The above recommendations are for the performance of a single operation. You may need more capability depending on your objectives for writing to and reading from disk.
Note: You should be aware of the effects that computer disk speeds have on deduplication performance.
Computer disk speeds can have the following effects on deduplication performance:
- Computers with disk speeds greater than 200 MB per second have optimal read and write performance for deduplication.
- Computers with disk speeds between 150-200 MB per second have sufficient read and write speed for deduplication.
- Computers with disk speeds between 100-150 MB per second have some operations with degraded performance.
- Computers with disk speeds less than 100 MB per second experience poor performance. You should improve disk reads and writes before you install and run deduplication.
See Configuring a 125 TB Deduplication storage folder in Backup Exec .
Deduplication disk storage connection - Storage area network (Fibre Channel or iSCSI), direct-attached storage (DAS), or internal disks are supported. Removable disks including USB, eSATA, and FireWire devices are not supported.
- The Backup Exec server should have redundant connectivity to the storage.
- The storage network must be a dedicated, low latency network with a maximum of 1-millisecond latency per round trip.
- The storage network must have enough bandwidth to meet your throughput objectives. The following storage network bandwidths are supported: iSCSI SANs with a bandwidth of at least 10 Gb per second. Fibre Channel SANs with a bandwidth of at least 4 Gb per second.
- A minimum bandwidth of 130 MB per second is required for read and write performance. Bandwidth that is less than 130 MB per second may be used in smaller, less resource-intensive environments. However, as usage increases, deduplication requires more bandwidth to ensure adequate throughput for deduplication processes and backups. Otherwise, performance and stability are negatively affected.
Deduplication disk storage credentials The following requirements are for the password credentials for a deduplication disk storage device\:
- The password cannot be blank
- The password cannot contain the following characters: &, ", <, >, %, ^
- The password cannot start with the hyphen character: -
- The password cannot end with the backslash character: \
OpenStorage devices To use a Veritas PureDisk device or a storage device from another vendor as an OpenStorage device, you must purchase the device and the appropriate OpenStorage connector from the device's vendor.
You can use the Deduplication feature with OpenStorage devices on a 64-bit Backup Exec server.
The standard system requirements for Backup Exec apply to the Deduplication feature when you use OpenStorage devices.
You can find more information about OpenStorage devices, prerequisites, configuration, and properties.
See “ OpenStorage devices ” .
Client-side deduplication for Windows On the server where the Agent for Windows is installed, 1.5 GB of memory is required.
Both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows operating systems are supported.
Client-side deduplication for Linux You can find a list of compatible operating systems for Linux client-side deduplication in the Backup Exec Software Compatibility List.
A 64-bit Linux operating system is required.
The following deduplication devices can be used:
- Deduplication disk storage device
- Veritas PureDisk OpenStorage device, which is the only type of OpenStorage device that supports client-siide deduplication for Linux.
The following Backup Exec options are required:
- Agent for Linux
- Deduplication feature
More Information
Installing the Deduplication feature