NVP vProxy: nsrcapinfo is reporting the provisioned size of VMs

On the NetWorker server `nsrcapinfo -r clients` is run, generating a report of backup sizes of clients:

[root@nsr ~]# nsrcapinfo -r clients
"Hostname", "Client_Capacity_GB", "Application_Names"
"rhel-client01.amer.lan", "104.9603", "VMware_Filesystems"
"win-client01.amer.lan", "104.9608", "VMware_Filesystems"
"win-sql01.amer.lan", "104.9604", "VMware_Filesystems"
"win-client02.amer.lan", "104.9609", "VMware_Filesystems"
"rhel-client02.amer.lan", "104.9604", "VMware_Filesystems"
[root@nsr ~]#

The size of the backup of NetWorker VMware Protection (NVP) backups closely matches what is seen by `mminfo -kot` on the NetWorker server.

[root@nsr ~]# mminfo -kot
 volume        type   vm_name         date     time         size ssid      fl backup_size
VMBackupPool.002 Data Domain win-client02.amer.lan 09/24/2024 09:00:10 PM 104 GB 3857932444 cr 104 GB
VMBackupPool.002 Data Domain rhel-client01.amer.lan 09/24/2024 09:00:11 PM 104 GB 3841155228 cr 104 GB
VMBackupPool.002 Data Domain rhel-client02.amer.lan 09/24/2024 09:00:12 PM 104 GB 3824378013 cr 104 GB
VMBackupPool.002 Data Domain win-client01.amer.lan 09/24/2024 09:00:13 PM 104 GB 3807600797 cr 104 GB
VMBackupPool.002 Data Domain win-sql01.amer.lan 09/24/2024 09:00:14 PM 104 GB 3790823581 cr 104 GB
[root@nsr ~]#

The size shown is within proximity of the "provisioned size" of the VM in VMware. See the Additional Info section for a breakdown of the size conversion and calculations.

As per the NetWorker Command Reference Guide, nsrcapinfo finds the sum of maximum unique saveset size for each client from the last 60 days(default) and defines this as the client’s capacity. The sum of all client capacities provides an estimate of the total capacity. The algorithm does not compute the total amount of data ingested by NetWorker over the period, nor does it try to estimate the impact of a file system that grows or shrinks in an incremental fashion. The heuristic is intentionally simple, and represents the lower bound of data protected by NetWorker. For more information, see the NetWorker Command Reference Guide. NetWorker Guides are available through: https://www.dell.com/support/home/product-support/product/networker/docs

nsrcapinfo is working as designed. 

For more information about VM backup reporting, see: NVP vProxy: Understanding VMware VM backup levels and sizes shown in NetWorker

There will be a discrepancy in the "provisioned size" reported in VMware vs. the "provisioned size" (backup size) reported in NetWorker. 

The provisioned size in VMware is shown binary kilo (1024) from bytes. The values shown are in units of MiB, GiB, TiB, and so forth.
The provisioned size in NetWorker is shown in metric kilo (1000) from KiB. The values shown are in units of MB, GB, TB, and so forth.

Example Scenario:

If we look at one specific VM. From VMware, the provisioned size is 100 GB:

The "provisioned size" (backup size) in NetWorker is converted from KiB to metric units to report as 104 GB:

[root@nsr ~]# mminfo -kot -q vmname=win-client01.amer.lan
 volume        type   vm_name         date     time         size ssid      fl backup_size
VMBackupPool.001 Data Domain win-client01.amer.lan 09/23/2024 05:10:00 PM 104 GB 4260485415 cr 104 GB
...

If we report the backup size in bytes we can convert it to report the GiB value, matching what it is seen in VMware:

[root@nsr ~]# mminfo -kot -q vmname=win-client01.amer.lan -r "savetime,ssid,sumsize,sumsize(15)"
  date   ssid          size           size
09/23/2024 4260485415 104 GB   107479386588

The formula for this is

Size_in_Bytes / 1024 = KiB / 1024 = MiB / 1024 = GiB

Using this formula for the example save set shown, this would be:

107479386588 \ 1024 \ 1024 \ 1024 = 100.09 GiB

The "provisioned size" reported in NetWorker matches the "provisioned size" in VMware when using the same byte conversion method. When a VM is multiple TB, the reported discrepancy is larger; regardless, when converting the size in NetWorker from bytes to TiB (1024), the sizes should be near identical between NetWorker and VMware.