From abdd068db39cb07534e5f2cad0921b0e77d7de79 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Thomas Waldmann Date: Wed, 13 May 2026 22:01:46 +0200 Subject: [PATCH] add a FAQ entry about scalability, fixes #4742 (cherry picked from commit 2dec0d32de30be91f7793b4fb096a98d48aec65f) --- docs/faq.rst | 23 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 23 insertions(+) diff --git a/docs/faq.rst b/docs/faq.rst index 7c08a1acc..29a958e5e 100644 --- a/docs/faq.rst +++ b/docs/faq.rst @@ -114,6 +114,29 @@ Are there other known limitations? remove files which are in the destination, but not in the archive. See :issue:`4598` for a workaround and more details. +Is Borg recommended for large amounts of data? +---------------------------------------------- + +Borg is generally capable of handling large amounts of data. However, there are +several things to keep in mind for scalability: + +- **Large datasets:** Success depends on the number of files, system resources + (RAM, CPU), and network performance. For very large datasets, ensure you have + enough RAM. +- **Multiple repositories:** If you have multiple clients or a huge amount of + data, it is often better to use one repository per client or per data set. + This can improve performance, especially if deduplication across clients or + data sets is not a priority. +- **Archive count:** Avoid having a very large number of archives in a single + repository, as some operations (like ``borg check`` or ``borg mount``) may become + slow or memory-intensive when they need to read metadata for all archives. +- **Network filesystems:** For best performance and reliability, run the Borg + client on the machine where the source data is local, and the Borg server + on the machine where the repository storage is local. Avoid using NFS or + other network filesystems for repository storage if possible. +- **Incremental backups:** Borg always creates a new full archive, but only + transfers and stores new/changed chunks. + .. _interrupted_backup: If a backup stops mid-way, does the already-backed-up data stay there?