Manual Chapter : Managing Deduplication

Applies To:

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BIG-IP AAM

  • 11.6.5, 11.6.4, 11.6.3, 11.6.2, 11.6.1
Manual Chapter

What is symmetric data deduplication?

Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) uses symmetric data deduplication to reduce the amount of bandwidth consumed across a WAN link for repeated data transfers. This feature is available only with an Application Acceleration Manager (AAM) license.

With data deduplication, the system performs pattern matching on the transmitted WAN data, rather than caching. If any part of the transmitted data has already been sent, BIG-IP system replaces the previously transmitted data with references. As data flows through the pair, each device records the byte patterns and builds a synchronized dictionary. If an identical pattern of bytes traverses the WAN more than once, the BIG-IP closest to the sender replaces the byte pattern with a reference to it, compressing the data. When the reference reaches the other side of the WAN, the remote BIG-IP device replaces the reference with the data, restoring the data to its original format.

Which codec do I choose?

Symmetric data deduplication (SDD) offers two versions, called codecs. SDD v3 is appropriate for most AAM installations, particularly in large networks, such as hub and spoke, or mesh deployments. SSD v2 is an alternative for installations with fewer than eight high-speed links, such as for data replication between data centers.

For deduplication to occur, the same codec must be selected on both iSession endpoints. If the selected codecs do not match, deduplication does not occur, although other symmetric optimization features, such as compression, still take place.