How to use the NetWorker "bigasm" directive in Windows?

bigasm is a NetWorker tool that can be used to test network throughput between clients and servers via expanding small files into larger files.

All this without having to create huge data files on your systems. The bigasm tool is also useful in generating large savesets that span multiple tapes.

For Windows:

If you are looking for the same article but with Solaris/Linux examples, click here.

1. Create a temporary directory on the client system. (e.g.:- C:\temp\bigasm)
2. Create a number of zero length files in your new folder:

   C:\> mkdir c:\temp\bigasm
   C:\> cd \temp\bigasm\
   C:\temp\bigasm> cd copy con <file_name>

   Creating 5-10 files is sufficient for most tests. Use CTRL + Z to close the file. For example from a Command Prompt:

   C:\temp\bigasm> copy con 1
   ^Z
   1 file(s) copied.
   C:\temp\bigasm> copy con 2
   ^Z
   1 file(s) copied.

3. Create a directives file (nsr.dir) in the same folder to invoke bigasm,

   C:\temp\bigasm> copy con nsr.dir
   bigasm -S10GB: *
   ^Z
   1 file(s) copied.

4. Run a command line save from the client to the server:

   C:\temp\bigasm> save -vvv -s <NetWorker_Server> c:\temp\bigasm

NOTE: You can adjust the amount of data written by adjusting the value of the -S option for bigasm in step #3. In the example above for each file created in step #2, there will be 10GB of data generated.