Very Slow VM Backups

Hi Kev,

 

Resource limits are in >host properties>master server>properties>resource limits. Ensure your datastore is no more than 4, also look at limiting ESX resource limit.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO44509

 

What is the spec of your server? I would advise against having media/master which is acting as a backup host also.

How many concurrent streams do you have setup on your storage unit?

 

 

Hi

I currently do not have Multiplex or Streaming set on the Storage Unit as we are backing up to a VLS which does not allow Multiplex, the Master Server is an HP DL580 G7 with 4x1867MHz Q/Core processors and 128Gb RAM , this is running RJEL5.7

I have looked at the resource tab and these are all set to No Limit sio I might try setting these up.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the the backup host, is this best to have a physical rather than virtual, I may have to hunt around for a client to push this through.

Kev

Just read this:

For a more efficient backup, the NetBackup media server and the VMware backup host should be installed on the same host.

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=HOWTO44423

I understand you do not have multipexing or multistreaming, but how many concurrent jobs for your storage unit setting? "Maximum concurrent jobs". As you have no resource limits only this setting or global attributes of maximum client jobs would control the amount of jobs running.

Yes the media server and backup host are ideally on the same host, however its best practice to keep this seperate from your master server, i.e not having master/media/backup host on the same host.

 

Ah, the VTL is set as a robot and as such does not have Max Concurent Jobs only Max Write Drives which is set to 22, the global Max Jobs Per Client is set to 8

I see hwat you mean about the Master Server, unfortunatley the Media Server that we were using is the Blade which has undelying network issues, I may need to look at using another server for this function, I know it can now be either Wintel or Linux but can this be a VM or is that not really reccomended, I may need to source another physical server somewhere.

Kev

I have seen that tuning the flash backup read buffer on the backup increase the VMWARE backup speed

It is described in technote http://www.symantec.com/docs/HOWTO56178

Regards

Michael

Hi Michael

Thanks for the link, I will have a look at these parameters and see if this gives me any further improvement.

 

Kev

Hi Kevin

 

any update?

Hi,

We have set the resources to only 4 snapshots and I have played around with the Data buffer files, I have set these as follows:

NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS = 64

SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS = 524288

NUMBER_DATA_BUFFERS_DISK = 64

SIZE_DATA_BUFFERS_DISK = 1048576

This has increased the speed of my VM backups by on average over 400% from what I was getting befoe the modifications, I am also looking at bonded networks to get more improvements.

Many thanks for everyones assistance with this

Kev