BE 2010 and slow backup of cluster attached drives

[David_Armstro2]

I'm running into some performance issues when backing up SAN LUNs via a Windows cluster.  I am only getting about 700mb/min on the cluster drives.  On regular servers I am getting 2500mb/min.

What is the correct methodology for backing up cluster resources?  I am currently connecting to the virtual file server resources and backing up the drives there.  Can I get better performance if I select the resources directly from the underlying cluster servers?

[CraigV · Accepted solution]

Hi David,

If BE is not installed on those cluster servers, and they're being backed up from something else, you're then backing up via your LAN. Even if your media server is attached to your SAN, along with your tape library, your backups will be LAN-based.

The way around this is to license BE's SAN SSO option (SAN Shared Storage Option). This requires that you install a full version of BE on your cluster servers, and they will be able to access the shared SAN-attached tape library along with your media server.

This would see SAN speeds during your backup. But, like I mentioned, SAN SSO is a licensed option, and you need that full media installation on your clusters.

If you don't go for that, you can do the usual tuning:

1. Hard code NICs/switch ports for the fastest speeds possible.

2. Disable AV scanning of BE processes on those services.

3. Look at pushing up the speed on your tape drives by looking at buffers etc.

Craig

[CraigV]

Hi David,

Did you come right here?

Thanks!