BE2010 Slow Windows 2008 System State Backup

[Tom_Mucha]

Has anyone tried BE2010 with a 2008 server system state backup?  I'm seeing the same problem I saw with 12.5 that the system state slows to a crawl during backup.  This was supposedly fixed in 12.5sp2, but apparantly it's still an issue in 12.5 - http://seer.entsupport.symantec.com/docs/336283.htm, and I'm seeing it in 2010

Here are the results of backing up a 2008R2 Enterprise DC with BE2010 installed (latest live updates) attached to a LTO3 drive on an HP DL380G5.

c: drive backup:

Backed up 11514 files in 2660 directories.
Processed 13,728,690,754 bytes in  3 minutes and  31 seconds.
Throughput rate: 3723 MB/min
Compression Type: Hardware

System State backup:

Backed up 18 System State components
Processed 6,972,047,332 bytes in  24 minutes and  2 seconds.
Throughput rate: 277 MB/min
Compression Type: Hardware

When I backup a 2003 server I have no performance issues.  Hopefully I'm not the only one seeing issues!

Tom

[rendersr]

When having multiple w2k8 servers, my backupwindow was filling up solely with system backups.

It's rather normal that this is taking a lot of time.

The system state is hold in an unusual large number of small files which is keeping the backup to perform optimal.

Therefore i opted to:

• run system backups only in weekends (longer timeframe);
• data backups in the week.

I know this is a workaround, but in some environments this is the only thing doable..

Hopefully there is a solution soon.

Ruben

[Ian_McGuinness]

Just as a test last night i ran the backup without the system state and the backup droped from 35 hours to just over 3 hours.

I hope they fix this soon.

Ian

[JJohnson1]

I removed the system state from the items to backup and backup time went from 8+ hours to less than 1.5 hours, with only 2 GB less data backed up. Of course I don't have a system state backup now. this needs to be fixed.

[CraigV]

Apparently BE 2010 R3 will be addressing this.

In the meantime, you can consider doing a normal Windows backup of your System State, and then backing that up through BE...

[Brian_Longworth]

When can we reasonably begin to expect R3?

[Ian_McGuinness]

Hi Everyone,

I understand that the issue is (hopefuly) due to be fixed in R3(?) but i have been reading everything i can about the problem and looking at all of the options about possible work arrounds.  I tried this process (http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH70486) for "How to Re-register Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) Components on Windows 2008" on all of my servers yesterday and ran a full backup overnight and it compleated in about 8.5 hours.  Not as good as it should be (4 to 5 hours) but better than the 35 hours it was taking before.

I look forward to better performance after the next release but atleast now i can backup.

Ian

[yak]

Same problem as everyone here.  Updated my R2 member servers (non DCs) with SP1 and now my backup times have doubled or tripled.  At least I now know the problem lies with the system state.  I guess I'll separate that backup or do a windows sys state backup and backup that.  Jeez we need a fix now!

Before:

Backed up 14 System State components

Processed 8,967,868,975 bytes in  34 minutes and  6 seconds.

Throughput rate: 251 MB/min

Compression Type: None

After:

Backed up 14 System State components

Processed 10,019,332,101 bytes in  4 hours,  35 minutes, and  10 seconds.

Throughput rate: 34.7 MB/min

Compression Type: None

[rendersr]

@CraigV 

Do you have an estimated release date for the R3?

Ruben

[Ken_Putnam]

Last I heard was "Early April"

[Ian_McGuinness]

Yeah, I heard it was early April too.

Seriously tho, try the fix i listed 4 posts above..  it actualy worked for me and i'm now backing up in a normal window of time.
All it takes is to run the batch file on each server and a restart.

Ian

[spro]

Hi Everyone,

same here, since I update my Win 2008 R2 DC Server to SP1, the System State Backup takes now nearly 8 hours (before arround 1 hour)...

I have tested all solutions from other comments here, but no solution worked for me e.g.

- Re-register Volume Shadow Copy Service (TECH70486)

- Remove Backup Files from SP1 with this command DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded

- disabling anti-virus scanning

- Confirm the issue here: https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/issue/performance-issues-maybe-observed-when-backing-system-state-windows-2008-server

Now I have now idea and need help to fix this problem as soon as possible...

Yes, I now this (http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH76051), but I won´t wait till R3 is released...

[CraigV]

...a work-around will be to use the Backup software that comes with Windows Server 2008 R2 to do a backup to disk, and then back that up with BE.

I currently have the same sort of issue with ARCserve 15 where it takes forever to back up the System State of the 2008 servers in our data center...I look forward to a fix for BE for my sites though =/

[spro]

I will test the work-around for me...

Thanks!

[spro]

I have on my server only one partition (C:) and a RDX Backup-Device...

so, both of them I can not use to backup the systemstate...

Do you have any sugesstions for me?

[Colin1]

I am having the same issue with this System State - at first I could not figure out the problem because it suddenly happened for no apparent reason.

I have two servers running Windows 2008 R2 and  Backup Exec 2010 both had first revision with SP1. The File Server had been running happily for a year, suddenly a couple of weeks back it went on strike.

I removed all the hotfixes and still had no joy. I have since upgraded the File Server to R2 - the performance is not still not great but better than it was. 

My SQL Server is still running the 1st revision and so far is fine - like so many things in this industry - if it works don't mess about with it!

[pkh]

This is a known problem  Check the Known Issues section.

[Steen_Kirkby]

Hmm - my problem disappeared more or less by itself - unsure if it was a couple of reboots or a new Windows Update Hotfix that did the job. At some point I also did a liveupdate on the BE Server (again) + push of agent updates from the BE server although it didn't have any immediate effect (despite reboots after). Confused...

[ZeRoC00L]

Steen,

Do you have BE2010R3 installed ?

I have seen a technote that the slow system state backup issues will be resolved in R3.

[AstonT]

I've just installed a new 2008 R2 server and patched it (inc SP1).  I then installed Backupexec 2010 R2 and ran Live update.  A week later they released R3 and I installed that on top of R2.  Backup times have not improved at all.  Data backups are very quick, but when System State starts to backup - it drags on and on.  Symantec really need to get this resolved as its causing alot of trouble for a lot of techs!

[AstonT]

A System State backup of a Windows 2008 R2 server (across the LAN) to Tape runs at 100-170Mb/min.  The System State is 10.5Gb in size, so takes around 1h 10m to backup.  With 20 servers - the backup window for System State backups alone is around 12 hours.