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BE2012 - Windows System State Backups

jpk
Level 4

Hello all,

What is a reasonable backup rate for Win2k3 and Win2k8R2 windows servers?  The standard volumes on each of my servers seem to back up at a so-so speed, but as soon as it gets to the system state, the job grinds down to 300-500mb/min (to disk or tape).  The w2k8 servers all have 10-20GB worth to back up as part of the system state so it's taking ages for these jobs to complete.

Is there anything I can do besides not backing it up?

Thanks,
Josh

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

jpk
Level 4

Unfortunately, I'd rather deal with slow backups than Symantec technical support.  Call after call to them has led me nowhere.

Our fix for this software will be to replace it with a different product once we have used the software for long enough to justify what we have paid into it for licensing.  My environment is not that complicated, yet I battle this software EVERY DAY.  I'll have days where every job completes perfect and then the very next day half will fail for what seems like no reason!  Error codes lend no help to what went wrong so I restart the services and things will work for a bit again.

No consistency, (opinion) support is not very knowledgable on their own product, and the new design has me running over 100 jobs for what I used to accomplish in 2 or 3 with BE2010.  Honestly, the only reason I didn't switch products a few months ago was because BE still has the offload to tape functionality where AppAssure didn't.  With all the time I've wasted, I could have bought a second server and replicated to our other site using the software I wanted!

Just my 2c

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8 REPLIES 8

ZeRoC00L
Level 6
Partner Accredited

System State backups are already slow since BE2010.

If you have McAfee (or other antivirus) installed, you may want to check this technote:

http://www.symantec.com/business/support/index?page=content&id=TECH181570

The article is for BE2010, it may also help your with BE2012

jpk
Level 4

Thanks for the reply. 

The servers that I've been testing with do not have any sort of AV on them at this point.  I wish they did so I had some hope of getting these jobs to go faster!

Is 300-500 mb/min an average rate for backing up the system state of Win2K8 servers?  I've been getting that since way back in BE2010 (with the promise that it'll be faster in the next version).  Did they fix it and I'm missing something???

 

Itworks
Level 2

It's been acting up with system state for many years now.  Seems like it's the way Windows is designed, but never the less, instead of requiring us to do a separate "System State backup" using NTBackup, maybe Symantec can work on automating it within it, i.e.  run a command to launch NTBackup, backup the system state, and then integrate it with BE (or extract the files in some way)

Thanks goodness I have a few 2008 servers, for example, our Exchange 2010 server has 250GB of data which is being backed up in 2.5 hours, and then System State is going for another 2.5 hours alone!  that's one server (5 hours)

This should be a simple workaround: (just my humble opintion)

BE job starts --> back up all data --> run script to run NTBackup for "System State" --> integrate it with BE job.

anybody else votes for it?

tnx!

 

CraigV
Moderator
Moderator
Partner    VIP    Accredited

...nobody will vote up something that doesn't get monitored in the correct location, so head over to the Ideas section and add it in there...

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/backup-and-recovery/ideas

I don't see why running a script can't work if automated. Other products do something accordingly...there IS a pre/post script within BE you might also want to check out.

Thanks!

Itworks
Level 2

good idea!   Thanks for the link! ;)

 

I'm aware about the pre/post script option, but I think, at least I would, feel more comfortable if it was a built in process that integrates the two, rather than "hoping" it did what it supposed to via the script...

pkh
Moderator
Moderator
   VIP    Certified

 

This is a bad idea.  The system state is critical for the recovery of a server.  If you use NTBackup or Windows Backup to back up the system state, what happens when you are not able to restore the system state.  How are you going to contact Microsoft to help you when your servers are down?  Also, I can't imagine the recovery steps when your servers fail with the two different backup software.  It is not the backup that matters, it is the restore.

If you backup the system state with BE, then you can get Symantec to help you in an emergency.

If your system state backups are slow, then you should log a support case with Symantec to get this problem fixed.

jpk
Level 4

Unfortunately, I'd rather deal with slow backups than Symantec technical support.  Call after call to them has led me nowhere.

Our fix for this software will be to replace it with a different product once we have used the software for long enough to justify what we have paid into it for licensing.  My environment is not that complicated, yet I battle this software EVERY DAY.  I'll have days where every job completes perfect and then the very next day half will fail for what seems like no reason!  Error codes lend no help to what went wrong so I restart the services and things will work for a bit again.

No consistency, (opinion) support is not very knowledgable on their own product, and the new design has me running over 100 jobs for what I used to accomplish in 2 or 3 with BE2010.  Honestly, the only reason I didn't switch products a few months ago was because BE still has the offload to tape functionality where AppAssure didn't.  With all the time I've wasted, I could have bought a second server and replicated to our other site using the software I wanted!

Just my 2c