BackupExec 2010 LTO4 transfer rate solved

[483706471]

Summary:  I solved my LTO4 transfer rate problem by rolling back the tape driver from the Symantec installed driver to the Microsoft driver.

Details:  I had a perfectly fine Win2003 BE12.5 server with LTO4 but I needed Win2008R2 remote agents.  Yes I could have installed a hotfix, but I decided to rebuild the server (not changing any hardware) to Win2008R2 and BE 2010.  Using the Symantec driver (2/12/08 v5.1.37.0) tape transfer rate result was < 2000MB/min.  After reviewing the forum solutions from others, I decided to roll back the driver to the originally installed Microsoft driver (6/12/06 v6.1.7600.16385) and the transfer rate jumped to > 4000MB/min.  I think that is about the rate I had before the rebuild.  Fyi, no encryption but use hardware compression.

[Colin_Weaver]

Was this driver issue in Backup Exec 2010 or 2010 R2? (so 13.0.2896 or 13.0.4164)?

Also what make / model of tape drive was it?

(Kind of want to flag this up internally)

[483706471 · Accepted solution]

As an update to my post, I jumped the gun on this one and misinterpreted what I was seeing.  It wasn't the Symantec v. Microsoft drivers at all causing my problem.  It turns out that one of the raid5 drives was failing, causing slow performance across the board.  Once it failed, then we could see the problem, replaced the drive, then everything is zooming.  Job rate now a consistent 5000mb/min, tape drive activity light flashing consistently, overnight D2D jobs ran fast.  I expect no further issues.

Fyi, I am running D2D2T, D2D during the night across the network storing to local DAS disk, then D2T during the day when we can swap tapes when necessary.  Dell PE2950 with Dell LTO4 on SAS 5/e controller.

[Colin_Weaver]

Ahh OK thanks for explanation