BackupExec and Windows + LTO4 too slow????

[gmorry]

Hi,

I recently began working for a company having many issues with their backups. Mainly around the speed of the backup, we have about 3.5 TB of data to backup. Before I got here the company bought a new LTO 4 tape library (HP Storage Works MSL4048 with 2 drives) which they were planning on attaching to the SAN and using the Backup Exec SAN agents. It’s now my job to pull it all together with Backup Exec 11d.

We have 17 Windows servers only 8 of the servers are SAN attached the others will be backed up over the network. When speaking to HP about connecting the LTO drives to the SAN the tech mentioned a problem with the speed of the drives apparently the write speed is too quick and Windows can’t provide the data quick enough to the drives, even over the SAN, apparently the slowness causes the drive to write the data and then have to rewind the tape and then write some more. I have seen this issue before and know that other backup software (Data Protector) solves this issue by gathering data from multiple sources at once (Concurrency Backups) and writing it to the tape.

Has anyone seen this problem before? Is it a real problem, will it slow the backups down very much? Does Backup Exec have an option to fix this issue?

Can anyone help??????????

gmorry

[jeffy]

I've been playing with a couple of these drives. What I'm investigating is presenting snapshots of windows drives from the SAN to this backup server, then backing up the snapshot (MSL8096 + EVA 4000 + business copy). One thing I've noticed is if you provide an encryption key it uses software encryption. The LTO-4 drives support hardware encryption, but i'm not sure how to use it. Perhaps on the OCP of the library.

Here's a sample backup job log. I've dones tests where the throughput is over 6,000 MB/min, but it's saving a couple of backup-to-disk files (fewer larger files). This one is more "normal" with many files directories, and sizes.

Job Log: BEX_BACKUP_00026.xmlJob Log for Backup 00025

      Completed status: Successful
      Expand AllCollapse All

      Job Information
Job server: BACKUP
Job name: Backup 00025
Job started: Friday, November 09, 2007 at 9:58:28 AM
Job type: Backup
Job Log: BEX_BACKUP_00026.xml

Drive and media mount requested: 11/9/2007 9:58:28 AM
Device and Media Information
Drive and media information from media mount: 11/9/2007 9:59:24 AM
Robotic Library Name: MSL Tape Drive
Drive Name: MSL Drive 1
Slot: 8
Media Label: AT5228L4
Media GUID: {04f26a49-aef9-46ce-8cb6-8adf42f3316e}
Overwrite Protected Until: 11/9/2007 10:59:24 AM
Appendable Until: 12/30/9999 7:00:00 PM
Targeted Media Set Name: MSL 1

All Media Used
 AT5228L4

      Job Operation - Backup
            Backup Options
Media operation - overwrite.
Compression Type: Hardware [if available, otherwise none]

            Server - BACKUP
                  Set Information - E: Staff Desk/Doc/Trans
                        Backup Set Information
Family Name: "Media created 11/9/2007 9:58:28 AM"
Backup of "E: Staff Desk/Doc/Trans"
Backup set #1 on storage media #1
Backup set description: "Backup 00025"
Backup Method: Full - Back Up Files - Reset Archive Bit

Backup started on 11/9/2007 at 9:59:38 AM.
Backup completed on 11/9/2007 at 10:33:28 AM.
Backup Set Summary
Backed up 174147 files in 14480 directories.
Processed 120230101729 bytes in  33 minutes and  50 seconds.
Throughput rate: 3389 MB/min

      Job Operation - Verify
            Set Information - E: Staff Desk/Doc/Trans
                  Verify Set Information
Verify of "E: Staff Desk/Doc/Trans"
Backup set #1 on storage media #1
Backup set description: "Backup 00025"

Verify started on 11/9/2007 at 10:33:32 AM.
Verify completed on 11/9/2007 at 10:51:13 AM.
Verify Set Summary
Verified 174147 files in 14480 directories.
Processed 120230101729 bytes in  17 minutes and  41 seconds.
Throughput rate: 6484 MB/min

      Job Completion Status
Job ended: Friday, November 09, 2007 at 10:51:17 AM
Completed status: Successful

[jeffy]

been tweaking the Windows box and have gotten the above backup to run at 4861MB/min. Not too shabby.