Exchange 2010 backup to dedup very slow

[Joris_Both]

Hi everybody,

I've got a problem with my backup. First off, here is the setup:

Exchange:

- Windows 2008 R2 fully updated

- 9 GB Memory

- Resides on VMWare platform. Vmware is connected to a EMC CX4-120 SAN with 8GB Fibrechannel. The data is on a raidset of 8x 450GB Fibrechannel disks in RAID-5

- Exchange 2010 fully updated

Backupexec:

- Windows 2008 r2 fully updated

- 32 GB Memory

- Backupexec 2010 R2 fully updated

- Synology 14TB NAS connected with 2x 1Gbit and jumbo frames turned ON. Data is presented through block-level iSCSI

I've got two options how to backup the exchange server.

1. Through the network (the old skool method)

2. Using the Vmware agent and pulling it from the Fibre channel SAN (4Gbit).

The results are the same with both options.. So I don't think that the problem lays there.

When I do a backup, it goes around 1400MB/min tops, usually it's even around 900MB/min. This is with GRT disabled! Enabling GRT drops the speed to around 400MB/min...

When I do a backup to a normal B2D folder, it stays around 3000MB/min,  That's ok, but not great. I used to get a transfer rate of around 6000MB/min on Exchange 2007..

Does anyone have any clue how I can get my backup faster? I would like to use the GRT feature, but it takes about 50 hours to get an exchange backup with GRT turned on...

[Joris_Both]

Does anyone have a clue what I can do about this?

[Joris_Both]

Nobody has any clue about this? strange...

[CraigV]

Hi Joris,

In BE itself, are you using the correct transport method?

What happens to the backup when you turn Jumbo Frames off?

Thanks!

[Joris_Both]

Craig,

Thank you for your reply! I've trief different transport methodes (network and FC) and tested with GRT enabled and disabled. Disabling GRT helps a bit, but not enough..

Disabling jumbo frames doesn't make a difference, it stays the same..

[CraigV]

...couple of other things to check:

1. NICs hard-coded to the fastest speed they can handle, along with the switch ports they're connected too.

2. Antivirus scanning of the BE services...this can cause slow downs in BE.

3. The RAID configuration on your NAS is done correctly...

[Joris_Both]

CraigV,

NIC's are hardcoded to 1Gbit (it's a crosslink connection, so no other hardware is in between. And yes, It's all CAT6).

I've disabled antivirus scanning for the BE services and directories. As well as the exchange services and directories.

The raid configuration of my NAS is currently a Raid-5. With this configuration, i get about 100MB/s while copying files in Windows to that volume. (It's a Synology DS-1010 with a expansion unit)

I think these settings are correct. Can you confirm?

Thanks!