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Low transfer rate/slow backup

prs246191
Level 5

A colleague of mine asked me to create a post for him.  He is using BE 2010 and his one backup job is running at only 228 mbs/min.  The job is set to medium prioity, he switched it to highest and it didn't help.  He is backing up to tape, which is connected directly to the server.  The server is also acting as it's media server.  Is there anything that can be suggested to speed up this job?  

22 REPLIES 22

pkh
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1)  If he is backing up a lot of small files, then the job will be inherently slow

2) defrag the disk which the data resides.

3) tune the tape drive.  See my article below

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/tuning-my-lto4-tape-drive

Larry_Fine
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Job "Priority" affects scheduling, not performance.

What type of tape drive?

Did it used to be faster?

OP
Level 4
Partner Accredited

Do you have more information regarding the environment ?

What kind of data is backup up?

Local data or remote ?

 

prs246191
Level 5

I know that he is backing up local data.  It is an engineering firm so he is backing up alot of data from autocad and similar types of data.  I know that he said that the site is a branch office and that another brach office with an almost identical set up runs much quicker...  I can not answer if it use to be faster, nor can he since he has just taken over the network admin position.  I will find out what type of type he is using and what type of drive.

CraigV
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1 other thing to check out is whether or not any AV on the affected server is scanning the BE services...if so, put in exclusions for them.

Thanks!

prs246191
Level 5

rapes are hp ultrium lto 4 tapes 800gb/1.6 tapes.  And he is using a hp 1/8 g2 autoloader ultrium 4 1760 scsi.  Other than what he told me...I know nothing about tapes 

CraigV
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Upgrade the firmware on the library through the drive vendor's diagnostic utility.

Sym-cr
Level 5

Hi PRS,

Troubleshooting such issues are more about finding the cause of the performance dip first and then patch that area.

Find out if the issue is with the device where the backups are targeted- (Try the same job on a disk storage and check the speed).

However, if other jobs are running faster to the same tape drive and similar tapes, it might not be a device related issue.

Try running the same job at a different time (ideally Non-Production Hours) to check if any other application is hampering the speed.

To find out if the same backups were running faster earlier, you can look for the previous job logs (if available)in the BE console.

Also, if you are backing up multiple resourses (System State, C:\, D:\) in the concerned job then you can check the job log properly to find out which resource takes longer time to get backed up. Splitting the resources to create seperate backup jobs for a testing purpose will also not be a bad idea.

 

List of backup or restore Performance TechNotes (troubleshooting slow throughput backups and restores) for Backup Exec Products
 
 

 

prs246191
Level 5
Just to let you guys know he ran the job to a hard drive... 400 mbs/min still very low

CraigV
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...and there are no failed/failing drives in that server?

Is the firmware on the server up-to-date too?

Thanks!

adamg0418
Level 2
Hi guys, Thanks for your responses on this. I am the collegue of prs's that is having the issue. I decided to g ahead and make an account so this would be easier. I am still having the same issues with no resolution as of yet. I am new to Backup Exec so bare with me here... Here is the setup here now: I am using BE 2012 not 2010 as prs mentioned in the original post. I am attempting to back up the local server so there is nothing backing up across the network or anything. The server is a VM (I dont know if this could make the difference). We do have another office with the identical same setup and the average backup speed there is normal at around 3,500 MB/Minute. We are using a HP 1/8 G2 Ultrium 1760 LTO4 autoloader with LTO4 tapes. Firmware and drivers are all up to date. I tried a backup to disk and the speed did improve a little at around 450MB/Min but still nowhere near what it should be. File copy between volumes is fast and I also did a NT backup with Windows Server Backup that backed up very quickly, so to me this is looking like a BE issue. I have spent a few hours on the phone with support and so far still nothing from them. I am still waiting to hear back from them but they are about an hour and half late. They did do a repair of BE and this did not help. I also defragged thed drives. Any thoughts on this? I appreciate the help.Thanks!

CraigV
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Your media server is a VM? It's an unsupported configuration.

Is the firmware on the SCSI card up-to-date? VMware tools etc?

adamg0418
Level 2
Yes the media server is a vm. I did read that this is an unsupported configuration but what i can't understand is the fact that we have another office with the exact same equipment and configuration and the backups run fine. I did check that the SCSI card, VMware tools, and all drivers are up to date. Thanks.

Larry_Fine
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The fact that it works so differently for some people is probably a key reason it is unsupported.  I betcha that somewhere, somehow, there is something that is different between your environments.

CraigV
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Same speed disk? Same # of disk in your RAID groups? Enough disk space on the datastore?

merlin66
Level 3
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Hi adamg0418, at first. please don't compare with Windows Server backup because this is block-Level-backup and BE-Agent-Backup is file-Level-backup. Take a look at your job-protocoll, as Sym-cr said you can see at what part of backup it si slow. For cecking the Speed of the Library, you can make a Job where you backup only one Directory with large files -this schould be fast (also Monitor RAM and CPU during this test. what virus-engine are you using? some products like Sym.endpointProtection have the possibility to mark backup Tasks so no scanning will be done. Otherwise you can set your scanner to scan only writes and executes - so while backup opens a file it is not scanned. Please also exclude the BE-Programm Directory from AV.

Sym-cr
Level 5

Hi Adamg,

The difference in the job rate between two setups of yours might be because of the unsupported environment. However, have a look at the below document:

 

Backup performance in Backup Exec 2012 can be slower than previous versions
 

lmosla
Level 6
Hi Adamg, Do you have anything running during the backup that might be causing conflicts? Look in your windows event log at the time the slow backup runs for errors.

adamg0418
Level 2
Yes I do agree that there is probably something different somewhere, but I just cannot figure out what it is. I am getting slightly faster speeds on a backup to disk but not nearly where it should be, around 350Mb/Min. Space is not an issue here. I also just simply tried creating different jobs and only single directorys and I'm getting the same result. No spikes in RAM and CPU. No antivirus running on this sever at the moment. @Imosla - I did read this somewhere earlier and unchecked the option to enable checkpioint restart, still same result. I did spend a couple more hours on the phone with Symantec, they escalated the issue. After troubleshooting with them they had me try and disable some driver registry entries, rebooted the server after work today and did not resolve. Going to be working with them again on this and will see if we can get anywhere. Btw, They did inform me that this is not an unsupported configuration, just not recommended due to the same type of issues that I am having. I'll post when I have more updates. Thanks again,