SLOW backup times

[tlitterio2]

I am running Backup Exec 2010 with all of the updates on the media server and all the agents.  I am backing up around 600Gig and it is taking 27+ hours!  I am backing up a number of server over a network and there are a lot of small files.  I have been looking around and every where I see people saying to configure the job to do an image backup.  how do I do this???

Thanks!

[teiva-boy]

Backup Exec System Recovery to do an image backup, and BackupExec to pick up those files to move to tape.

[tlitterio2]

Thanks!  Is the System Recovery something else I would need to buy?

Here's another question.  When I backup to disk on another server other than the media server, does Backup Exec backup the server being backed up directly to the remote volume or does it do kind of a 2 hop backup going from server being backed up to backup media server, then to backup storage volume.

[Ken_Putnam]

Thanks!  Is the System Recovery something else I would need to buy?

Yes, it is

or does it do kind of a 2 hop backup

Right again.  Data will always flow throuhg the media server

[tlitterio2]

OK, final question, I think.  I think the problem is due to the network part of the whole scheme.  I tested backing up the local medai servers c drive directly to the tape and it is running about 4 to 5 times as fast as it does when it runs over the network over our 1 gig switches.  I have to question whether this would be caused by the network or could it be due to the agents?  Are the agents really slow???  What if I created a completely segregated network with a 1 gig switch and NIC teaming for 2 gig throughput to each server, would it make a huge difference or not too much because of the BE agents?

To put it into perspective, when I backup over the network on a 1 gig switch I average about 300 meg/min oon average.  When I do it localy directly to the tape its about 1.2 gig/min average...  I don't get it.  Everyone always says the tape drive is the bottleneck but I am not convinced...

[pkh]

BE does not support teamed NIC's.  Having a dedicated backup network will certainly help things.

Do note that backing up a lot of small files is slower than backing up a few big files of equivalent total size.  Also, if your disk is heavily fragmented, the backup will be slower.