Slow B2D Backups

[Donna_Bagby]

I have a B2D job that is 942 gb. It has been running now for 15 hours and is only at 587 gb. I have looked through this forum and speed issues and nothing seems to change the speed. We have 1gb cards on both the BE server and the servers being backed up. Those settings are correct on the nics. Could having the BE database on a SQL database server and not the BE server be an issue? Network traffic between all servers including the SQL database server seems normal with no errors. What would be the best setup to maximize performance?
THANKS.

[David_Ashamalla]

Are you running virus protection on whichever server is hosting your B2D device?

[Donna_Bagby]

Yes but the directory is excluded on the backup server where the storage folder is located and the Symantec antivirus does not have scan on backup selected when backing up files on the server being backed up so it should not be scanning anything on read or write.

[aravind_kondapa]

To isolate the "slow backup" issue further you can try the backup using Windows native backup utility. Stop all the Backup Exec services from services applet and run NTbackup. Compare the performance with Backup Exec.
Performance depends on many things including Host processor speed, host adapter performance, bus configuration, host software, and disk drive characteristic.
Excessive drive fragmentation can increase the amount of time it takes to run a backup.

Here are two documents that could be of some help:

What Backup Exec settings can be modified to reduce the amount of time it takes for a backup to run?
http://support.veritas.com/docs/249090

Reasons why the data throughput rate can be slower than the theoretical maximum when backing up to tape media:
http://support.veritas.com/docs/231488


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[Carl_Granfelt]

Hi Donna,

Having struggled with B2D performance issues myself in the past I know how frustrating it can be!

Here is a list of a couple of other suggestions that might come handy:
1. To ensure that the B2D folder itself is excluded from the backup
2. NIC�s are not set to auto-negotiate and are preferable teamed
3. For the B2D folder the concurrency has been increased (max is 16 streams)
4. Finally to do some write (and read) test e.g. using Robocopy to the B2D to see what is the max performance you can get out of it outside BE

There is also a clever little tool by HP called PAT12 that will give you in minutes an indication of your max disk performance: sorry haven�t got an URL�

Let us know how you are getting along

I hope this helps
Carl

[Donna_Bagby]

Thanks for your response. I will be doing some testing. My B2D folder is also excluded from virus scan.

[Donna_Bagby]

Thanks. I had looked at these articles earlier and I will revisit those.

[Deepali_Badave]

Hello,

Please keep us updated on this issue.

NOTE : If we do not receive your reply within two business days, this post would be marked assumed answered and would be moved to answered questions pool.

[Bruce_Bosco]

Any resolution to this? We are having similar issues.

[NickS]

Hi There,
When I had this issue, it was because the Backup Exec server hadn't been built with a Battery Backed Write Cache (BBWC).
Although it had a cache, without a battery, this means that the write cache will be disabled, and the write performance of the disk will be poor. 
I was getting great performance to tape, and awful performance with B2D. Once the BBWC was fitted and had charged, the performance was excellent.
Does your Backup Exec server have a BBWC?  If it does, does the battery need replacing?