Slow Backup with Backup Exec 10.0

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

I am using backup Exec 10.0 with an IBM/Quantum DLT VS80 tape drive using compression on 40/80gig tapes. Apparently the drive can write at a max of 3mb/sec (without compression) or 6mb/sec (with compression). I'm using software compression to back up about 65gigs.
The problem is that its taking a very long time ot perform the backup. Ideally the backup was to be performed overnight but since its going at about 21 to 25mb/min its taking a very long time. After 30 hours its backed up 40gigs so far.
I'm trying to back up three servers, two of them being TS/application servers and the thrid beign the Small Business Server. Most of the setup is default. Is there anything I can do to speed up the data transfer so I can get all three servers backed up in one night?

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

I should also note that these servers are newer and can handle the workload easily and the links between servers are gigbait links.

[Ken_Putnam]

First check to see if your Server NICs and switchports are set to AutoNegotiate. If so hard set each end of each pipe to 1000/Full

Are the local backup slow also,.or significantly faster than the network backups>

[priya_khire]

Hello,

In addition to the suggestion posted by Mr.Putnam, you can also check the following technote:

Title: 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

In case you are using the Veritas drivers, try installing the latest drivers and then test the results. You can download them from the following link:

Title:VERITAS Backup Exec (tm) 10.0 - Device Driver Installer (20050315) - Includes Tape Driver Release (20050115) and Robotic Library Release (45) (Intel Only)
http://support.veritas.com/docs/275676

Hope this helps. If the problem persists, do write back to the forum.

However if we do not receive your update within two business days, this post would be marked ‘assumed answered’ and would be moved to ‘answered questions’ pool.

Regards.

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

I haven't set the NICs to manually transmit at 1gigabit because the highest manual option is 100mb for these broadcom integrated NICs. Maybe I need new drivers... The tape drive was using Veritas drivers but then I put the newest Quantum drivers on instead (the drive originally manufactured by quantum) but that didn't help. When performing an exchange backup to a local drive it was going at about 39mb/min but the final report says an average of 107mb/min. If this is still slow then I'm guessing my cause may be related to Virus scanners. The SBS server has Symantec Antivirus Corporate Edition 9. Not sure how I'd pause symantec services while Veritas does its thing. The other issue may be fragmentation but I can't safely fragment the SBS server due to critical data in the exchange store. I have already looked through those links and haven't really found anything to provide a significant boost in performace. Any other ideas?

[Ken_Putnam]

I would certainly check for new drivers. You might try setting the pipes for 100/Full just to see what happens, but that would sure be a waste of a Gigabit network.

[Amruta_Purandar]

Hello,

Please try the suggestions mentioned and verify the results. Also please update us on the status of 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.

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

Actually the main gigbait card on the Veritas server was manually set to 100mb. I upgraded the drivers on this server but I stil can't hardcode the speed to 1 gigabit.

Strangely though, the next backup was running a lot faster. It would have taken about 8 hours to backup the 54gigs of data, except we got a call from the client this morning that logging on to the servers took about 15 minutes. I have run backups during a workday before with no issues but this backup hung somewhere, causing constant high loads of traffic over the network and made the servers almost inresponsive. We had to cancel the backup and reboot the Veritas server. That seemed to solve that problem but now I have an incomplete backup.

I started the same backup job but set it to append this time so it can finish where it left off, but it has been "pre-processing" for a couple hours now. Is this normal?

Also, considering the tape drive I have does 8 hours for 54gigs sound reasonable for a backup or do I still have performance issues?

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

Just an update and some more questions.. The append job is still in pre-processing mode so I thought I'd give you some more info about the job. I don't have AOFO enabled but I have "Open file backup when aofo is not used" set to "with a lock"

I read somewhere that this could also be caused by proper media not being inserted in the tape drive for the backup job. I'm willing to bet that the tape is sticking out of the drive again, but the servers are all at a remote location so I'll have to get somebody to check on that for me. I've had problems after jobs are finished or cancelled and the tape is ejected without warning. The backup job is NOT set to eject the tape when the job completes. I've also rebooted the server in between backups sometimes... what would cause the tape to eject unexpectedly like that? and how can I tell in the OS when the tape IS mounted in the drive?

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello,

There are various reasons for taking long time to backup the data.
If you are running the anti-virus,ensure that you stop the anti-virus services during backups .

Make sure that the Network connection is proper. When you are taking remote backup, and if the network is busy then backup speed lows down. you can try taking backup when there is less traffic on the network.

Also, using no compression on files, that are not compressed will have a slower throughput when using hardware or software compression. When writing to tape media, hardware compression can potentially increase throughput to twice the rate of no compression (provided that the files being backed up are not already compressed or encrypted).
You may also like to refer to the following technote :

URL: http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/237444.htm

To isolate the problem, you can try taking backup using native NT backup utility.

Hope this helps you.


Regards


Additional Information :
For information on the recent VERITAS Backup Exec security vulnerabilities, including links to the downloads for the necessary hotfixes, please refer to the following document:
Patch summary for Security Advisories VX05-001, VX05-002, VX05-003, VX05-005, VX05-006, VX05-007

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277429.htm



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.

[Ryan_Vaillancou]

I am using symantec antivirus corporate edition, which symantec claims its auto-protect will not interfere with backupexec. Anyway, I have my 50 or so gig backup down to abotu 5 hours and 15mins, provided I leave the verify off. I had verify on for all previous backups. Is it more common to leave verify on or off?

We took verify off to test the backup further because three of the backups basically hung on the backup of one particular drive on one of my servers. Any idea why the backup would hang at this one point? This is a major issue for us because each time it hangsall three servers become bogged down and it literally takes half an hour to get into the backupexec server to stop the job. This means our client's workers are sitting around waiting until somebody can reboot the server because its too slow for them to authenticate through.

[Peter_Burgess]

With regard to Symantec, the realtime scanning won't actually interfere with the backup but it does have the potential to slow things down. Go into the auto-protect options and get rid of the checkmark next to "Scan files when opened for backup" (or words to that effect).

As for the job that's hanging on a certain drive, make a new backup job that just does that drive and set it to backup to disk (quicker for testing, doesn't have to go load a tape etc). Stop the backup agent on that server, then in the "Start Parameters" box of the service type :

-debug

...then hit "Start". Don't click apply or ok as the change won't get registered.

Next time you run the backup job a log will be created under "\program files\veritas\backup exec\rant\logs".

At least this way you'll be able to check the log and see why it's hanging. I've managed to succesfully troubleshoot Exchange jobs this way.

Pete Burgess

[Ajit_Kulkarni]

Hello Mr Villancourt,

I would like to know if you have referred to the technotes and other steps mentioned in my last response ?

Also I would like to know if there are any other applications running on those 3 servers that you are backing ?

Have you tried to take backup using NT Backup utility ? - If not then please take and check the resutls.

Also, I would suggest you to create seperate backup jobs for each server and check on which server its giving problem.

Regards


Additional Information :
For information on the recent VERITAS Backup Exec security vulnerabilities, including links to the downloads for the necessary hotfixes, please refer to the following document:
Patch summary for Security Advisories VX05-001, VX05-002, VX05-003, VX05-005, VX05-006, VX05-007

http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/277429.htm



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.