Slow Mac Backup

[Imagine_Admin]

We are trying to backup a Mac X-Serve using BE 15 but getting really poor job rate as per:

We have a pretty solid setup, Quantum DXi-4701 using bonded pair of Gbe, BE 15 is being run form a Dell Poweredge R510 using 4xGbe trunked together and the OSX 10.6 server XServe is the same 4xGbe trunked together all connected into a HP ProCurve 2910AL switch and the Mac data is stored on a Fibre attached infortrend RAID as per attached "Mac Backup Config" diagram. 

I recently rebilt the Mac server from scratch installing all the latest drivers and Mac BE Client hoping it was something legacy holding it back. We have another OSX 10.9 (OS not server) XServe running our asset software similar setup using the on board Gbe bonded together and it achieves just shy of 4GBper min Job rate.

I'm totally stupped and hope someone on here may have a suggestion as i'm fresh outta ideas 

Thanks

[CraigV]

Hi,

Mac OSX is not listed on the BE 15 SCL as being supported at all so this is your issue in all likelihood. As such, Veritas would be unable to assist further.

https://www.veritas.com/support/en_US/article.000024530

THanks!

[pkh]

OSX is listed on page 22 of the SCL.

[VJware]

I thought the X-Serve was EOL. Is there any difference in throughput if you decrease the concurrency of jobs to the storage ?

Any AV on the 10.6 server ?

Is BE 15 fully patched with FP2 and is the associated Mac agent updated as well ?

[Imagine_Admin]

Thanks for your responses.

CraigV i did wonder and checked agian it actually supports back as far as 10.5.

Thanks for the confirmation pkh you were indeed spot on 

VJware - Yes the X-Serve is EOL but we have two running and still going strong with 2 spares kit on the shelf to keep them going longer. I did stagger the jobs but even when there was only one running it never rose above 250MB/s transfer rate 

We normally run Sophos but i have turned it off as part of the diagnostics on this issue

The BE server is fully patched with FP3 and the Mac is running version 14.2.1180.0

The jobs have been running for over 3 days and only covered just over 1TB at this rate it will take 21days to complete the full backup.

Attached is the current job rates 

[VJware]

Would first recommend using the rsync tool to test the I/O. This can be downloaded from - https://rsync.samba.org/

Use this tool to test the speed of sample files. Try tests with varying file sizes.

Example command would be -

rsync -avx -progress TargetFilePath DestinationFilePath

rsync -avx -progress  /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Users/root/path /QuantumDXI/B2Dshare

What speed do you get using this utility ?

Secondly, if you attempt a backup to a regular disk storage (non dedup), is there a major shift in throughput ?

Also, check previous job logs. Expand each resource and check which resource took a longer time than the others.

Lastly, are the options to follow mount points / preserve timestamps checked in the backup job settings ? If yes, does unchecking them make any difference ?

[CraigV]

Sorry for the misinformation then...did a search in the SCL and it came up with nothing which was weird!

[Imagine_Admin]

Hi VJware, sorry for not responding sooner.

The Quatum DXi-4701 isn't configured with any shares it is a pure OST device, and to be even more unhelpful we don't have any regular disk storage attached to the BE server to be able to test with.

To make diagnosis even more difficult the server was completelty rebult in a bid to fix other issues, we are still trying to complete a first full backup since. Prior to rebuild it was doing a higher job rate but was failing to complete whicih prohibited our deduplication tot he offsite from running.

I have identified the locations with high data usage and separated those on to their own scripts and unchecked those option you mentions but still no change i'm affraid.

frustration and worry at the same time.

[VJware · Accepted solution]

Is the job set to use client-side Dedupe or server-side Dedupe ? It should be set to server-side DeDupe for Mac clients.

What speed of transfer do you get when you use rysnc to transfer files across the network to the BE media server ?

If not a local Disk Storage, would you be able to test to a remote/network Disk Storage ?

[Imagine_Admin]

Hi VJware, your last suggestion hit the nail on the head we set the advanced disk backup to server side and the job rate went back up to better than before in fact.