Hi,
I have recently upgraded a customers system, and after the upgrade we are seeing terribly
slow backups to tape from a remote server. Details of the system before and after the
upgrade, plus backup performance statistics are below:
BEFORE UPGRADE
SERVER1 - HP Proliant ML350 G4 running SBS 2003 Premium with Backup Exec version 10.0 plus
HP Ultrium 1 tape drive
SERVER2 - Old Compaq Proliant ML370 running Windows 2000 Server SP4 plus Backup Exec version
10 remote agent
Both server NIC's running at 100Mbps connected to a 100Mbps switch
Backup to tape from local drives on SERVER1 resulted in a throughput of about 500MB/min
Backup to tape from drives on SERVER2 (via Backup Exec agent) resulted in a throughput of
about 250MB/min
AFTER UPGRADE
SERVER1 - Same as before
SERVER2 - New HP Proliant ML350 G5 running Windows Server 2003 Standard SP2 and Backup Exec
version 10 remote agent
Both server NIC's now running at 1Gbps full duplex (manually configured to this setting on
each server) connected to a new 1Gbps switch
Backup to tape from local drives on SERVER1 are as before the upgrade, i.e. about 500MB/min
Backup to tape from drives on SERVER2 (via Backup Exec agent) now result in a trhoughput of
about 20MB/min
In summary, I have installed a much faster new server and a much faster new managed switch,
which has resulted in a TEN FOLD DECREASE in backup performance to tape from the new server.
The intersting thing is that if I create a backup to disk device on SERVER1 and backup
SERVER2 using the backup to disk device as the target, the throughput is 1GB/min. To me,
this rules out the new server, the new switch and the rest of the network, and points the
finger at the tape drive, but I can't see any logic to this.
Anyone else seen anything similar and can offer any suggestions for a fix?
Thanks in advance,
Dave.